[2] Ray Eames (Arliss Howard) has spent seven years on death row for the shooting of policeman Jackie McGrath in a drug bust gone wrong.

Rusher returns to his home (which is also the town's exotic-pet store), frees the pets, writes "NO JUSTICE" in marker on a crime-scene photograph, and then shoots himself.

Dan Weston (Andre Braugher), a reporter for Time, arrives on the scene to cooperate with Marish in getting the story.

Weston and Marish visit McGrath's widow, Hannah (Bonnie Bedelia), and are present when she and policeman Jerry Brown (Robert Carradine) receive the news that Rusher has killed himself.

Steve March (Tom Nowicki), who tells them the official story of McGrath's murder and reiterates that crimes like Eames' are "why the death penalty was invented."

He refuses to testify in Eames' defense, but Marish secretly records Tatum's confession.

Meanwhile, at the prison, Marish tries in vain to stop Eames' execution, yelling and pounding on the glass of the witnesses' chamber.

He exits the prison amid fireworks and crowds cheering Eames' death on the one side and candlelight protesters on the other.