“It’s all haste,” Soucie said. “For some reason they wanted to short-circuit the process. I think that’s unfortunate.”

Clarence Mock, an Oakland, Nebraska-based defense attorney and former prosecutor, had another term for it.

“It’s ironic,” Mock said. “Especially when you consider that Corrections got into this mess by ignoring not one but two Supreme Court rulings. Now we have another Supreme Court ruling that is crystal clear and we’re not following that? This whole thing has just been baffling.”

***

Back in prison for the fourth time, Alamilla says he can’t escape his memories of JR.

How he held JR’s son, Eli, as a baby. How he told JR: “Dude, he has your eyes. You don’t need a DNA test.” How JR had asked him to look after Eli’s mother if anything happened.

He fiddles with his inmate bracelet.

His new “dream sheet” — the term inmates use for the document with their projected release date — has him free on Feb. 13, 2024.