Percy Wetmore

"I think of [death row] as a bucket of piss to drown rats in! That's all! Anybody doesn't like it can kiss my ass!"

- Percy Wetmore expressing his sordid nature. "I didn't know the sponge is supposed to be wet."

- Percy claiming he "forgot" to wet the sponge as an attempt to get away with sabotaging Del's execution.

Percy Wetmore is the central antagonist of the 1996 Stephen King serial novel The Green Mile, and its 1999 film adaptation. He is a sleazy, lazy, pompous, and extremely sadistic yet cowardly prison guard who enjoys toying with and tormenting death row inmates (particularly one named Eduard "Del" Delacroix), much to the chagrin of Paul Edgecombe and his colleagues.

He was portrayed by.

Biography
Percy Wetmore is the nephew of Louisiana's governor, and a prison guard at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary, being one of Paul Edgecombe's colleagues. He is the only guard that Edgecombe and the other guards share a mutual disdain towards, as he is shown to be haughty, obnoxious, and extremely sadistic. Percy is shown to take delight in tormenting death row inmates. In particular, Percy enjoys victimizing Eduard "Del" Delacroix; he breaks his fingers, causes him to slip and fall on purpose, and stomps on Del's mouse Mr. Jingles (though Mr. Jingles is eventually revived by John Coffey). However, Percy is also shown to be a dirty coward; when a new inmate named William Wharton is brought, Wharton elbows Percy in the face, proceeds to assault the other guards, and nearly garrotes Dean. This petrifies Percy so much that he is unable to bring himself to stop Wharton. Percy is also later groped by Wharton, which causes Percy to cry and wet himself.

Eventually, Percy lands a job at the Brier Ridge Mental Hospital, but before departing, he states that he wants to spearhead an execution. This execution just so happens to be Del’s, and Percy is responsible for soaking a sponge which will help improve conductivity to Del’s brain and enable an easy and relatively painless death. However, Percy purposely foregoes wetting the sponge, which results in Del dying by being fried alive from the poor electrical conductivity. This shocks the guards, the witnesses, and even Percy himself (though Percy shows no regret and was most likely scared since he was taken by surprise). The guards, realizing that Percy cannot be trusted, bind and lock Percy up in a padded room.

Later, when Percy is freed, John Coffey grabs Percy from his cell. Coffey, who has the ability to transfer diseases and psychological thoughts to others, disgorges the cancer he healed from the wife of the prison warden to Percy. This results in Percy becoming psychologically broken, and Percy subsequently shoots and kills Wharton before succumbing to catatonia. After Percy is deemed unfit for duty, he is transferred to the same mental hospital where he planned to work at. He was confirmed to have passed away in the novel, but in the film, his supposed death does not occur onscreen.

What Makes Him Pathetic?

 * He is extremely loathsome. His haughty and exasperating nature generates contempt from both his fellow guards and the inmates.
 * He lacks any altruistic or positive traits, and is purely out to see death row inmates suffer and die.
 * He is exceptionally cowardly. Though he acts pompously when he is in a position of power, he immediately becomes defensive and craven at any semblance of a threat.
 * When Wild Bill attempts to garrote Dean, Percy does nothing but stand by in fear, and Brutal has to get involved to neutralize the threat.
 * After Percy causes Del to slip and fall, he gets groped by Wild Bill, causing him to wet his pants.
 * After sabotaging Del's execution, he is taken by surprise and becomes frightened by Del's death, very likely because he was scared of the thought of such a gruesome death happening to him.
 * Finally, when Paul and the other guards confront Percy to punish him for Del's death by locking him up in the padded room, Percy begs for them to let him go.

What Makes Him a Pinhead?

 * He is extremely narrow-minded and petty. He breaks Del's fingers after Del smirked at him, and he purposely botches his execution because the latter had laughed at him for wetting his pants.
 * He fails to consider what would happen if he foregoes wetting the sponge during Del's execution. This causes him to be caught by surprised and scared by Del's harrowing death.
 * He makes no attempt to hide the fact that he had sabotaged Del's execution. After his fellow guards confront him, he makes a lousy attempt to weasel his way out of his predicament by blatantly lying that he did not know the sponge had to be wet.
 * He lacks any genuine competence or skills. He is only successful in tormenting death row inmates because he has power as a prison guard, and when his power is taken away (refer to the above instances) he is unable to pose even a marginal threat.