CONFESSION, THE

　　For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty oneleft on the outside. He doesn’t understand how the police andprosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn’t care. Hejust can’t believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes thatthe mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in theircase and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch thetrial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relievedwhen the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police andprosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow aninnocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to beexecuted.　　Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texascity of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular highschool cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never befound, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrestedand convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched himoff to death row.　　Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled inKansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from hisexecution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For thefirst time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right andconfess.　　But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, andpoliticians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?