I have to say I agree with you, gord. Except that it's the governor who has to stay an execution, and the governor was Percy's uncle.
When you think of garbage, think of Hakeem!
Folks, calm down! This is not the last chopper outta Saigon!

It's set in the south in the 1930s. Being black was enough proof to convict anyone of anything.

Literally anyone could go up and hold Coffey’s hands and they’d see the same vision of Bill killing the girls.
But the point of the story is that Coffey was tired of living and experiencing all of the pain and fear of all the murder victims. He wanted to die, and the guards had to respect his wishes.
Melton1 Wanted for Pedophilia:
https://i.ibb.co/6cnPmJVr/IMG-0830.jpg
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Zjxk307CND0

The fact is even in movies one needs proof to convict a crook!
The voice of reason.

How could he have prove it? The fact is even in movies one needs proof to convict a crook!

I always thought they should have said Percy shot Wild Bill in response to him confessing to the rape/murder.

Maybe they would find Paul to be a biased, therefore unreliable, witness.
Plus, it's the plot. Otherwise, even before his trial, before knowing wild bill was responsible, John could've shown them his perspective of finding the girls already murdered and him trying to "fix it". Then we'd not have an awesome movie.