He wanted to make sure all was well

The family had learned years earlier that it was important to arrive at the Visitors' Room with a pocketful of coins. Vending machines lined the walls, and the guards delivered the food and drinks to the inmates during the visits. Donte had lost serious weight in prison, but he craved a certain cinnamon bun coated with thick frosting. While Roberta and Andrea handled the first round of the visit, Marvin bought two of the buns, with a soft drink, and Ruth took them to Donte. The junk food helped his mood. Cedric was reading a newspaper, not far from the attorney's room, when the warden popped in for a friendly hello. He wanted to make sure all was well, everything in his prison running smooth. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked as if he were running for office. He was trying hard to appear compassionate. Cedric stood up, thought for a second, and then got angry. "Are you kidding me? You're about to put my brother to death for something he didn't do, and you pop in here with some happy horseshit about wanting to help." "We're just doing our jobs, sir." Ruth was walking over. "No, you're not, unless your job allows you to kill innocent people. You wanna help, stop the damned execution." Marvin stepped between them and said, "Let's be cool here." The warden backed away and said something to Ruth. They had a serious conversation as the warden walked to the door. He soon left. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has sole jurisdiction over capital murder cases and is the court of last resort in Texas before an inmate hits the federal circuit. It has nine members, all elected, all required to run statewide. In 2007, it still clung to the archaic rule that all pleadings, petitions, appeals, documents, and such had to be filed as hard copies. Nothing online. Black ink on white paper, and tons of it. Each filing had to include twelve copies, one for each justice, and one for the clerk, one for the secretary, and one for the official file.