October Stephen King Tribute Day 22: The Green Mile

The Green Mile was published as a serial novel comprised of six installments. The first was published in March 1996 and then a subsequent one a month through August.

Warning, this review does contain spoilers.

The story is told by Paul Edgecombe, a former supervisor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He now resides at a nursing home and is writing down the story of John Coffey. John was a very large black man who had been convicted of raping and murdering two white girls. Coffey received the death penalty at his trial and came to stay at Cold Mountain until his sentence was carried out. The green tile in the hall leading to the electric chair gave the prisoners' last walk the name "the green mile".

There were two other prisoners on death row while Coffey was there. Eduard Delacroix was a cowardly murderer and arsonist. William "Wild Bill" Wharton was a dangerous murderer who had decided to make his last days as hard on everyone as he could. Delacroix had kept an unusually intelligent mouse, named Mr. Jingles, in the cell with him. This, in part, led to Percy, one of the guards, giving him a hard way to go.

Delacroix is the first of the three to go to the chair. Percy had made a deal with Paul to transfer to another facility if Paul would allow him to oversee Delacroix's execution. Percy intentionally forgets to add the sponge to the cap during his execution. The result is an agonizing death where Delacroix literally fries on the chair.

Paul learned that John Coffey was gifted with a unique healing ability. Coffey cured Paul's urinary tract infection. He also brought Mr. Jingles back to good health after Percy had stomped on him. The guards snuck Coffey out one night to heal the warden's wife who was suffering from a brain tumor. Once back at the prison, Coffey released the disease into the body of Percy.

In the end, Paul learned that Coffey was innocent of the crimes he was convicted of. Wild Bill had committed those crimes, not Coffey. John decided to have his sentence carried out to escape the cruel world he lived in. Those that John healed before his death lived unusually long lifetimes.

I remember buying each of these books as they were released. Each one was pretty small but I was hooked from book one. I read each as it came out and then re-read them all straight through once my collection was complete. I believe these original books are still at my parents' house.

The story is more dramatic than horror. But Stephen King has a way of making any situation seem scary. The death of Delacroix probably counts as horror. This story covers two controversial subjects: racism and the death penalty. Coffey is arrested and convicted with very little evidence, largely because he was a black man and the crime has been committed against two white girls. The death penalty is something that is still fiercely debated today.

The Green Mile was made into a movie starring Michael Clark Duncan as John Coffey and Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecombe. The movie was nominated for and won many awards. I have to admit I thought it was a good movie and mostly true to the books.