When a known killer is caught, but innocent witnesses are still killed and perjured testimony is conjured up from nowhere, the entire justice system is on shaky ground.
An innocent woman hauled off for electric shock treatment, stolen children butchered by an ax murderer, a mom confronting the killer -- even in Eastwood's sober accounting, this makes for heavy-duty melodrama.
So does appreciation: He cited a recent letter of support from a family of an innocent bystander shot dead in 1986, thanking him for his "professionalism and heart" in his pursuit of the killer.