The exercise yard

The exercise yard at Cold Mountain Penitentiary is the outdoor enclosure attached to E Block, the prison's death row unit. It is a space of transition and limited freedom, where condemned men are allowed two hours of recreation each afternoon, from four until six, except on Saturdays when the general prison population uses the yard for flag football games. The yard is also the point of entry for new prisoners arriving on E Block; its door opens directly onto the Green Mile, the lime-colored linoleum corridor that runs the length of the cellblock. When the door swings open, it lets in a flood of brilliant light and, on occasion, the figure of a newly arrived condemned man, as when John Coffey, the giant black prisoner convicted of murdering the Detterick twins, was first brought onto the block. Percy Wetmore, the guard who escorted Coffey, used the yard door to make his dramatic entrance, shouting "Dead man walking!" as he hauled the prisoner inside. The yard is also where guards sometimes go to smoke or drink coffee, as Bill Dodge did on the night before Eduard Delacroix's execution, standing in the doorway and looking out at the empty yard while thunder rumbled in the distance. It is a place where the routine of the prison meets the isolation of the condemned, a brief exposure to the outside world before the final walk down the Green Mile to the electric chair.