I believe the judge, as an umpire, at some level has to be concerned with the integrity of the process.

This is the performance of his life. If he does not hit his mark on the first take and get the jury to look past what they saw in the first half of the trial, he is going to spend the rest of his life as a ward of the federal government.

He is likable. He is grandfatherly. He's everybody's papa and he has the ability to show outrage without showing outrage.

He's got to open it himself; the government can't kick it in.

This is a case that turns on credibility.

The Court of Criminal Appeals is widely considered to be one of the most conservative appellate courts in the world. Not one judge on that court decided that the state's appeal was worth considering. Obviously believing as the First Court of Appeals did, that when you pay thousands of dollars to a hired gun, that the least they can do is come in and tell the truth.