I thought this was a well written article on the State's Prosecution by a local journalist, worth the read IMO.
<snipped>
CLEARED - 7 letters delayed Allen’s conviction by five years.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland spoke to the Carroll County Comet Friday, his first interview since the gag order was lifted in the Delphi double murder case. This is part of a continued series of first-hand perspectives from those closest to the case by journalist Amy Graham-McCarty.
‘Cleared’ - Carroll County Comet
This article is probably the most informative of those that have come out recently.
We find out that RA was offered a plea deal early on ("not a lucrative one") but declined it.
McCleland names some of the things he would do differently.
1. Says the tip being overlooked was obviously the biggest thing that was unfortunate, not for trying the case but for the families. They do not know who wrote "cleared" on the tip sheet.
2. If he was re-trying the case, he would have someone testify about the "pattern of life of Richard Allen while he was in jail...to have more impact for the confessions." He says that this could have helped demonstrate that RA was not psychotic when he made them. The phone calls in which he confessed also contained regular conversation about the weather, the pets etc, before RA would mention "I just need you to know I did this."
McCleland had low-key interactions in the community with RA and KA before RA became a suspect.
McCleland and others in his office have experienced threats, such as people saying they are going to slash his tires, or "What if I came to Indiana and did this to your girls?" Most of the negative comments and threats come from individuals outside of the Carroll County community.
The surprise during the trial was the testimony of the Defense's digital expert, Stacey Eldridge. No one knew she was going to say that something was inserted into the headphone jack of Libby's phone and then removed hours later. "The Defense did a good job of hiding (what they were going to use in court)." This is what led to Sgt. Cecil having to google an explanation and McCleland admits this was not ideal.
What does McCleland think the defense did wrong? The personal attacks on investigators' characters (such as Mullin), and he is also critical of Rozzi's closing. "There's a point where....they showed a rack used for medieval torture....Sometimes you go too far, and you lose the jury. I could have objected; it was absolutely inappropriate (for them to show that). I let it go. Part of trial work is reading the room and seeing how people react....He was losing them, so I didn't object."
