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The season is over, but the case lives on.
However, even if his conviction is overturned, Evans could choose to order a seventh trial.
Congratulations on wrapping the season.
Especially now that so many people want to know what happens.
Thats on the really narrow question about jury selection and racial discrimination in jury selection.
So that would be most likely be taken up or not by the court in the fall.
It is, of course, not known whether the court will even consider it.
The other process thats happening is his post-conviction petition, andthatis more active right now.
Its hard to predict whats going to happen.
Presuming the petition gets back to the original Circuit Court, what will the judge there decide?
He now says thats a lie.
And the jurors didnt even hear about Willie James Hemphill.
So if there is another trial, things will not be the same.
It was very short.
We had to wait until we could see certain things take shape.
With Hemphill, that was a fluke.
We did not expect to locate him like that.
You mentioned that the tip was pretty short compared to the other messages.
What about the case compelled you to pursue it?It was the six trials.
Six times by the same guy.Right, that got our attention more than anything else.
Thats at the heart of investigative journalism.
And so, the six trials immediately raised the question of whether something was seriously going wrong here.
It just keeps going.
How do you work through stuff like that?Just by reporting on it factually.
The mere facts of this case alone do the job.
I think what this case shows is how powerful prosecutors are.
The system weve set up has given prosecutors tremendous discretion.
Theres reasons for that, and its not the case that all prosecutors abuse their discretion.
Its also not the case that we want prosecutors to have no discretion.
What comes next for you?
Theres no way around how long this process takes.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
