Naomi Fenwick

On a warm day in early March, I meet Naomi in Dallas.

We're in the final stretch of this case, exactly one week out from David Wood's execution date, and Naomi's driving up to Death Row to visit him.

I can't be with her for the actual visit, but still, I'm tagging along for the ride.

All of Naomi's visits with David have come with the stress of a coming execution, but it's impossible to ignore the specific context here that is potentially her last visit with him.

This particular question, what do I say when it's time for me to go, is a thorny one for death penalty lawyers.

Being face to face with a perfectly healthy human being as a moment of their death rapidly approaches, painfully aware of its exact manner and timing.

Greg describes this last interaction as deeply unnatural, a conversation where language itself feels inadequate.

Naomi has been running scenarios in her head for how to leave it with David.

She tells me she was up at 3.30 this morning, trying to figure out just the right thing to say.

Naomi spends three hours inside death row.

I'm waiting for her in the parking lot when she gets out.

How did it go?

Naomi tells me she said maybe five sentences during their entire visit.

Most of the rest of it was listening to David tell stories about his first stint in prison in a unit everyone called the Gladiator School.

About a summer he spent in his dad's hometown where he stole a bunch of fireworks so his little cousins could set them off.

Any more on that or just blanket statement?

Do you think he's going to be okay?

I did know that part from the hour Maurice and I spent with David.

How angry he was about his case.

That wasn't hard to pick up on.