This is a story of an unjust system where everything seems to be against you, and it does a very good job evoking a sense of helplessness. Every character you meet, with the exception of Billy and Dot's doppelganger, either directly states or indirectly implies that they want you dead. The case against you is very weak, but that doesn't stop you from having to fight with all your might to prove your innocence. And even when you do, it's not like Dot gets to go back to their ordinary life. They're forced to repent by hunting down other assumed witches. Of course, Dot doesn't take that lying down, and opts instead to stand up for people wrongfully accused like them by becoming The Doting Witch. I like this ending for Dot, and it feels very in-character for them, especially after they got more and more rebellious during the trial itself. As seems to be a pattern, the protagonist is easily the strongest part of GD's case once again.
I always appreciate Dot in particular getting more love since they were my first attempt on AAO to write a protagonist with a lot more narration. I've since done this a bit more often, but it was still something I was really nervous about at the time.
The other characters work well. The judge and prosecutor are awful people in a way that makes sense for people in their positions in society, and the farmer is very much your standard cranky old guy. None of them are explored particularly deeply, but it doesn't feel like they had to be for the point of the story. The cleaner/merchant is much more nuanced, having killed Dot's doppelganger and trying to convince herself that it was justified. I don't think she was completely at fault, as she mainly did it because of a society that convinced her that all witches are evil, but I also think the story condemning her was a good choice overall. Billy was there, and he was OK. The story would've functioned fine without him, but it was nice to have someone actually on Dot's side.
I stare at this for ages, crying myself to sleep. "Billy, your favorite character to write in this, is mid" CodingAnt tells me. I weep openly, never recovering, drowning in a sea of my own tears.
I have a few criticisms, and a few nitpicks in a couple areas. A couple things that were purposeful design choices but I still don't really vibe with: the logic is really, really easy, and the presentation lacks pretty much all shakes, flashes, and sound effects. I do appreciate an easy case every now and then, but I didn't feel like I had to think much at all... And without those presentation flourishes the case felt kinda bland. Feel free to ignore these, though, they're just personal preference. My real critique is that many of your points feel overdone. Characters will repeat themselves often, and Dot's internal monologue gets in the way of the case standing on its own. Often, the prosecutor or the judge will say something obviously messed up and Dot will go "(Wow, none of that is true, you're an awful person.)" But you already made that perfectly clear! There's no need to tell me something you've already shown. There's a case to be made that this is just establishing Dot's thoughts on the matter, but then... Why do they feel the need to do it over and over again and again? Just once works fine. I swear, another "(I'll bite my tongue.)" and I might go insane.
This is something I've thought over a lot and realized that while I understand where you're coming from, it's not really something I agree with. This will sound completely contrarian, but I've actually been thinking recently that I could have gone harder on this aspect. I actually consider it a little undercooked rather than overdone. I will continue to write "I'll bite my tongue" a million more times. I think this comes down to the fact that I often feel like I wish there was more narration in a lot of AAO cases, I like delving into a character's thoughts. Also, perhaps speaking a bit too personally from the heart here, but Dot's mindset and repeated thoughts sort of mirror many experiences I've had, so hearing them called "repetitive" rubs me the wrong way. I realize this is a critique of a fictional character and not my real life self though. But yeah, this is just a critique I've thought a lot over since you posted it and tried to figure out how to say I don't agree with it without sounding like I was being purposefully contrarian.
There's a couple mysteries I expected to get solved but didn't. Dot's past is never elaborated upon, for one. It seems to just be used as a part of the case against them. But if you weren't going to explain it anyway, I think it would've been stronger if Dot was an established resident of San Ignacio since birth, and it was just their "tomboyishness" that made people suspicious of them. Additionally, nothing related to Dot's doppelganger is explained. I think the implication is supposed to be that he's a witch, but... well, they didn't seem to know why the two of them looked the same either. I don't know if there was ever a plan to explain any of this, but as it stands the case feels incomplete without it.
As I mentioned on Discord before, I never planned on elaborating on Dot's past at all. I also can't imagine myself writing this story while having Dot be a resident of San Ignacio since birth. Much of their character is meant to be based on the prejudice and suspicion that happens between several countries that you think would be allies, or that get grouped together by outsiders. I was thinking about this while I was visiting my family's home country of El Salvador, where I often heard a lot of jabs made at neighboring countries and their people along with stereotypes associated with them. To me, Dot's origin needed to be kept completely a secret: to show that it doesn't really matter, and focusing on the circumstances of their birth would have been counter-productive to me. I do understand where you're coming from, but I hope this explanation helps with realizing what my intent here was and why I stand by this choice.
Overall, though, this case is quite well done. It gets its point across without much fluff, and introduces a world I got surprisingly invested in at times. I'm a little guilty of viewing it more as a footnote to the majesty that is MMLW, but it still stands alone as a great case. I would highly recommend.
I have this friend who's really into the King's Field series of videogames, which is a series of games that predates the Souls series by the same company. They often express frustration that the King's Field games are often viewed as a sort of prototype of the Dark Souls games and seen as basically a less fully realized version of them, because they actually don't like the Souls games that much but love King's Field. The myth of this linear progression of quality, of this "prototype" being obsoleted by newer and more well-known works, really bothers them a lot since there's a lot about the King's Field games that they don't find in Souls, even if they respect it.
I think about this a lot whenever I think about the idea of one work being seen as a footnote or a precursor to another in terms of quality. I can't control how other people view my works, but I will say that it's a bit disappointing to have any of my works be treated like a footnote to one that comes later, especially since I know a lot of people enjoy MM more than they enjoyed MMLW (and I personally consider MM the stronger work after some distance from both). I can't speak for every author, but I will say that this sort of comment can have a very different intended effect than you probably meant.