Summary

In Chapter 1, innocence attorney Cullen Post waits at the Holman Correctional Facility for a last-minute death sentence stay. Duke Russell, a convict accused of having raped and murdered a girl, is scheduled to take place in one hour and forty-five minutes. Duke is among Post’s five clients, all of whom were wrongly convicted. Post saw one client put to death because of a crime he did not commit and does not want to lose another.

On television, the governor denies Duke’s request for clemency. Just after a guard brings Duke’s last meal Post’s phone rings. It is a law clerk informing Post that a stay has been ordered on the execution. Post asks the law clerk to give Duke ten minutes to finish eating his last meal before announcing the stay publicly.

Post expects that Chad Falwright, the prosecutor...