He understood exactly what he was doing, and exactly what it might cost him.

Wardens do not, as a rule, intervene in the machinery of an execution the state has ordered; their role is to carry it out, not to question it, and a man who tried to halt one on the strength of a card produced by an eight-year-old could very easily find his judgment, and his career, under a harsh and unforgiving light.

Mitchell knew all of that.

He initiated the request anyway.