text: Good point.
  
  Defense witnesses are chosen by defendants' attorneys for their ability to "sell" alternative theories of the charges. They may not be accurate at all, but if the prosecution isn't prepared to counter their presentations, jurors might easily be misled.
  
  I don't know if this was the case in this trial, but if the prosecution relied entirely on the expertise of state investigators, who may have done a competent job, as seems from trial coverage, rather than looking at the histories of those experts on the defense list, and challenging prior insufficiencies, this was a very expensive mistake.
  
  I've seen one former public defender, Nelson Traverso of Fairbanks, get an honest judgment in a false confession case via a stellar witness. Even he couldn't save the guilty "Shaffer" Cox, however.
  
  Prosecutors also may rely on faked forensic testimony. Check this case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Krone It cost Ray 11 years, and Phoenix/Maricopa county and Arizona over $5 million.