The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Let me just say this, first of all...which I believe you can't fully understand until you have been through the court system. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth does not necessarily get to be revealed in court. There are certain things that are "not admissible" that we believe add incredibly to a case...specifically, prior offenses.

The justice system wants to look at each and every incident that one has with the "law" as just that...one incident. As our prosecutor told us, "If you rob Bank A on Monday and Bank B on Tuesday, when you are tried in court for Bank B, they cannot bring up Bank A". I say, "crazy". I understand if they are not related...like writing bad checks and assault, fine, but if they are in the same line, I think the judge/jury should be aware. BUT, that's not how it works and ultimately, that's okay.

I am in no way saying that the truth was not presented. That is what we prayed for and we believe it was expressed as best it could. And we chose not to offer a plea bargain because we felt that the truth needed to be expressed. Win or lose. Reasonable doubt is a sticky thing and we knew that going in. Our attorney friend said, "Unfortunately in criminal law the standard is so high, the 'beyond reasonable doubt', it is so unfortunate".

We can only look back on this situation and say that we did EVERYTHING we could to make this right. No regrets. Our Trey is as awesome today as he was 1 week ago. Our God is the same today as he was before December 18, 2007.