sing-sing

There is always hope for a reprieve, my friend,_ Stielow said. __ou have to get the governor to pardon you if the courts fail on you. This is an unlikely thing, although possible. The last thing you hold on to __il the last second is hope. Hope is what keeps us doomsmen sane, for the most part. A miracle.

What you are about to witness is a blot upon the civilization of the twentieth century."- Sing Sing Deputy Warden Spencer Miller, Addressing Antonio Pontón__ execution witnesses on January 7, 1916

The Death House back then was a self-contained unit, with its own hospital, kitchen, exercise yard and visiting room. The cells were inadequate, dark, and did not have proper sanitary facilities or ventilation. One window and skylight furnished the ventilation and light of the entire unit. Twelve cells were on the lower tier, six on each side, facing each other, with a narrow corridor between them. Five cells were located in an upper tier. There was an area the prisoners called the Dance Hall that housed a prisoner to be executed on his last day. The narrow corridor connected the Dance Hall to the execution room, where the Electric Chair resided. The prisoners named this corridor the Last Mile or the Green Mile, because this was the last walk a prisoner would take all the way to the small green riveted door at the end of the corridor, on his way to the execution room.

Antonio looked down, silent, as Shillitoni kept talking. There he was, among cold-blooded killers, talking to a gangster. A much different picture than a year prior.__an__ trust priests, can__ trust cops either. Can__ trust nobody! Whaddaya say?___ am not like you,_ Antonio said. ____ not like them, either. That__ what I say. I am not a cold-blooded killer!___a killed, you a killa! There__ not__g more to it!_ Shillitoni said.