The Green Mile: Part 6: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Janice decides to invite Paul’s colleagues over for lunch again, arguing that they already know the worst part—that Coffey is innocent. When Paul tells his colleagues what he has found out, the men wonder at what point Coffey realized that Wharton was the true culprit. Together, they realize that Coffey discovered this when Wharton touched him and he could read his thoughts.

Paul himself began to suspect that Wharton could have killed the Detterick twins because Curtis Anderson had written in his report that Wharton had spent a long time wandering around the state. The way that Wharton tried to strangle Dean, too, made it seem likely that he could have killed the dog on his own. When Paul went to Purdom County, he checked Wharton’s earlier records and the Sheriff told him that Wharton had been caught sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl some time earlier. The girl’s father did not file an official complaint, deciding instead to go to the Sheriff, who made sure Wharton was violently beaten. Harry, not convinced that this serves as sufficient proof for a pattern of rape, is interrupted by Janice, who says that men like that don’t do such things only once.

Paul then relates his trip to Trapingus County, where he told the entire truth to Rob McGee. When McGee came back from his visit to the Dettericks, he was clearly convinced of Wharton’s guilt. Klaus Detterick told him that, some time before his girls’ murder, he had hired a young man to paint his barn. The man had dinner with the family a couple of times, during which he would have gotten the chance to hear about the girls occasionally sleeping out on the porch. The day after the man left, a man robbed a business nearby, stealing an ancient silver dollar that was later found on Wharton.

The final incriminating detail, confirming that Wharton murdered the two girls, is the fact that the man told the Dettericks his name was Will Bonney—Billy the Kid’s real name. At this piece of news, Janice excitedly concludes that the guards can now get Coffey liberated, since all they have to do is show the Dettericks a picture of Wharton. However, Paul and Brutal tell Janice that what they have found out does not constitute legal proof, only a series of coincidences, whereas Coffey was actually found holding the Detterick girls’ dead bodies. In addition, Sheriff Cribus would never want to reopen a case that he believes ended well—that is, with a black man convicted.

Increasingly moved by horror and the realization that it might be impossible to prove Coffey’s innocence, Janice suggests a variety of options. She says Deputy McGee could try to convince Sheriff Cribus, or that Paul himself could go, or that the guards could lie about the circumstances in which they found out about Wharton’s guilt (without mentioning Coffey’s supernatural powers). The men counter all her arguments with practical considerations that make each one infeasible.

Finally, after realizing that the legal route to justice is not an option, Janice tells them they could get Coffey out secretly, to which the men reply that it would be impossible to make it look like a real escape, and that Coffey would easily be arrested again anyway. Silently crying, Janice listens to the men’s objections and suddenly sends everything flying off the table. She begins to yell at Paul and Brutal, telling them they are cowards and are going to let an innocent man die, consoling themselves with the fact that it is only the death of one more nigger.

Janice stands up and Paul tries to grab her arm but she pulls away, calling Paul a murderer no better than Wharton. She leaves the room and begins to sob into her apron. After a while, the men stand up and help Paul clean the mess without saying anything, for nothing can be done.