False DNA evidence dominated the 2011 trial of Texas death row inmate Areli Escobar. In an unusual alignment of interests, Escobar and his prosecutors, backed by a state habeas court decision, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to swiftly overturn a state appellate court decision that the evidence did not justify a new trial.

“It is a rare case and a rare alignment of interests,” said Benjamin Wolff, director of the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs in Austin, Texas. Seldom is a Supreme Court petition filed by a death row inmate supported—not opposed—by a local prosecutor’s office, he said.