Chapter 18, Fall Partners Summary and Analysis

On October 25, Judge Powers formally sentenced Ward and Fontenot to death, setting their date of execution for January 21, 1986. Days later, the judge signed off on the paperwork, not noticing that Don Wyatt had failed to file the proper paperwork to be taken off the case and to secure Ward a stay of execution until his appeals were exhausted. Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were moved to the maximum-security prison in McAlester, where they were put in separate cells in the crowded death row. A few months later, both men were moved to the new death row where Fontenot had begun to believe it was Tommy Ward's fault he was in jail. Fontenot told several inmates that Ward was a snitch, causing the inmates to threaten Tommy's life. Tommy was then moved into solitary. Late in December, Tommy...