Fifty

On the morning of Christmas Eve in 1975, Tommy Zeigler was a successful and prosperous young man who had showed no tendency to violence.  By all evidence, he enjoyed the loyalty of friends and the love of family. His life was full of good things, both material and intangible.

We are told that this person brutally murdered four people, including his wife.

The state's theory of the crime is a bridge that spans the chasm between the Tommy Zeigler whom the world knew before Christmas Eve of 1975 and the Tommy Zeigler who was convicted of these ghastly acts.  It is a bridge we must cross entirely if we are to believe him guilty. The state's theory is the only way to get there from here.

That theory, as expressed by Don Frye before the grand jury and by Robert Eagan in his arguments at trial, relies on speculation and improbable testimony.

It is largely uncorroborated, and ignores strong contrary evidence.

It fails to address strong indications that Charlie Mays was in the store to commit a crime.

And it is finally, irretrievably, undermined by J.D., Ed, and Madelyn Nolan: disinterested witnesses whose observations on Christmas Eve discredited the heart of the state's case, and who—as we'll see—could not have been mistaken in their testimony.

Science and the rules of logic tell us that a hypothesis must, at the least, not be contradicted by the pertinent evidence.  To accept Zeigler's guilt we must embrace every important aspect of testimony by four witnesses who convinced the authorities that he plotted and executed the murders.  Those four are Edward Williams, Felton Thomas, Frank Smith, and Mary Ellen Stewart, without whom the case against Zeigler does not exist.

This seems to be an impressive array: Williams, Thomas, Smith, and Stewart, each adding to the mosaic of guilt.  Yet they are mainly uncorroborated, except by each other.  Furthermore, Williams, Thomas, and Smith all had a supreme stake in the outcome: Williams's truck was found at the crime scene and he was in possession of the primary murder weapon; Thomas fled the scene; and Smith was the owner of record of two other significant weapons.  Mary Ellen Stewart had a