In 1995, 16-year-old Alan Sudduth was falsely accused of murder and sentenced to 70 years on a plea deal that devolved from a combination of ineffective counsel and the fact that the prosecutor direct filed him in adult court. He recently won a new trial based on a review of the evidence in his case.

The question, ultimately, is “why?” Why did an innocent child go to prison? I’ll let previous explanations suffice, but innocence doesn’t really seem to be a factor for prosecutors in meting out their version of “justice.”

Last week’s coverage of the consequences of Direct File in Westword is exhaustive. Joel Warner pulls out all the stops in both his article and at Westword’s blog. It is impossible to thank Westword enough and I’m certain that my lead in can’t do that coverage justice. You’ll just have to read it yourself.