In The Green Mile, who is the inmate executed for the murder of two girls?
Answer
John Coffey
In The Green Mile, John Coffey is the inmate executed for the murder of two girls.
Coffey is a physically imposing but gentle death-row prisoner at Cold Mountain Penitentiary in 1932. Although he is convicted of raping and killing the Detterick twins, the novel later reveals that William “Wild Bill” Wharton actually committed the crime. Coffey had been found holding the girls’ bodies while trying to revive them, but his appearance and the circumstances led authorities to blame him.
Coffey possesses mysterious healing abilities and cures Melinda Moores, the warden’s wife, of a brain tumor. His powers convince death-row supervisor Paul Edgecombe that Coffey is innocent, yet Coffey accepts execution because he is exhausted by the cruelty and suffering in the world.
A common mix-up is confusing Coffey with Paul Edgecombe, who narrates the story, or Percy Wetmore, the cruel guard. Eduard Delacroix is another inmate, but he is executed for arson and murder, not for the Detterick twins’ deaths.