The Trial: A Letter from Prison

The police finally searched Poke's apartment 6 months after the murder, an outrageous delay considering eyewitnesses had told them that night he was the killer.

From prison, Poke heard they were coming and wrote a letter begging his younger brother to "get everything out of my room." The prosecutor presented this plea as an admission of guilt. If Poke had nothing to hide, why ask his brother to hide everything?

We deliberated about it for hours. I was not the only one who agreed with the prosecutor. My conviction grew stronger when we learned the police had, in fact, found a red bandana like the one the murderer had worn in Poke's room.

But there was another, reasonable perspective: when you're 18, innocent, and facing life without parole, you do everything possible to suppress evidence that could be spun against you.

As for that bandana, well, teenage me had bandanas, too.

Continue: We the Jury

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