ALTAMONT, Tenn. – Adam Braseel steps before a judge Wednesday for what might be his last chance to argue he's serving life for another man's crime.

The last time Braseel stood in front of a judge, he walked out of jail free — until an appeals court ordered him back to prison. Now that same judge will hear Braseel's argument that newly discovered evidence proves a cop killer, now dead, who looked almost exactly like him killed Malcolm Burrows on a rural roadside in southeast Tennessee 13 years ago.

Braseel was 24 when a Grundy County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for an automatic life sentence. Two eyewitnesses identified him at trial as the man who lured Burrows to his death.

Braseel turned 36 this spring, 12 years into that sentence and 44 years away from his first chance at parole.

"I don't want to say this is our last chance, but it's a chance," said his lawyer, Alex Little. "I think we're right on the law, we're right on the facts and we have a strong case."

No jury this time

The hearing won't include any jury. Circuit Court Judge Justin Angel will be the one to decide whether Braseel deserves a new trial.

Today will be the second time the judge has heard the case. He threw out Braseel's conviction after a hearing in 2015 and ordered a new trial, but the state Court of Criminal Appeals overruled that decision.

Wednesday's hearing could include testimony from Mike Brown, the former officer who found Burrows' body but never testified at Braseel's trial, along with forensic experts who'll testify the only identifiable fingerprints found at the murder scene match not Braseel, but Kermit Eugene Bryson, a felon who would have been on parole at the time.

Braseel and Bryson each had red hair and about the same height, weight and build. Bryson killed himself in a standoff with police after he shot a Grundy County deputy in 2008.

The jury that convicted Braseel never heard Bryson's name at trial.

Arguments and evidence

Grundy County has split over the case. One juror said she regrets the guilty verdict. The current sheriff, Clint Shrum, broke with prosecutors earlier this year and called for a new trial. Prosecutors have argued the fingerprints prove nothing.

Steve Strain, the assistant 12th Judicial District attorney general who prosecuted Braseel at trial, has already moved to cut the hearing short and wants the prints dismissed as too little, too late.

"There is no way to know when the fingerprint was placed there," Strain wrote in a motion.

The main witness in the case — Burrows' sister, Becky Hill — died in 2011. She testified at trial she recognized Braseel as the short, skinny red-headed man who came to her brother's door on Melissa Rock Road in Tracy City the night of Jan. 7, 2006, and asked Burrows for help with a stalled car.

Burrows never came back. The red-headed man returned soon after and attacked Hill — maybe with a broken baseball bat found later — in an apparent attempt to finish off the only witness. Hill's son chased him away.

Brown, then a Grundy County deputy, discovered Burrows' body by the roadside hours afterward. He'd been beaten to death.

Faces and forensics

Burrows, a convicted drug dealer who dabbled in local politics, had plenty of enemies, but investigators settled their suspicions on Braseel based on what Brown now says was an unfounded tip. Hill, who suffered severe head injuries in the beating, and her son picked Braseel out of a photo lineup that's drawn near-universal criticism.

Almost no one in the lineup, apparently pasted together out of random mugshots, looks like Hill's description of her attacker except Braseel. Some are middle-aged, overweight or have beards. Brent Myers, then the sheriff, and his chief deputy didn't record either of the identifications by audio or video and kept only brief notes of witness interviews.

"It was some of the worst police work I've ever read about," the current sheriff said.

Braseel swore he was with friends at the time of the killing. Bryson wasn't questioned or included in any lineup.

Investigators found no forensic trace of Braseel at the murder scene — no fingerprints, no DNA, no hair or clothing fibers. Tests in 2017 revealed a print from Bryson's right index finger on the passenger door handle of Burrows' car, found abandoned at the murder scene. Prosecutors revealed those tests to the defense late last year.

No matter how the judge rules, attorneys for the losing side could appeal the decision.