A Superior Court judge’s comment and prosecutors’ handling of potentially exculpatory evidence added up to an unfair trial for Kathy McGuiness, the former Delaware auditor’s attorney argued before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The constitutionality of the 2022 trial collapsed, said Steve Wood of McCarter & English, when he was cross examining the state’s chief investigator, who admitted to making false statements to a witness as an investigatory technique. Wood said Superior Court Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. neutralized his primary argument by telling the jury the state’s investigation was trustworthy, a comment on the investigator’s credibility that was so key to McGuiness’ defense that it couldn’t be overlooked.