This story highlights one of the two reasons, we are against the death penalty. Of course, there are two reasons we are for the death penalty. And then there are two reasons we are not sure.

Broward detective says key evidence in murder was forgotten in his sock drawer

While two men sat in jail facing the death penalty, a detective kept evidence that could have cleared them at his home -- in a drawer with his athletic socks, he acknowledged on the witness stand Tuesday.

Broward Sheriff's Office Sgt. Thomas "Bill" Murray insisted repeatedly under questioning that he just forgot about an audiotape of two informants naming the real killers. As soon as he was asked for the tape, he turned it over to an agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he said.

"I completely forgot about it. I didn't do it intentionally," Murray said of his failure to turn over the tape for eight months.

He eventually did -- about four months after first-degree murder charges had been dropped against Stephen Rosati and Peter Roussonicolos.

Inexcusable.