Hit and Run

For the past three months, Jeffery Thompson's grandmother has held a daily vigil in front of the Harris County Criminal Courthouse. Arriving each morning by eight, Ester Forrest passes out fliers proclaiming Thompson's innocence. In the flier, a photo of Thompson shows him dressed in his prison uniform, sporting a sad, goofy smile.

In her three-room trailer in Cloverleaf, Forrest keeps another picture of Thompson taped to the wall. He's wearing his prison whites with a black graduation cap, receiving his General Education Diploma during a prison ceremony. Prison forced him to give up alcohol and allowed him to finish his high-school education.

But he seems no wiser. In prison, a reporter asked whether, if he somehow won his freedom, he'd continue drinking.

"Maybe just in the evenings," Thompson replied.