3:55 p.m.

Prosecutor Ric Ridgway has all the evidence laid out within five feet of him.

He stabs the air, showing jurors Jessie’s life and her death.

He shows them a picture of Jessie’s bed. He shows them a picture of Jessie.

He points to the bed where she was raped, then to the wall of the closet where she was kept.

“Jessica Lunsford was alone. She was in pain. She was in darkness. She was certainly terrified,” he tells jurors.

“Her father couldn’t save her.

“Sheriffs in adjoining counties ... couldn’t rescue her.

“The laws of the State of Florida couldn’t protect her,” Ridgway says.

He then makes the final argument for John Couey’s death.

“If this is not the case that does not call for the death penalty,” Ridgway asks, what case does?

If Couey isn’t a man who deserves death, who does, the prosecutor asks.

If jurors don’t vote for death for Couey, he wonders, “When will you?”

“This is the case.

“This is the man who deserves it, “ Ridgway says. His voice is breaking.

It is all the more poignant becasue he’s one of those grizzled men who you don’t expect to cry. You don’t expect him to get choked up.

And surely, as he sits down, he wipes his nose. He sniffles.