The U-M Innocence Clinic

continued

On the stand, Isom Jackson angrily testifies that she’s had trash thrown on her lawn and at her, including a strawberry milkshake. Breen asks if she can identify the milkshake thrower, and Isom Jackson points out a woman sitting in back among the Reeds’ supporters.

Most damning of all, Isom Jackson says there was a deal: a truce in exchange for the recantation. Her brother “told me he had made an agreement that they were going to leave us alone, that all of this was going to go away,” she says.

The prosecutor has made a case that Shannon Gholston committed perjury—but he’s no longer in court to defend himself. That angers Moran.

“It’s a basic rule of law that you don’t accuse someone of lying and not give that person a chance to respond,” says Moran in the hallway. But in this hearing, the rules are whatever the judge allows, and Fresard’s attitude is extremely lenient.