presieve a conviction, which is typical of many prosecutor's offices. no matter what evidence you give them to the contrary, they're going to do everything to protect that conviction. >> in february 2009 pretrial hearings began, presided over by judge joan synenberg. >> by the time the case landed in my courtroom, someone had been sitting on death row for over two decades. this is very serious. because of mistakes that were made, a process was flawed. all i wanted to do was make sure that the process was fair. >> but just days before the trial was to begin, prosecutors disclosed they had found additional evidence in their files. >> despite having a federal court order, in fact, there was physical evidence that had not been turned over to joe's trial council. not only in 1988, but in this particular proceeding itself. >> it was a circus. and i'm sitting out there watching it in total disbelief, total disbelief. >> the sudden release of new evidence would delay joe's retrial even more. so joe's attorneys petitioned the court for bail.