Recall the testimony of a child whose mother was taken to prison in America. This case could be reevaluated in 17 years.

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Young A.J. Hutto burst into tears as he told prosecutor Larry Basford how he watched his mother drown in a 1.20-metre swimming pool in the backyard of his parents’ home in Est. A crucial moment in the trial came when Lewis explained the stick figure drawings he had drawn for the courtroom. “This is my mother…killing my sister,” Lewis said, pointing to the thick line where his arm was pressing down on Adrianna’s face.

The scene in which the boy, wearing a white shirt, black vest, and thin pants, was being interrogated while holding back his cries, caused a huge uproar in the courtroom and in the public eye. Judge Allen Register found AJ to be a competent witness despite his age, and this testimony was the basis of the prosecution. Lewis was ultimately convicted of murder and aggravated child abuse.

Remember your testimony? During the trial, AJ said he saw everything while standing near a tree, and wrote “She did it” on a drawing shown to the jury. When asked in court what he meant by those words, he said it meant “she died,” referring to his sister. However, the report fluctuated during the interrogation, and it was this very discrepancy that was again called into question by the defendant’s lawyers.

Since his arrest, Lewis has always denied the charges. Adriana said that while her mother was taking a nap after returning from a night shift, she accidentally fell into the pool while trying to pick out a bug from the water. In subsequent statements to ABC News and others in 2010, she reaffirmed that her daughter was already unconscious. “When we got to the pool…she was face down…very purple, very blue,” she said, reporting that she started CPR before calling 911. The girl was taken to a hospital by helicopter, but her life could not be saved.

The story of the accident is supported by Lewis supporters, who claim the case was a miscarriage of justice. “This case didn’t start with a crime, it started with a tragedy,” said Amanda Lewis, an associate professor of sociology at Georgetown University and a lawyer for the mother (who has the same name but no relation), adding that distorted assumptions likely led to the conviction. She said the mother’s grief and her son’s trauma were used against both.

Now that he is an adult, AJ has broken his silence for 17 years. In an interview with the Daily Mail in April, the 24-year-old, now married and a firefighter, reaffirmed what he said in court: “I believe my mother is 100 percent guilty. I stand by every word I said in court.” After his conviction, the boy was adopted, his name changed, and he disappeared from public view, although he followed his mother’s attempts to overturn the sentence from afar.