Above all let them go out with dignity

Above all let them go out with dignity

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


The Facts were without dispute. Byron ran a drive-thru and had shoved an unarmed  robber and killed him and under our States laws technically Byron deserved the Death penalty.

Since there were so many extenuating circumstances Bryon had served in a low security settings through the first two appeals processes and tonight at 10 PM the mandatory third appeal expired and the Death sentence would be formally read to Byron Childers and the next day Byron would be formally executed.

I was Byron's personal security guard this shift on the last day of his formal third appeal process and I walked with him about the low security prison to fulfil his mandatory locomotion time. Every prisoner here in our State in low security is allowed and mandated a certain number of hours of walking about Time and Byron needed the last hour to conclude his customary one hundred hours of walking about time. My boss ordered me to keep Byron walking until the 10 PM reading of his formal 3rd final Guilty sentence.

As we walked I watched Byron next to me carefully for he had grown uncharacteristically quiet. Byron had spent his time in prison in weight training and martial arts and was a large powerful man. I am an over weight guard in a low security prison nearing retirement with heart problems.

We were near the secretarial pool when the nine forty five bell chimed on the Old prison clock. The girls were buzzing quietly to our left but the prisoners in their cells were deathly quiet out of respect to Byron who was popular here in Low security.

Fifteen minutes until the reading of the verdict. How would Byron take the news and would I be able to manage things until Byron's time was Up? My philosophy has always been in these situations let them go out with Dignity but I had a bad feeling about things.

It would be a might wimpy of me but as the old prison clock ticked down the minutes to the 10PM formal reading of Byron Childers' death sentence I was considering calling for backup. I knew in my heart Byron wouldn't do anything to hurt me in my situation but I was getting a bad feeling about things all of the sudden.