In Auburn, Harvey Updyke is the bad guy. However, he is also a legal conundrum.
He has confessed on multiple occasions, but never to the police. We've all heard him. If you live in Alabama, and care anything at all about college football, you know who he is and what he's allegedly done.
That's right, alleged.
Even though most of us have heard his infamous Finebaum confession, he's still innocent until proven guilty.
We want to take the high road on this one. We want to say leave it to the court and a jury of his peers to decide, but it looks more and more like that day will never come.
If this undisclosed illness, which is apparently going to kill Updyke before his sentence, is the real deal, then where does that leave us?
We are usually the first to say the influence of the court of public opinion is often the worst thing that can happen to a high profile case, but we don't usually have a recorded confession.
Of course, the Internet is buzzing with conspiracy theories.
One of our favorites depicts Updyke as a criminal mastermind who is using his confessions of wrongdoing as a shady tactic to guarantee a mistrial, which is just as funny as it is stupid.
Sorry bammers, Updyke just isn't that clever.
Another theory suggests that our own Andrew Yawn is making up the conversation he had with Updyke. This theory is especially popular with people who think The Plainsman is a cut-rate rag with no real journalistic skills. It was even hinted at by Updyke's attorney, Everett Wess.
Sorry again, but we take our jobs just as seriously as any other news outlet, if not more so. It's not our fault if a reporter for a larger media entity didn't think to interview the only suspect in one of the biggest cases in the history of the Auburn-Alabama rivalry.
Yawn did his job, and that's all there is to it. He's not a cunning spy with high tech surveillance equipment and a tendency toward malice. He's a journalist with a pad and a pen.
The important question here is whether or not Updyke will get a fair trial in Lee County.
We disagree, but we are a bit bias.
The truth is he might not get a fair trial anywhere in the state, which is divided not so much into counties, but regions of allegiance to Auburn or Alabama.
Unfortunately, we'll have to wait, and September seems a lot further away now. Let's hope Updyke's doctors back in Louisiana can keep him walking upright. Showing up to court in a hospital gown is slightly worse than jeans.
Also, anytime Elva Updyke wants to speak her mind to a police officer or the news media, we encourage her to do so. It will only help.
Stand by your man, Elva.
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