“After law school, I got a clerkship at that same prosecutor’s office. And what I saw shocked me. Convictions were the law of the land. The bosses wanted as many as possible, because the positions were elected positions, and convictions looked good in the press. The incentives were pointing in the wrong direction, the direction of occasionally convicting innocent people for crimes they did not commit.

“I remember one woman very distinctly who we convicted of a shoplifting charge, and she was fired from her job and had to drop out of college because she couldn’t afford it any longer. Several months later, we charged the manager of that store with fraud, because he had been stealing supplies. I asked him about the woman, and he admitted she hadn’t stolen anything, that accusing her had been a way for him to deflect attention from himself.

“Three hundred and fifty-six people have been freed from death row in this country because of DNA evidence. Three hundred and fifty-six innocent people, like Anderson Ficco, whose lives were saved from a system that sees convictions as the ultimate goal. How many people have been executed or are spending life in prison who didn’t have the benefit of DNA evidence?”

He went over and put his hands on Anderson’s shoulders, showing the jury Anderson wasn’t some monster but a human being.

“Anderson Ficco had nothing to do with Patty Winchester’s death. Steven Brown has manipulated the prosecution into believing it was my client that committed these murders. You see, the prosecution has to choose a side. They know they can’t get convictions in both Steven’s and Anderson’s cases, so they chose. Did they choose wrongly? They have no idea. They only know they need a conviction. This was the easiest path, the path of least resistance: believe the guy making up a phony story and use him to get a conviction on the boy that has no one to back up his story.

“We will present evidence to you today that Steven Brown is the man that murdered Patty Winchester. A young girl named Bebe Stewart will testify that Steven Brown was obsessed with Patty Winchester. So obsessed that Patty talked to the police about getting a stalking injunction against him.”

What the hell?

I turned back and looked at Will and Jia. Will shook his head, his eyes wide with surprise.

Pritcher patted Anderson and moved back close to the jury. “She will testify that Anderson was always kind and respectful to Patty, and that on one occasion he even stuck up for her against Steven’s advances.” He held up a finger. “But it wasn’t until that night, May fourteenth, that Anderson was simply not there to stop Steven.