verdict and gave michael george once again another chance to win his freedom. it was just elation. it was, like, okay. the greatest injustice that i had ever been associated with as a lawyer has just been corrected. we are going to get a new trial. carl marlinga and joe always believed in their client s innocence and now they won another chance to prove it. michael was devastated by the verdict. i didn t do this. suddenly he s got new life. suddenly he has faith again in the system. i think he had two things working. he had new evidence and unfairness in the closing argument on top of this real heartfelt feeling by judge biernat that an innocent man had been convicted. the county prosecutor eric smith wasn t buying any of it. the judge seemed to have directed that there be a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct. he hung his hat on a lot of things and that was one of them. since the case began it appeared he was not comfortable with this case and what he did was