Alvin Melleth

Over the course of the lawyers' weekly Zoom meetings, she updates everyone on her efforts with Tracy.

Naomi sends the text.

The weekend comes and goes.

No response.

She tries calling.

It goes to voicemail.

It goes on like this for weeks until Tracy finally responds and explains why she ghosted Naomi.

Randy Wells is in the hospital, and it's not looking good.

He's gone through multiple rounds of chemo, but the cancer has spread.

He's mostly bedridden, breathing with an oxygen tank.

The lawyers and the rest of the team now have a choice to make.

Do they wait until Wells is back home?

What if he never comes home?

Or do they ambush him at the hospital?

It's a question of human decency, but what I hear mostly is about strategy.

They're joking, mostly.

I think it's worth mentioning here that all of the lawyers on this call have had clients who were executed, clients who they couldn't save.

Greg, Jeremy, Naomi, they've all had to sit in front of someone and tell them, we're out of options.

They've all had to watch what that does to a human being, taking in the news that soon they'll be killed.

I know from stories I've done in the past that the execution of a client is a shattering event for habeas lawyers.