Crime & Punishment

But Westley's appellate attorney, Barry Abrams, is less casual about even jokingly putting some of the blame for Hall's death on Hall himself. Abrams says he worried about being viewed as trying to diminish the magnitude of the pain that befell the family and friends of Frank Hall ten years ago. "We're very sympathetic with the human tragedy that unfolded that day," explains Abrams, "but we still believe that anybody, including someone like Anthony Westley, [should get] a fair shot in proving that [he] didn't commit a murder."

And regardless of whether it was the fault of the prosecution or the defense, the trial judge says the fact that the jury was never told of the varying evidence in the Westley case was critical.

"Had the jury known that witness had changed her story, and that there had been a different story, my feeling was that's enough of a difference that the jury should have been told," maintains Lanford. "And it might have made the difference between a life sentence and the death penalty.

"Was Westley the trigger man?" Lanford continues. "I have no way of knowing. Apparently the jury in [the trial of co-defendant John Dale Henry] believed Westley had a .357 at one point. He couldn't have, obviously, had both [guns]. It's 50-50. It's either him or [Henry]. Fairly looking at the evidence of both trials, we can't say who killed that man. And if we can't say that, then maybe neither one of those two deserves to get out of prison any time soon. But maybe neither one of them deserves the death penalty either.

"When we execute somebody in this state," says Lanford, who is an advocate for capital punishment, "we ought to be able to look at each other and say we have done everything right."

Valerie Moore and Edith Sorenson contributed research to this story.