September 16, 2016, 10 days before jury selection.

The Omaha World Herald ran the story that morning.

Judge Gary Randall had formally confirmed his ruling from the September 1st hearing.

He would not allow the state to use true alleles, probabilistic genotyping

evidence at trial. The official order had come down, and the headline read like a victory,

and in many ways it was. Randall had written that Garcia's quote, right to a fairer and speedy trial outweighs the state's desire to use this evidence.

Strong language from a judge who had not exactly been a front to the defense throughout these proceedings.

But sitting in our war room that afternoon surrounded by boxes of discovery documents and half-empty coffee cups,

I knew the truth was far more complicated than any newspaper headline could capture.

County Attorney Don Klein had already announced that he would be appealing the ruling to the Nebraska Supreme Court,

which was expected. Look, prosecutors don't give up powerful evidence without a fight.

But there was no stay pending appeal, which meant that the September 26th trial date remained on

track. The clock was ticking. 10 days until jury selection. The state was

scrambling to preserve their most powerful piece of DNA evidence while we were scrambling to figure

out how to present our defense without it coming back to haunt us. Because here's what the headlines didn't capture, what the public didn't understand,

what even experienced criminal defense attorneys might not have fully appreciated

until they were in our position.

Judge Randall's ruling wasn't just a victory. No, it was a loaded

gun pointed at our own heads. The judge had made it crystal clear during that September

first hearing that if we argued that the DNA evidence from the Butra doorknob

exonerated Garcia, if we claimed that someone else was responsible for that attempted break-in,

we would be opening the door for the prosecution to introduce true allele as rebuttal evidence.

...