Projects > Story-of-the-Day > it-wasnt-me

"The jury finds you guilty of the first degree murder of Mr. Edwin Gobile. You are hereby sentenced to death." For the last 112 weeks, those two sentences are the first thing I think about every morning.

Well, except today. Today I woke up being jabbed by the baton of a guard. I have a person who wants to talk to me.

I sit in an uncomfortable metal chair handcuffed to a table. I look through the scratched piece of plexiglass waiting for my guest. Finally a door opens on the other side. It's really bright out there and I can't make out who it is. I have no idea who it could be anyway. It turns out that getting convicted of first degree murder makes your friends and family not want to talk to you.

A woman I don't recognize enters, and walks towards me. She looks at me, and then carefully sits down. "Hello, I am Mrs. Gobile. You have been sentenced to death for killing my husband."

I'm completely shocked and don't know how to even respond. I'm not sure how to respond, but eventually get to the standard prisoner reply: "Look, it wasn't me!" It's really true this time though. "I'm really sorry you lost your husband and everything, but I had nothing to do with it at all."

She just sits there, staring at me.

"Look, you can go back and read everything I said in trial. It's all 100% true. I had never met you or your husband before. I was even apparently sleeping when the murder happened several blocks away from my home."

She looks at me coldly, "I wanted to see the person who will die for the death of Edwin."

"I'm being executed tomorrow. I don't know if you can do anything, but if you can get me out of here, I'll help you figure out who really did it. I'll dedicate my life to it even. I just don't want to die like this for something I didn't do."

She looks down, and then slowly gets up to leave.

"Please, you have to know I didn't do this. Somebody else is out there and responsible. It's not me."

She makes it halfway out of the room, and then turns back. She looks deeply into my eyes and says, "I know. I believe you. It was me."