It was Percy Wetmore who ushered Coffey onto the block, with the supposedly traditional cry of “Dead man walking! Dead man walking here!”

It made Carstairs more spiritual, and more efficient materially, that goes with real spirituality; it makes me more philosophical, and our Billy—it just makes him more Billyish.

They used to call it Edison's medicine or, with a touch of gallows humor, a Georgia Power cocktail — the practice of hooking mentally troubled patients up to an electrical current and jolting them until they went into convulsions.

The words he speaks carry a familiar message. He lifts me up to sing my infinite heartsong. He is a musical tone that rings out to embrace the morning sky.