After the mistrial, Dallas DA John Crusoe had to make some decisions. It wasn't just an emotional loss. It was a political embarrassment. He was seeking re-election that year, and his Republican opponent was already using the case, both the mistrial and Cruzo's decision to spare Shemir Mir from execution as a campaign

talking point. Cruzzo didn't respond to our questions about that political pressure.

Cruzzo knew that he couldn't let another mistrial, or even worse, an acquittal, happen again.

He had to make some drastic changes. Prosecutors poured over the trial transcripts,

looking for ways to improve their case. But Cruzzo went one step further. Elected district attorneys

in large cities like Dallas don't do a lot of actual prosecuting in their day-to-day jobs.

A lot of the gig is more managerial and political than it is working with evidence and witnesses.

It had been decades since Crusoe personally prosecuted a case,

but he decided that this time he'd ride shotgun with Glenn Fitzmartin, his felony trial

bureau chief. He'd oversee the entire prosecution

from jury selection through a verdict if there was one. I'm Charlie Scudder, and this is the

Unforgotten, unnatural causes. Chapter 8. The second trial of Billy Shamirmir.

Kruzzo's involvement started with the most glaring hole in the last trial, jury selection.

A lot of the process of questioning potential jurors is meant to weed out the people who can't put aside personal biases to consider the evidence as objectively as possible.

Somehow, in the first trial, prosecutors sat a juror who had such strong convictions.

Cruzzo wouldn't let that happen again. For the first time in decades,

he led jury selection for the prosecution, making sure to ask jurors if they had personal

qualms about sending a man to prison. I asked Cruzzo why that was an important step for him to

lead personally. He declined to answer. With Cruzzo at his side, Fitzmartin also

streamlined the evidence. He rearranged the order that he called witnesses, this time

separating the evidence about Mary Bartell, Kim Harris, and Sue Brooks, so jurors could take in each

case one at a time. He also decided not to show the lengthy

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