The Green Mile is set in Louisiana in the 1930s where the residual effects of U.S. enslavement of black people still inform laws of racial segregation. Ironically, the only institution where racial segregation does not apply is Cold Mountain’s Green Mile, where men of different races await their deaths.

The Green Mile is a site of intimate contact with racial difference and tension. Coffey’s arrival at The Green Mile disrupts the mundanity of institutional routine, compelling Paul and the other white guards to consider for the first time how whiteness and the law works against an innocent black man. While the circumstances of The Green Mile appear to operate under the terms of color blindness, the racial prejudice of social life past the prison walls pervades the sense of justice enacted within Cold Mountain. Although Paul and the others learn the truth behind the murder of the Detterick twins, they find themselves at the mercy of the law, which rarely offers retrials for black men. Meanwhile, there is still support for Wharton’s innocence, given his whiteness and youth, and despite his many criminal transgressions. Even as officers of the state, the guards recognize the futility of their efforts against the racial biases of the law.