Years of service as a lawyer and jurist have only strengthened Second Judicial Circuit Judge Layne Smith’s respect for hard evidence.

When he was a teenager, and he heard his parents doubt that a lone gunman assassinated President John F. Kennedy on that tragic November day in Dallas in 1963, Judge Smith’s inner skeptic began to stir. “It grabbed my attention and made me curious to learn more about what had happened,” he said. “I have since spent hundreds of hours reading the Warren Commission Report, other government documents, and scores of books and articles on the JFK assassination.”

Judge Smith has channeled his legal expertise, curiosity, and research, including analysis of the famous “Zapruder” film, into a self-published book, “Oswald on Trial: Making Sense of the Evidence.”