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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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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.
I have been giving some thought to how to leave the conversation in the sense of, you know, what do I say when it's time for me to go?
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.
It's hard because you want to be caring and you want to express compassion, but you also have to remain in the role of an attorney and like... Like, I don't want to have, like, some sort of, on my part, like, teary goodbye of, like, I might never see you again. And, you know, I want to be fair in the odds, right? Which is, like, I could see you and I might not.
Naomi spends three hours inside death row. I'm waiting for her in the parking lot when she gets out. How did it go?
He didn't want to talk about the case, so I just told him a little bit about, like, next steps and what had happened.
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Chapter 2: What is the context of David Wood's impending execution?
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. But Naomi had a different vantage point here. Maybe a biased one, but no doubt a closer one. When her office first took on David's case, Naomi agreed to help, but didn't want to go to death row to visit with him.
Jeremy, her boss, has always made it clear that in these situations, when it's very likely that their client will be executed within months, it's not a requirement to go. But Greg told Naomi that her perspective and work on the case was something that David would want to hear about firsthand. So she started heading down to see him. Their relationship, under those conditions, grew quickly.
He sent her some of his paintings, and she started to see him as more than just a name on a legal filing. Even though she'd only known him for a few months, Naomi had a feel for his anxiety and fear. She had come to know him in a way that defied easy category.
Chapter 3: How does Naomi prepare for her last visit with David Wood?
It's this really strange relationship that is not a friendship, although it can sometimes feel like one. Like, how do we describe not only like that relationship, but the grief of maybe losing that person? Like, what am I really sad about here?
particularly when, as far as the outside world knows, David Wood is a serial killer who also has a very violent criminal record of crimes against children. And I know, like, every time I, you know, like, in the microphone say that, like, I'm sad I'm like, oh, I can just hear the, well, the families of the victims are sad because they never got this time either.
The thing is, Alvin, is if David Wood is executed and there are family members who are seeking closure and peace from that, I hope they get it because otherwise it is truly, truly pointless.
How did you leave it?
I told him that I really, really, really hope I get to see him again. I really hope we get a stay.
From Serial Productions, The New York Times, and The Marshall Project, I'm Alvin Maleth.
And I'm Maurice Shema. This is the final episode of The Last 12 Weeks.
I'm David Sanger. I cover the White House and national security at the New York Times, and I try to explain what decisions made in Washington mean for you wherever you live. This is why the Times sends me to the Oval Office when the president is making a major decision or has me ride along on Air Force One on critical trips.
And I talk to foreign leaders exploring why they're so often at odds with the United States. We live in a world of misinformation and disinformation. It's never been more important to have reliable sources of on-the-ground reporting. If you want firsthand reporting on how U.S.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do lawyers face in communicating with death row clients?
I'm with Greg, who's a couple hundred miles away in Livingston, Texas. For this final push in the case, Greg has decided to set up a one-man war room at a Holiday Inn here, about 15 minutes from death row. He's in a pretty Spartan suite on the third floor that overlooks a parking lot and a dollar store. A desk covered in papers, a small mountain of bottled drinks.
He's got more than one novel on his bed stand, which seems a little optimistic given the circumstances. Greg could do his legal work from anywhere with an internet connection, but he chooses to do it from here so that he can visit David as much as possible in these next few days. That and because it was in this exact Holiday Inn years ago that he won a stay of execution for another client.
He figures he'll take all the luck he can get. I plop down on a faux leather couch in his room as he gets to work. The legal specifics of what Greg and the other lawyers are going to be up to in the run-up to the execution are interesting, and I'll get to them. But there is one not-strictly-legal thing I've been wondering about this moment for Greg.
I'm curious about his relationship with David, what potentially losing him might mean for Greg. He explains it to me by way of comparison. A lot of his other death row clients, Greg tells me, have had severe mental illnesses, like schizophrenia. Communicating with them could be challenging.
Greg cared for these men and fought for them, but he wouldn't describe those relationships as all that close.
Certainly not as close as the one I've had with David. And yes, I've gotten to know him fairly well over the years. Now, 16 years...
Over those 16 years, Greg has shared more about his personal life with David than he otherwise might have with a client. When Greg's father was suffering from Alzheimer's, David asked if he could pray for him. Ham painted him a card that Greg put in his father's room. Greg saw David through the death of his younger brother and has gotten close with David's sister, too.
I was surprised that these men, with their wildly different life experiences and temperaments, both referred to each other as brothers. David's allowed to invite up to five people to witness his execution, and it's common to invite family. Greg thinks there's a chance David will ask him. David hasn't brought it up yet, and Greg is sort of hoping he doesn't.
He's never watched one of his clients be executed before. He always worried that the trauma of it would make it harder for him to do his job. But Greg says if David doesn't have anyone else, he'll be there. He doesn't want David to face death alone. In any case, this is probably the last time Greg will be in this position. He turned 60 not long ago.
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