-Hey.

-Hi.

I'm looking for a Kenneth Branch.

-Uh-oh, that's me.

-Are you from Brandon?

-No.

My sister lives in Brandon.

-You're not...?

-Well, I just lived with.

-Your sister?

-I've been from here.

-Okay, you've never lived there?

-I've lived in -- I mean, I've lived in, not Brandon, but I've lived up around in Jackson for a little while, and maybe in Flowood.

-Were you on a -- ever on a jury, Bobby Wilcher murder trial?

[whispering] Oh, my God.

-Were you on there, too?

-Oh, my God!

You were our foreman.

-Oh, my God.

-Oh, my God!

-Wow!

[ Birds chirping ] -[Sniffle] -At some point, either someone or somebody decided, "Let's just have a straw vote.

We're gonna pass -- Write your initial verdict and let's go.

We're gonna pass the hat around and everybody drops it in and we'll see how divided we are, whatever," and, when it came back around to me, I pulled out every one of them and every single one of them had death penalty, every single one of them.

I was like -- It just -- I think, at that moment, everybody in that whole room, it just froze them in their seats for that moment because it was like we were all in agreement and it was like, "What else?

What do we do from here?"

And so you'll have to correct me, if I'm wrong.

We sat there and talked and talked and talked about it some more because we said, "We can't just go right back out of this room and hand a death sentence out when we just got in the room.

We've got to respect this man's life a little more than that.

Let's really talk this thing through some more."

And it didn't seem like we were back there forever, but I remember we were back there for about 3.5 hours and it didn't seem like any time.

It seemed like we just walked back there and walked right back out.

And -- -It was like a time warp.

It really was.

-It really was.

-I was lookin' out the window, down the street, and I looked.

"There are people out there.

They're going to lunch.

They're walkin' in the park.

They're walkin' around the street.

They've got a normal life and we're up here.

We're gettin' ready to kill somebody."

-Exactly.

Everything was blank.

And I just -- I don't even remember the drive home.

I do remember, as soon as I got home, as soon as I went to go unlock my house, I just broke down and started cryin'.

It was just an emotion beyond what I've ever felt before.

I thought about that for every day, every moment, for a while, you know, "Did we do the right thing?

Yeah, we did the right thing.

Did we do the right thing?

Yeah, we did the right thing."

I don't think this is my handwritin'.

I think [laughing] someone like you wrote it and then I signed it, 'cause that's my signature and that's my printing, but I don't think that -- -Let me see.

See if that looks -- I haven't written in -- -I don't think that's your handwriting.

-Right.

"We, the jury, unanimously find, from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the following facts existed at the time of the commission of the capital murder.

Number one, that the defendant actually killed Velma Odell Nob--"?

-Noblin.

-"That the defendant contemplated that lethal force would be employed.

We, the jury, unanimously find that the aggravating circumstances are sufficient to impose the death penalty and that there are insufficient mitigating circumstances to outweigh the aggravating circumstances and we further find unanimously that the defendant should suffer death.

Signed, Ken Branch, foreman of the jury."

-That's pretty tough.

-Mnh!

I can't even describe what it felt like when I'm reading, you know, "We gave you death."

-"We, the jurors..." -We gave you death, and he's sittin' right there, you know?

And it's like -- I felt -- I don't know.

I can't even tell you how I felt.

Brought a lot of stuff out that I hadn't thought about in a while.

-But it's there.

-You know, it's there.

You know, it is, and it'll always be there, whether I try to suppress it or not, you know?

It's there.

-But see, now your child, she may be called to do the same thing you did.

-I don't think I could ever sentence somebody to death.

I don't think I can do it.

I don't think that's my decision to make.

-That's right.

-But -- -It's not the state's, anyway, is it?

-I don't think it's anybody's decision but God's.

-That's right.