Five minutes. That was the length of a question Judge James Wynn posed during oral arguments in the appeal of wrongly convicted Ronnie Long, who spent 44 years in prison—for a rape he did not commit—and was seeking release after police suppression of evidence was shown.

Questions at oral argument are usually much shorter, but Wynn said he wanted to use his time during the 2020 en banc hearing to drive home a larger point about the justice system’s reluctance at times to look at new evidence.