Around the 10th of May 2016, we got word from the Nebraska Supreme Court.

What we received was not what any of us were expecting.

It wasn't a ruling on the merits of our appeal.

It wasn't a stay of the proceedings.

No, what we received can only be described as an ultimatum from the High Court of Nebraska,

and it threw us completely for a loop.

So the Nebraska Supreme Court, in a terse order signed by Chief Justice Michael Hevacan,

informed us that Anthony Garcia himself had written a letter to the court.

In that letter, Garcia stated unequivocally that he did not want Allison Mata as his attorney.

The court construed this letter as a motion to dismiss our appeal.

Now, let me read you the most devastating line from Garcia's handwritten letter.

Reads as follows, even if the Nebraska Supreme Court would allow Allison Mata to be my attorney,

I choose not to have her as my attorney."

End quote. Our client, the man whose life we were fighting like hell to save, the man whose

Sixth Amendment rights we were going to absolute war over to protect, had effectively undermined

our efforts. In the worst part, we never saw it coming. The High Court

gave us one week to respond, one week to justify why the appeal should continue, or they're

going to dismiss it outright. Now, as I'm reading this order, my mind immediately flashes back to that meeting

with Garcia in the Douglas County Jail when we told him about the appeal. The moment when he

powered down like a robot, you remember that. The way that he went completely silent and wouldn't

speak another word to us.

Now, it all made sense.

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