The U-M Innocence Clinic

continued

At 9:15, Marvin and Deshawn Reed enter in green prison uniforms. Deshawn carries a huge file folder that he sets down at the defense table. The convicted men face the audience, their backs to Judge Fresard, a striking figure with long brown hair, fashionable glasses, and a rarely changing expression of bemused exasperation.

Stiffly, Matt Cronin steps to the podium and calls one of the Reeds’ appeals attorneys to the stand. He doesn’t finish a sentence before Wayne County assistant prosecutor Carolyn Breen pops up.

“Objection—relevance.”

With glasses scrunched down on her nose, a no-nonsense pantsuit, and a put-upon demeanor that heats up to haughty indignation, Breen cuts the students no slack. They’ve been thrown into a shark pit, and she bites frequently.

Cronin questions one of the Reeds’ appellate attorneys. The student is well rehearsed and articulate, but the attorney seems befuddled and gives rambling answers.

“Objection—narrative,” Breen protests with an audible sigh.