I just learned of the Christmas Eve passing of legendary Montana prosecutor Brant Light, a longtime friend and once, a foe. A thread 1/9

In 2008, Keith Morrison and I became convinced that a convicted killer named Barry Beach was innocent. That his confession had been false.
But the state of Montana disagreed, and the prosecutor assigned to keep Beach locked up, was Brant Light. 2/9

Brant was head of The MTAG’s Prosecution Services Bureau. He wasn’t exactly happy with Dateline’s efforts to shine a light on the Beach case. Especially when all the publicity led to a new law giving the Governor the power to grant Barry clemency. Which @GovernorBullock did. 3/9

After all our work on the Beach case, I kept reaching out to the AG’s office about other cases in Montana. Never got a call back. Crickets. Finally, I picked up the phone and made an appointment to see Brant in Helena. 4/9

I was put in a conference room. When Brant walked in, I said “Okay. I get it, you’re mad at me. So I’m here to listen to all the problems you had with our work on the Beach case.” His eyes lit up. And for the next half hour, Brant pinned back my ears. He really let me have it 5/9

When the words stopped flying at me, I looked at Brant and asked “You feel better now?” He said “Y’know, I do. Yeah. I do.” I replied, “So can we work together now on some of these great cases you’ve got going?” Brant’s answer: “You bet.” 6/9

For the next 4 years, I traveled with @JoshMankiewicz and @dateline_keith to every far flung corner of Montana to work on cases with Brant. He was never afraid to put a case before a jury, no matter how old. He won many, he lost few, but he always fought for the victims. 7/9

Through much of this time, Brant fought lung cancer. He retired a couple years ago. We kept in touch. Last month he wrote: “I’m probably coming to the end - I get it. But I can’t see myself ever giving in  - my family means too much to me, plus I like proving people wrong!” 8/9

I’ll remember him this way. Always prepared & arguing for what he thought was right. Thanks for the memories, Brant. Grateful for the privilege to have known you, my friend. End #Dateline