Excellent plot, not fully exploited

Re: "I was hoping to see more of a courtroom drama with Mitch trying his best to botch up the prosecution and succeed only to discover later that thte suspect had indeed been the murderer."

Kray, I think that's what happened ... or do you mean it wasn't drawn out enough?

I think though that, as you say, a lot of the raw material was there. I loved the idea that because the district attorney had made a poor choice, he would have to suffer through anxiety, deception and finally getting on the wrong side of the law and having to save himself up to the point at which he was about to lose everything he had sought to protect anyway.

I would love to see what Hitchcock would have done with this ... especially if the script were rewritten by John Grisham. I think the movie cries out for a rewrite and if anyone can come up with something even more sensible but suspenseful, they should.

I will say I didn't really like the parolee angle; I think I would have liked SJ going after more sinister criminals. I also didn't quite get his wanting to kill Mitch's family. I know it represented what he had gone through, but it seemed then that he was really crazy and retribution was just an excuse for offing people. I know the parolee angle worked well gaining sympathy for the brother, but, still, I just wondered if things couldn't have worked better together. One movie I felt worked well with its different parts all the way through is Premonition, although it is also very depressing.