After a jury convicted Richard Brown in 1997 for his role in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, Linda Peak says she lost faith in the judicial system.</p><p>Brown and four others were sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 crime, but Peak says today that Brown can&#8217;t be guilty, because she saw him standing in his front yard when he was supposed to be fleeing the scene.</p><p>&#8220;I was shocked that he was convicted,&#8221; said Peak, who testified in Brown&#8217;s defense.</p><p>An ongoing investigation by <em>The Kansas City Star</em> raises serious questions about the federal trial that convicted Brown and the others.</p><p>&#8226;All the defendants had alibis, and the three given polygraph tests passed.</p><p>&#8226;Witnesses have since recanted.</p><p>&#8226;Evidence helpful to the defendants was never used by defense attorneys.</p><p>To be sure, the government called some highly credible witnesses. And they added an air of believability to a case that otherwise would have depended in large part on what some call &#8220;snitch testimony.&#8221;</p><p>Even an appeals court judge found the evidence wanting. In 1998, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt agreed with the trial court judge that the evidence was weak.</p><p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Becker, who prosecuted the defendants and received a commendation from the Justice Department for his handling of the case, said that the trial did not answer all of his questions about the crime.</p><p>&#8220;We talked to hundreds of witnesses and there were over a hundred witnesses at trial. I am fairly certain, well, I am certain that this is what happened. But you always have questions,&#8221; Becker said recently.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">&#8216;Nobody asked me&#8217;</span></strong></p><p>Linda Peak had never met Richard Brown, but knew him by sight. She said she saw him standing &#8212; shirtless and shoeless &#8212; outside his family&#8217;s home just seconds after the pre-dawn explosions.</p><p>Peak later testified that she and her father went outside their home near 82nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue. She said Brown and his family were in their front yard and Brown yelled over asking, &#8220;What the hell just happened?&#8221;</p><p>Peak said she didn&#8217;t come forward with her story in order to help Brown or his family. &#8220;I did it because it was the truth. To this day, I know for a fact &#8230; that he is in jail for something he didn&#8217;t do,&#8221; she says.</p><p>Prosecutors tried to neutralize Peak&#8217;s testimony by pointing out that she didn&#8217;t see Brown until just after the second of two explosions. The implication was that the delay &#8212; about 40 minutes between the first and second blasts &#8212; could have given Brown time to get home from the crime scene. But Peak doesn&#8217;t buy it. For one thing, she said, she had been awake and looking out the windows since shortly after the first explosion. That&#8217;s when she said she saw Brown&#8217;s truck parked in the driveway &#8212; the same truck that other prosecution witnesses testified they saw in another location seconds after the first blast.</p><p>Asked why she didn&#8217;t offer that information at the trial, Peak said, &#8220;Nobody ever asked me.&#8221;</p><p>Peak&#8217;s father, Bill Goff, an Army veteran, backed her story.</p><p>The four other defendants also had alibis.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Questionable witnesses</span></strong></p><p>Of the 100 government witnesses who testified, 59 gave damaging testimony about the defendants.</p><p>There was no physical evidence tying the defendants to the crime, and in most cases, those witnesses could testify only that the defendants claimed responsibility for the crime.