diff --git a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/manifest.txt b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/manifest.txt
index d0342b1b..557772b6 100644
--- a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/manifest.txt
+++ b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/manifest.txt
@@ -446,8 +446,27 @@
 #              reconcile.sh (+ test-wake-preimage.sh P1-P17; P13-P17 are the
 #              #964 re-verdict regression needles: symlinked store, live
 #              secret value, polarity, ledger deletion, allowlist-symlink).
+#   0.7.1  #952 quarantine-audit clean-sweep message named only ONE of the
+#              two unprovable residual classes ("rows without surviving
+#              dead-letter evidence"), so an operator reading the OK concluded
+#              NO evidence exists when evidence can exist and be UNUSABLE: a
+#              surviving dead-letter row whose locator extracts an empty
+#              observed_hash (live specimen: mos-dt seq 13,
+#              bench/malformed-locator-test, "deliberately non-conformant")
+#              can never satisfy the four-field conviction match, because
+#              _record_last_consumed only writes rows with a NON-empty hash.
+#              WORDING-ONLY fix (measurement defect, #951 review finding 1):
+#              THREE surfaces — the clean-sweep message, the PROVABILITY
+#              BOUND comment, and (second commit, author-side self-catch)
+#              the usage() help text — now name both classes; the
+#              conviction predicate is UNCHANGED.
+#              Test T17 drives the real writer flow and plants the verbatim
+#              live specimen (nested .locators.*, NO observed_hash key) —
+#              never a hand-built flat dead-letter row, which would make the
+#              audit's correct non-conviction look exactly like the defect
+#              under hunt (the #951 review's false-defect near-miss).
 component=wake
-version=0.7.0
+version=0.7.1
 
 # Watch-list schema this component consumes, and the INCLUSIVE range of
 # schema_version values it supports. A wake-watch-list.json whose schema_version
diff --git a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/store.sh b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/store.sh
index 8ab104ce..c979e5a0 100755
--- a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/store.sh
+++ b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/store.sh
@@ -110,9 +110,13 @@ Commands:
                                          found); --repair removes exactly those
                                          rows (atomic, loud). The dead-letter
                                          ledger itself is NEVER modified (it is
-                                         history). Rows whose dead-letter evidence
-                                         was pruned are NOT provable and are
-                                         never touched.
+                                         history). TWO residual classes are
+                                         unprovable and never touched (#952):
+                                         rows whose dead-letter evidence was
+                                         pruned away, AND rows whose surviving
+                                         evidence extracts an empty
+                                         observed_hash (it can never satisfy
+                                         the four-field conviction match).
   cursors                                Print observed_seq / consumed_seq / depth.
 
 Environment:
@@ -563,10 +567,17 @@ cmd_quarantine_sync() {
 # it on (kind, id, observed_seq, observed_hash) AND row.observed_seq <=
 # consumed_seq: the per-key max_by merge means the surviving row's provenance IS
 # that quarantined entry (a healed row differs in seq/hash and never matches).
-# PROVABILITY BOUND: a row whose dead-letter evidence was pruned/rotated away is
-# NOT provable and is never touched — this audit only ever removes what the
-# ledger can convict. The dead-letter ledger itself is history and is NEVER
-# modified here.
+# PROVABILITY BOUND — TWO residual classes, both unprovable (#952): (1) a row
+# whose dead-letter evidence was pruned/rotated away — no evidence to convict
+# on; (2) a row whose dead-letter evidence SURVIVES but extracts an empty
+# observed_hash (e.g. a deliberately non-conformant locator: nested
+# .locators.* with no observed_hash key) — evidence exists but can never
+# satisfy the four-field match, because _record_last_consumed only ever writes
+# rows with a NON-empty hash. Neither class is touched — this audit only ever
+# removes what the ledger can convict, and the clean-sweep message names BOTH
+# classes: "no evidence" and "evidence unusable" are different operator
+# conclusions. The dead-letter ledger itself is history and is NEVER modified
+# here.
 cmd_quarantine_audit() {
   local repair=0
   while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
@@ -605,7 +616,7 @@ cmd_quarantine_audit() {
       )) | length) > 0)
   ' "$rec" 2>/dev/null || true)"
   if [ -z "$false_rows" ]; then
-    echo "store.sh quarantine-audit: OK — no provably-false consumed-hash rows (rows without surviving dead-letter evidence are not provable and were not judged)"
+    echo "store.sh quarantine-audit: OK — no provably-false consumed-hash rows. Two residual classes are unprovable and were NOT judged: rows whose dead-letter evidence was pruned/rotated away (no evidence to convict on), and rows whose surviving dead-letter evidence extracts an empty observed_hash (evidence exists but can never satisfy the four-field conviction match)."
     return 0
   fi
   local n row
diff --git a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/test-wake-store-ack.sh b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/test-wake-store-ack.sh
index ba172035..f925fb2c 100755
--- a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/test-wake-store-ack.sh
+++ b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/wake/test-wake-store-ack.sh
@@ -28,6 +28,15 @@
 #   T16 #946 quarantine-audit: consumed-hashes rows provably false against the
 #      dead-letter ledger are reported (exit 1) and removed only under --repair;
 #      healed rows and the ledger itself are untouched
+#   T17 #952 quarantine-audit clean sweep names BOTH unprovable residual
+#      classes: evidence pruned (no evidence) AND evidence surviving with an
+#      empty observed_hash (evidence unusable). Fixture is the VERBATIM live
+#      specimen (mos-dt lane dead-letter seq 13, bench/malformed-locator-test)
+#      — a nested .locators.* row with NO observed_hash key. Do NOT hand-build
+#      a FLAT dead-letter fixture here: consumed-hashes rows are genuinely
+#      flat, dead-letter rows are genuinely nested, and a flat fixture makes
+#      the audit's CORRECT non-conviction look exactly like the defect under
+#      hunt (this false-defect near-miss actually happened in the #951 review)
 #
 # Isolated: every test runs against a fresh WAKE_STATE_HOME temp dir.
 set -uo pipefail
@@ -680,6 +689,50 @@ echo "== T16: #946 — quarantine-audit: a consumed-hash row matching a dead-let
   grep -qi 'OK' "$TMP_ROOT/t16.ok" || fail_msg "T16: a clean audit must say OK [$(cat "$TMP_ROOT/t16.ok")]"
 ) && ok
 
+echo "== T17: #952 — the clean-sweep message names BOTH unprovable residual classes; a surviving-but-empty-hash dead-letter row is correctly NOT convicted =="
+(
+  WAKE_STATE_HOME="$(fresh_state t17)"
+  export WAKE_STATE_HOME
+  unset WAKE_AGENT
+  STATE_DIR="$WAKE_STATE_HOME/default"
+  rec="$STATE_DIR/consumed-hashes.jsonl"
+  dl="$STATE_DIR/dead-letter.jsonl"
+  # Drive the REAL flow so the consumed-hashes row is produced by the actual
+  # writer (_record_last_consumed), not hand-built: 12 fillers, then the bench
+  # key lands at observed_seq 13 — the same seq as the live specimen below.
+  i=1
+  while [ "$i" -le 12 ]; do
+    "$STORE" enqueue --class actionable --locators "{\"kind\":\"filler\",\"id\":\"f$i\",\"observed_hash\":\"HF$i\"}" >/dev/null || fail_msg "T17: filler enqueue $i failed"
+    i=$((i + 1))
+  done
+  "$STORE" enqueue --class actionable --locators '{"kind":"bench","id":"malformed-locator-test","observed_hash":"H-REAL-CONSUMED"}' >/dev/null
+  "$STORE" consume --upto 13 >/dev/null 2>&1 || fail_msg "T17: baseline consume failed"
+  jq_any "$rec" '.kind=="bench" and .id=="malformed-locator-test" and .observed_seq==13 and .observed_hash=="H-REAL-CONSUMED"' ||
+    fail_msg "T17: fixture broken — the real writer did not record the bench@13 row"
+  # VERBATIM live specimen: mos-dt lane dead-letter.jsonl line 1 (2026-07-26).
+  # Copied byte-for-byte per the #952 fixture constraint — nested .locators.*
+  # with NO observed_hash key, so the audit's extraction yields "".
+  printf '%s\n' '{"observed_seq":13,"locators":{"kind":"bench","id":"malformed-locator-test","note":"deliberately non-conformant"},"class":"actionable","emit_ts":1785055610,"hmac":""}' >"$dl"
+  # Guard the near-miss trap: the specimen must be genuinely NESTED (no
+  # top-level kind) and must extract an EMPTY hash via the audit's own paths.
+  jq -e '(has("kind") | not) and .locators.kind=="bench" and ((.locators.observed_hash // "") == "")' "$dl" >/dev/null ||
+    fail_msg "T17: specimen fixture is not the genuine nested shape — rebuild it from the live lane, not the schema"
+  # Evidence SURVIVES (kind/id/seq all match the row) but extracts hash "";
+  # _record_last_consumed never writes an empty-hash row, so the four-field
+  # match can never fire: this is unprovable class 2, NOT a false witness.
+  rep="$TMP_ROOT/t17.rep"
+  "$STORE" quarantine-audit >"$rep" 2>&1 || fail_msg "T17: the audit must exit 0 — nothing here is provable [$(cat "$rep")]"
+  grep -q 'FALSE WITNESS' "$rep" && fail_msg "T17: the empty-hash evidence must NOT convict (the predicate is correct and must not change) [$(cat "$rep")]"
+  # The wording under test (#952): BOTH residual classes, named.
+  grep -qi 'pruned' "$rep" || fail_msg "T17: clean sweep must name residual class 1 — evidence pruned away [$(cat "$rep")]"
+  grep -qi 'empty observed_hash' "$rep" || fail_msg "T17: clean sweep must name residual class 2 — surviving evidence with an empty observed_hash [$(cat "$rep")]"
+  # --repair on a clean sweep removes nothing: the unprovable row survives.
+  "$STORE" quarantine-audit --repair >"$TMP_ROOT/t17.fix" 2>&1 || fail_msg "T17: --repair on a clean sweep must exit 0 [$(cat "$TMP_ROOT/t17.fix")]"
+  jq_any "$rec" '.kind=="bench" and .observed_seq==13 and .observed_hash=="H-REAL-CONSUMED"' ||
+    fail_msg "T17: --repair must NOT remove the unprovable bench@13 row — the audit only removes what the ledger can convict"
+  [ "$(grep -c . "$dl")" = "1" ] || fail_msg "T17: the dead-letter LEDGER must be untouched"
+) && ok
+
 echo
 if [ -s "$FAILFILE" ]; then
   echo "wake store/ack harness: FAILED ($(grep -c . "$FAILFILE") assertion(s))" >&2