Alvin Maleth

Greg's palate, I should note, is something of a running joke on the defense team.

I myself have gotten pretty stressed out watching him order at restaurants, asking the server to substitute or remove anything that sounds spicy or honestly, like, flavorful at all.

He's saving the real treat, a pint of Ben & Jerry's, for when this is all over.

Ice cream, he figures, will be helpful no matter how this turns out.

One of the more challenging aspects of making this podcast has been getting the prosecution side of David Wood's case.

We've been trying to get someone from the state of Texas to talk to us for months.

We asked the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton for an interview multiple times.

No response.

We even knocked on the doors of the two original trial prosecutors in El Paso and sent them letters.

We never heard back.

But on Tuesday morning, shortly after the Fifth Circuit ruling sends the lawyers into a frenzy, the state of Texas finally issues its own giant brief in the case.

Two days before the execution is scheduled, the attorney general's office officially responds to each of the defense team's claims.

Because the prosecutors wouldn't talk to us, this is our first real window into how they see all the new evidence.

It's 63 pages, and I would characterize it all as the written equivalent of an eye roll.

Like this again?

The prosecution writes, "'None of Wood's evidence is actually new, nor is it exculpatory.'"

Take the DNA.

One of the biggest pieces of evidence that Greg wrote about was a blood spot on a piece of victim's clothing that belonged to a male contributor who's not David Wood.

This is the reason Greg still wants to get a bunch of the other evidence in the case tested, too.

But the prosecution writes, quote, the presence of that DNA means nothing more than another man came into contact with that clothing.