The Scattered Thoughts of a Deviate is found in the cell of the condemned man and so named by his jailer. In a connected series of poems, prisoner 541 reveals his crimes, and the crimes committed against him. He does not accept, however, that the murders he has committed are the real reason for his impending execution; rather, he is convinced he is being executed, like Jesus, for the crimes of sedition and treason, and for apostasy and blasphemy.
