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Welcome to the debate. Today, we're looking at one of
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the toughest situations in criminal justice, really the Nobody cold case,
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and we're focusing on the disappearance of alyss Attorney, seventeen
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years old, back in two thousand and one. It started
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as a runaway case but eventually became this huge homicide
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investigation focusing on her stepfather, Michael Turney, right.
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And this case really highlights a critical tension, doesn't it.
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The question we need to wrestle with is you know,
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when you have what seems like overwhelming circumstantial evidence, behavioral
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evidence all pointing to one suspect, should that pattern be
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enough or is the lack of physical evidence nobody, no
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crime scene, Is that a necessary a justifiable legal barrier
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to getting a conviction exactly?
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And I'll be arguing that the just the massive amount
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of evidence, the pattern uncovered in the Attorney case is
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strongly pointed to guilt and motive, and that makes the
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acquittal in twenty twenty three, well, it feels like a
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painful example of the system not delivering justice for Alyssa.
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And I'll be taking the position that the acquittal, however disturbing,
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the circumstances surrounding the case are was actually legally sound.
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It reinforced that very high standard of proof we need
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for a criminal conviction. It protects you process even when
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suspicion runs deep.
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Okay, so let's start with why Alyssa supposedly leaving in
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May two thousand and one felt wrong from the get go.
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The police initially called it a runaway situation, but that theory, well,
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it had holes, big ones. Alyssa left her cell phone
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behind her car, all her stuff, makeup, jewelry, clothes, and
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maybe most importantly, she left almost eighteen hundred dollars in
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savings untouched. That just doesn't scream planned departure, you know,
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even with that note they found, which police later thought
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probably forged anyway.
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Yeah, those facts certainly cast a lot of doubt on
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the whole runaway idea, and that's why the case was
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eventually reopened as a homicide investigation. But to get a conviction,
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the state has to prove the specific act of murder happened.
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Right, But this state argued that the behavior around the
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disappearance gave the context for that act. Michael Turney, he
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was the last person reported to have seen Alissa picked
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her up early from school, apparently after some kind of argument.
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Then when the investigation got going again in two thousand
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and eight, the police uncovered this pattern of well, really
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controlling and frankly disturbing behavior. Surveillance cameras all over the house, right,
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and these contracts. Alyssa was apparently forced to sign incredibly
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invasive stuff about her conduct, even sexual conduct. Plus you
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had friends mentioning allegations of abuse. This level of secrecy,
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this control, that's the kind of thing that fills in
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the gaps in a no body case, doesn't it.
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I see why you're emphasizing that control, that documentation. It's
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certainly unsettling, but I'd frame the legal outcome very differently.
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That level of control. No matter how sinister it seems,
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it doesn't equal a murder conviction. The focus really has
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to stay on the high standard of proof. The state
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has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. And
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that's precisely why Michael Turney was acquitted through that rule
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twenty judgment in twenty twenty three.
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And maybe we should just clarify what that rule twenty
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means for people listening.
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Absolutely good point, so for anyone not familiar with Arizona law.
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A rule twenty judgment is basically a directed verdict of acquittal.
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The judge grants it before the defense even puts on
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its case. It means the judge decided the prosecution just
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hadn't presented enough evidence to even possibly sustain a conviction.
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The defense argument was blunt, no body, no crime scene,
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no evidence to suggest that a murder took place.
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Load full transcript
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But see, that's where we really hit the core of
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the issue, isn't it. It feels like prioritizing a kind
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of legal rigidity over the just the overwhelming human reality
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that all this circumstantial evidence points to.
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Or are we prioritizing protecting the innocent, which is, you know,
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a fundamental principle of our legal system. Look, the things
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found with Michael Turney are genuinely terrifying. The homemade bombs,
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nearly twenty firearms, silencers, that manifesto talking about a mass
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murder plot. Yeah, it wasn't a direct enough link shown
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between those devices, that planning and a list is specifically
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disappearing to support a murder conviction.
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Okay, let's dig into that a bit more. The weight
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of that behavior and intent, because I think maybe the
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judge was well too restrictive and separating those contexts. That
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two thousand and eight search turns up the bombs, that guns,
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the manifesto planning mass murder at a union hall, and
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crucially that document also mentions hiring assassins to kill Alyssa
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and dump her body in California. How can you just
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cut that context out when you're looking at the suspect's
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capacity for extreme secret violence and planning, or just his
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state of mind about Alyssa herself.
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Well, that evidence definitely shows he's a dangerous individual, absolutely
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capable of planning horrific violence. But legally speaking, establishing a
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capacity for violence isn't the same as proving causation in
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a specific murder case. My worry is that using the
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bombs and the manifesto as proof of murder, well, it
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risked convicting someone based on a disturbing psychological profile, not
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on actual evidence that he caused her death. The explosives
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charges were separate precisely because the state couldn't beyond a
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reasonable doubt connect his violent intentions towards others or his
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weapons stockpile to the specific act of causing Elisa's death.
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But Okay, you have this long history, documented history of
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emotional control, these bizarre contracts, and then you find this
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confession basically of a deeply violent inner world in that manifesto,
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a world that specifically mentions a plot against the victim.
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Surely in a nobody case, that pushes you over the
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threshold for substantial evidence of motive and intent. I mean,
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we've seen other places successfully prosecute nobody cases based on motive,
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financial gain, things like that. Why couldn't Arizona make that
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stick here? With all this evidence of volatile intent.
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I'm just not convinced because the state never produced forensic
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proof at a crime. Alyssa's murder even occurred. The corpus delecti,
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the body of the crime itself was missing. If we
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start letting circumstantial evidence of say, emotional control, or completely
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separate crimes like possessing bombs count as proof of murder,
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then we're essentially lowering the standard. We'd risk convicting people
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for being secretive or disturbing, not for actually provably committing homicide.
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The judge explicitly couldn't find evidence that the defendant caused
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or the defendant engaged in conduct that resulted in Alyssa's death.
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Disturb behavior, however, extreme just doesn't legally bridge that specific gap.
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But what about the fact that Alissa wanted to leave,
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She wasn't happy, She wrote an essay calculating the drive
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to California, asked her boyfriend to go with her. Doesn't
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her desire to escape actually strengthen the scenario where Michael Turney,
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this highly controlling person we've established he was, might have
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reacted violently to stop her. It puts him right there
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in the middle of a potentially explosive confrontation.
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Or it puts Alyssa in the context of someone highly
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motivated who might have just succeeded in walking away. Maybe
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she got help from someone else. Entirely, we just can't
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assume murder simply because a confrontation was possible. The evidence
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needs to be legally conclusive, not just morally compelling.
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Okay, let's shift to the
second point here, this tension
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between public pressure and due process, because we really can't
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ignore that the arrest the charge in twenty twenty it
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was hugely driven by the incredible work of Alyssa's sister,
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Sarah Turney, her podcast Voices for Justice, her social media
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campaign it was monumental, right, and that activism brought out
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key evidence like that secret recording where Michael promises Sarah
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all the honest answers on his deathbed.
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That's a really powerful point about advocacy, No doubt, Sarahtorney's
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dedication absolutely revitalized this case after it went cold for
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nearly two decades. But have you thought about the potential
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risks when a prosecution seems to be pushed forward mainly
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because of public outcry.
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The risk of what though that justice might actually be served?
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I mean, this campaign shows that sometimes the system needs
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that external push, especially for complex cold cases where the
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official investigation just stalled. The system failed Alissa for twenty years.
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Public pressure forced it to look again at behavior that
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was suspicious from day one.
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The risk I see is well prosecutorial overreach, action driven
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by popular demand maybe rather than absolute legal certainty. The
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fact that the state proceeded to trial without is the
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defense put it a shred of physical evidence. It does
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raise the question of whether it was initiated under intense
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public pressure, and the rule twenty acquittal kind of confirms that.
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Relying so heavily on emotional testimony, historical behavior patterns no
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matter how disturbing they are, simply didn't meet that high
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constitutional bar for conviction. The legal system has to be
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somewhat insulated from being swayed entirely by public opinion, even
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when that opinion is understandable.
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But that insulation, that shield. In this instance, it protects
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a man who showed this overwhelming capacity for secrecy and violence,
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a man who refused to
cooperate with the investigation from
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early on, and that non cooperation is directly linked to
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why finding physical evidence was so hard for the prosecution.
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Justice needs answers for Alyssa, for her family, and it
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feels like the system prioritizes a very rigid definition of
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evidence over actually getting those answers. Now Michael Tourney is
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free to sue the police to talk about clearing his name.
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I think I come at it from a slightly different
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philosophical place. The legal system it can't promise closure, It
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just can't. What it must promise is justice according to
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its established standards. The judge's finding that substantial evidence doesn't exist,
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it means that legally, we don't have a definitive answer
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about Michael Turney's guilt through the criminal courts, even Turney
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himself said after the acquittal, the only way his reputation
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recovers is if they find Elisa. That just highlights how
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the lack of resolution hurts everyone involved. The only thing
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that can truly solve this definitively is new physical evidence,
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not lowering the standard for conviction.
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So the alicsa attorney case really throws into sharp relief
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the challenge the profound difficulty of finding justice when an
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investigation maybe starts off on the wrong foot. The runaway
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theory and crucial physical evidence is just gone missing. But
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the sheer volume of circumstantial evidence around Michael Turney's control,
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his secrecy, that documented violent inner life, it remains incredibly persuasive.
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It leaves you weighing that powerful pattern against the very
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strict requirements of the courts.
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And the acquittal. It really underscores that necessary line the
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legal system has to draw between suspicion, even very strong suspicion,
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and guilt that's proven according to law. The facts are troubling,
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no question, the money left behind, the suspect not cooperating
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the manifesto. But the Rule twenty judgment reflects just how
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hard it is legally to prove someone cause the death
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without forensic evidence, this case really lays bare that ongoing
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conflict between maybe our moral certainty based on compelling circumstances,
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and the high legal bar set to prevent wrongful convictions.
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And the reality is without finding ALYSSA, these competing views
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of the evidence, these different interpretations, they're likely just going
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to continue. It leaves so much still unresolved and certainly
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open for more exploration, both legally and publicly.