Keep Your Enemies Closer

But for McKinney—now an audio-visual aide at UC Irvine—the most disturbing line in the Holmes report must have been this: "Mr. McKinney is still at risk."

In other words, Holmes believed prosecutors could re-file murder charges against McKinney based on the new incriminating information and the fact that two eyewitnesses still "positively identify" him as the killer.

Holmes' assertion must have been chilling to a 41-year-old man who has tasted freedom for barely a year and who believes innocent men are routinely sent to prison by callous prosecutors. The hastily arranged endorsement and photo op with the DA came just four days later.

McKinney told the Weekly's Wielenga that he knew it would "be hard for some people to understand" his endorsement of Rackauckas. He's right. There are those in the Wade camp, for example, who believe McKinney executed a textbook Machiavellian move that blocked a shortsighted Rackauckas from ever reopening the murder case based on Holmes' startling disclosures. After all, what politician would want to admit he might have freed a guilty murderer during the middle of a close election?

"Everyone has been applauding Rackauckas for orchestrating the McKinney endorsement," said one county prosecutor. "But it was DeWayne McKinney who used Rackauckas and proved he understood the old adage that you keep your friends close and your enemies closer."