Percy Wetmore shoots William Wharton

Percy Wetmore shoots William Wharton is the violent climax of a chain of events set in motion by the botched execution of Eduard Delacroix and the secret night journey to save Melinda Moores. In a matter of seconds, Percy—moments earlier a terrified, straitjacketed prisoner in the restraint room—empties his service revolver into the sleeping William Wharton, killing him instantly. The shooting is not an act of madness born of humiliation alone; it is the direct, physical consequence of John Coffey's supernatural power, which has just transferred the brain tumor he drew from Melinda Moores into Percy's body, shattering his mind and unleashing his latent violence upon the man Coffey recognized as the true murderer of the Detterick twins.

Causes and Background

The shooting is the final, catastrophic result of the guards' unauthorized night journey to save Melinda Moores. After John Coffey healed the warden's wife, he retained the tumor's poison within himself, visibly sickening. Upon returning to E Block, the guards released Percy from the restraint room, where they had confined him in a straitjacket to prevent him from interfering. Percy, humiliated and furious, demanded his gun and baton and began walking up the Green Mile, his mind already poisoned by the darkness Coffey had drawn out of Melinda. The guards, led by Paul Edgecombe, had hoped to contain the situation by threatening Percy with exposure of his role in Delacroix's death and his cowardice during Wharton's attack on Dean Stanton, but they underestimated the depth of his rage and the supernatural force now working through him.

What Happens

As Percy strides up the right side of the Green Mile, his head lowered, John Coffey's long arms shoot out from between the bars of his cell. Coffey seizes Percy, yanks him against the bars, and presses his mouth to Percy's, exhaling the black, swirling tide of the tumor into him. Percy screams, his baton falls, and he is held fast until the transfer is complete. Coffey then releases him, grimacing as if he has tasted something foul. Percy stands dazed, his eyes blank, then walks unsteadily toward the duty desk. He stops outside William Wharton's cell, draws his revolver, and fires all six shots into the sleeping man—one in the groin, one in the gut, one in the chest, and three in the head. The sound is deafening. Wharton dies without waking. Percy then lets the gun fall, his bladder and bowels releasing, his eyes fixed on a distant corner, never to see the real world again. He is led away to Briar Ridge, where he remains catatonic for the rest of his life, dying in 1965 without ever speaking again.

Consequences and Aftermath

The shooting solves one problem for the guards while creating another. William Wharton, the true murderer of the Detterick twins, is dead, and Percy Wetmore, the man who sabotaged Delacroix's execution, is permanently silenced. The guards, led by Paul Edgecombe, quickly construct a cover story: Percy, driven mad by Wharton's earlier assault, shot him in a fit of insanity. The story holds, aided by Percy's catatonia and the political desire to avoid scandal. The Board of Enquiry is perfunctory, and the guards' unauthorized night journey never comes to light. Yet the event deepens the moral crisis for Paul Edgecombe and Brutus Howell. They now know that John Coffey is innocent of the murders for which he will be executed, and that he has used his power to exact a terrible justice. The shooting also seals John Coffey's fate: with Wharton dead, there is no possibility of a new trial or confession, and Coffey himself expresses a desire to die, weary of the pain he absorbs from the world. The event thus clears the path for Coffey's own execution, which follows two days later, and leaves the surviving guards burdened with a secret that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.