Shane Phelps, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully but strong against Mr. Earle in 1996 and 2000, recalls watching with horror as the LaCresha Murray case unfolded.
"Just as he always does," said Mr. Phelps, now first assistant district attorney in Brazos County. "Ronnie called a press conference to talk about it.
"He pronounced her guilty before she ever had a trial," he said.
The fact that Miss Murray was the youngest person in Texas history to be tried for capital murder fueled one part of a public furor, but at trial more facts were elicited that made Mr. Earle's strong advocacy even more noticeable.
After the victim, a 2-year-old under the care of Miss Murray's grandparents, died of multiple injuries, authorities took the 11-year-old to a children's shelter where they proceeded to interview her to get a confession.
In replying to a federal lawsuit filed later against him, two of his assistants and several homicide cops, Mr. Earle claimed that the fact no lawyer or family member was present during the lengthy "confession" interrogation was not illegal because technically she was not a suspect and was not yet under arrest.
"Can you imagine a dark room filled with people firing questions at her? Could she possibly have known her rights?" said Frank P. Hernandez, a Dallas lawyer who is still pursuing legal remedy for Miss Murray, now 19.
"But Ronnie was in the midst of a re-election campaign and he needed the 'law and order' crowd."
Mr. Earle has said he was not completely aware of all aspects of the case before trial.
"But he was in charge," Mr. Phelps said. "He had to know and he was responsible."
Mr. Phelps points to what he considers an interesting development in that August 1996 trial. After Mr. Earle's prosecutors convicted the child and she was given 20 years for criminally negligent homicide, the trial judge, John Dietz, of his own volition, overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial.
That judge was a former Earle assistant district attorney and made his ruling in October, just a month before the Earle-Phelps election.
The Earle prosecutors tried again in early 1997 and convicted Miss Murray again, this time obtaining a 25-year sentence.
On April 21, 1999, three years later, Miss Murray was released from a juvenile facility. The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin said her confession could have been coerced and was definitely improper. The panel overturned the second verdict.
Sixteen months later, with no evidence other than the then-illicit "confession," Mr. Earle announced all criminal charges against the girl had been dismissed.
Mr. Hernandez reached back to remind Mr. Earle how he handled another accused young murderer, the son of a friend of his.
On May 13, 1978, about 17 months after Mr. Earle had taken office, John Christian, 13, took a pistol to class at an Austin junior high school and fatally shot his teacher in front of 30 students.
Mr. Earle told the press within hours that he would recommend five years in a state reform school "if the boy is found sane."
Within two weeks, two psychiatrists testified that the boy suffered with "latent schizophrenia" and was suicidal. Judge Hume Coker ordered the youth to a Dallas psychiatric hospital until he was 18.
The youth went on to graduate from Highland Park High School in Dallas, then the University of Texas and finally, UT Law School.
"Plaintiff contends," read the Hernandez suit, "that if defendant Ronnie Earle had treated plaintiff Murray in the same manner that he treated John Christian, she would not have been charged with capital murder and would not have suffered the damages she has suffered. The reason she was treated differently is because she is black, compared to John Christian, who is white."
