Part 5 opens with another inner monologue, this time from a defense lawyer’s point of view, citing how the state’s case has unexpectedly begun to unravel after a “pounding.” The police’s narrative, the lawyer claims, is full of “holes,” raising the (once-unimagined) possibility that the client could be innocent.

Bryan Kohberger’s defense team comprises three lawyers, all paid by the state, led by Anne Taylor, the seasoned, “cerebral” head of the public defender’s office in Kootenai County. “Fear” animates their efforts to pick apart the state’s case, which is now a matter of life or death for their client: In June 2023, the prosecution announced that it felt “compelled” to seek the death penalty, owing to the horrific nature of the crimes. The prosecutors feel they have a rock-solid case, citing the 51 terabytes of “confirming data” they have amassed, including photographs, recordings, phone records, and social media data, all of which the defense team will have to laboriously pick through to prepare its own argument. The heart of the prosecution’s case centers on a few, devastating facts: the DNA found on the knife sheath, an exact match for Kohberger’s; surveillance video of the white Hyundai Elantra, identical to Kohberger’s, tearing away from the murder scene; and the cell tower data that places Kohberger in the vicinity of Moscow late that night.