Stanford Law professor Robert Weisberg, who co-directs the university’s Criminal Justice Center, called the McAlister case “admittedly messy and mysterious,” but said it’s impossible to lay blame on any one person or agency — other than McAlister himself.

“If he were in jail, he wouldn’t have done this. Why wasn’t he in jail? Well, there were many contributors to this part of it. And indeed, from what I can tell, a lot of it has to do with some very poor communication among the police, the DA staff and the parole officers,” he said.

Sure, if Boudin hadn’t made a plea deal with McAlister, he might have still been in jail, Weisberg said, but also noted that McAlister’s offenses both before and after the plea deal didn’t involve harming people or driving drunk. Given the facts of the case at the time, the plea agreement was a reasonable option, he said.