Just moments before he was set to be executed, his eight-year-old daughter leaned in and whispered something that froze the guards in place… and within 24 hours, the entire state was brought to a standstill.

Warden Mitchell, watching the security monitors, felt it too. Within the hour, he made a decision that could cost him his career: he requested a 72-hour stay of execution.

“A child just told her father something we need to hear,” he said in a tense call to the Attorney General’s office. “And I believe we may have condemned the wrong man.”

The delay ignited fresh scrutiny. Retired defense attorney Margaret Hayes, long troubled by Daniel’s conviction, reopened the case file. What she discovered unsettled her deeply.