Original subtitles

I just hope we haven't pushed this too fast. The fresher your testimony, the

better. I don't want you up there with just a cold memory.

The more you still feel it, the more they will. I will never not feel that

moment, Bobby.

Lindsay will open.

They'll probably put on the detective, the coroner, somebody from forensics,

that could be it. You could be taking the stand by Thursday.

Whether we put you on depends on how he does.

I want to rest on our best note.

You ready?

Mm -hmm.

Are you?

We're ready.

Helen.

How we doing?

Well, nothing in his house connecting him to the crime. That's the good news.

What's the bath?

Oh, well, your buddy George has a little home video library, Eleanor.

None of them directed by Ron Howard.

Don't tell me.

Some weird stuff.

What, you saw it? No, some of the detectives. It doesn't really mean

Ellen, you've got to know the guy was framed. Come on.

If you're going to kill somebody, you don't then walk around with the head.

It's not my case.

You know, I didn't hear an undertone of this will probably go away.

Right now, there are no other suspects. They think they've got the right guy.

What the hell is going on? I'm being railroaded. Look, let's just focus on

good news. They found nothing at your house. You said that after they

investigated, I'd probably be set free.

You said that if they didn't find anything else, they would release me. I

said... Well, they didn't find anything else, and now you're here telling me the

district attorney's office thinks I did it. Don't yell at me, George. I will

yell, Eleanor. What the hell is going on? You have to... This is insane!

All right, George.

Let me tell you how this is going to work.

You don't shout at me, ever.

Aside from the fact that I don't like it, we don't need some guard here taking

the stand saying he heard you banging tables and screaming like a man who

decapitate somebody.

Now, the police are nuts to hold you.

They haven't found one piece of evidence connecting anybody else to this crime.

You had the victim's head.

Now, add to that your porno collection. That makes you seem a little strange.

And add to that the fact you don't have an alibi. I was home.

Yes! And that's the only thing I have to tell to a jury.

That while Susan Robin was being murdered, you were home alone watching

private discovery channel.

Let's just get over the idea that they're going to free you any second

It isn't going to happen.

We're in this for the long haul, George.

This just can't be happening to me.

Let me begin by saying thank you for your service.

Criminal cases aren't fun, especially when they involve the taking of human

life. And homicide trials tend to be long.

You will be relieved to learn, however, that here it will be short. It is

uncontroverted, which means that you can accept it as fact right now.

The defendant shot an unarmed man at point blank five times, killing him.

Now, defense counsel, I suspect, might try to put the victim on trial here.

you he was a bad guy.

Perhaps he was.

But he's not on trial.

He is.

The victim didn't have a gun. He did.

The victim didn't kill anybody.

He did.

Now, it's possible the defense might endeavor to convince you their client's

good man.

Perhaps he is.

Though in my experience, good men don't execute people.

All I will ask, do not let yourselves be drawn into good guy, bad guy arguments.

This isn't about who he is or what he is. This is about what he did.

What he did was to shoot a man three times in the chest

and then twice in the head.

What he did was commit a horrific murder.

The evidence will show the victim, Raymond Breyer, terrorized my client and

client's family.

His wife, Meredith, sitting there. There are two children who visit almost every

weekend. The evidence will show that after being stalked, threatened with

violence, vandalized, Professor Pearson purchased a gun to protect his family.

The evidence will show that Professor Pearson picked up that gun, in fact, to

protect himself when Mr. Breyer showed up at his doorstep in a paranoid,

schizophrenic state to protect himself from a deranged person with a past

history of violence.

When you listen to all of the evidence carefully, you will see that Mr. Breyer

posed a life threat.

To Mr. Pearson and his family.

I'm not surprised the prosecution wants you to take the question of who's the

good guy out of the equation.

Because the evidence will show Anderson Pearson to be...

I suppose I should admit a bias.

He was my law professor.

And I, like many of my classmates, walked out of law school aspiring to

be him.

The thing about law school, we all go in dreaming of someday arguing the big

case. And the biggest case is, it's usually a murder trial, where your

not only innocent, but heroic even.

And he's somebody you care deeply about.

Somebody you desperately want to save.

This is my big case.

Eugene, they're not even looking for anybody else. They usually don't,

when they think they got the guy.

To them, this case is solved, which means we got to investigate. And we

making two lists.

One, who would want to frame George Vogelman? Two, who would want Susan

dead? It's possible George just represented somebody's chance to get

murder. And this whole thing is more about that.

Just got a little inside tip from Lindsay.

Helen told her, George and the victim did not leave the bar together.

Did he make any statement to the effect that he thought the victim was armed?

No, he didn't. And, Detective, was there any evidence of a struggle?

No, sir. Any evidence that suggested that the victim could have been moving

toward the defendant?

No. We concluded the victim was standing flat -footed about 40 inches away from

the defendant at the time of the shooting. How could you tell that? The

burns on the victim, footprints, the defendant's statement.

He said so himself.

In fact, Mr. Pearson was very forthcoming, wasn't he?

Yes. And it was Mr. Pearson's wife they called the police.

That's correct. Did the Pearsons ever ask the police to do something to

them from Mr. Breyer? They did. And how did you respond?

We advised them to seek a restraining order. And to your knowledge, they got a

restraining order, didn't they? Yes, they did. And yet, here was Mr. Breyer

again coming to their house.

That seems to be the case. And this Mr. Breyer, he had a police record, correct?

That's correct. Three assault convictions, one battery with a tire

Did you also have knowledge that he was a paranoid schizophrenic? I have

knowledge of it today. Yes, I do. If he were harassing you, detective, and he

rang your doorbell one night, would you answer the door without your gun?

Probably not.

Thank you.

Would you shoot him five times?

No, I wouldn't.

The witness may step down.

Mr. Pollock?

The Commonwealth rests, Your Honor.

Maybe it's good. It's not good.

You don't just put up one witness in a murder trial.

So what are they up to? My bet is they're saving their case for rebuttal,

to get you in a lie.

But he's admitted everything. What's to impeach?

Is there anything?

No. Well, if you make a single mistake, a fact up there, they'll put up the

coroner or whoever to paint it as a lie.

That's what this is about.

Smart. Except if we don't put him on, those experts can't testify at all now.

They satisfied their burden. He has to go up.

Go over the autopsy reports with him. I got to get a hold of Dr.

Matthews and our weapons guy. They could be taking the standby tomorrow.

I'll see you after lunch.

This isn't that perverted.

Oh, I mean, at least it's film.

Some of this stuff on videotape. That last scene had some sadomasochism going

on. You have to suppress this, Eleanor.

Well, you can get this late night on Showtime. I mean, what's the... Oh, not

that you can't. If this gets admitted to evidence, George is going to look like

a sicko. Let's mark up a motion to suppress.

Jimmy, I could use that research you did on Davis. All right, I can pull it

right up. You know, I think two women together can be sensual.

Well, great. We'll call you up as a character witness.

He would call.

He would drive by the house.

He was terrifying us. You said he would call.

Did you talk to him?

Well, at first we answered, but then we knew better than to pick up.

So he began leaving messages.

What kind of messages?

Most of them are along the lines of, you think you're better than I am because

you're rich, but money can't buy your health, you know.

He'd say that all the time. And when you got the restraining order?

Well, it stopped for a few weeks, then.

Well, one morning I went out and I saw the garage had been broken into. My car

had been scraped. A window had been smashed.

Mr. Breyer did it.

Well, we can only assume.

A few days later, we were watching television at night.

I got up to go to the kitchen.

And there he was at the window.

So what did you do?

I called the police.

They said they'd arrest him. Did they? No.

The next night, I had just gotten home.

It was barely dark.

And suddenly, Meredith yelled, he's back.

I looked out, and there he was, coming up the walkway.

So what did you do?

I went and got my gun.

You keep a gun.

Well, I bought it because of this man.

And when you went to get your gun, was it your intent to use it? My intent was

to let him know I was armed and I would use it to protect myself or my family.

So what happened?

I opened the door and he... He held up my cat.

It was dead.

It looked as if it had been strangled.

And then what happened?

He dropped it at my feet.

He said, something seems to be wrong with your cat.

The next thing I remember, I was raising my gun, pointing it at him. I

threatened him.

I told him if he ever tried to hurt us. And how did he respond?

He mocked me.

How could he hurt us? He was just a mouse.

And then he said, maybe it was a mouse that got your cat.

And I could see it.

In his eyes. See what?

He was going to hurt us.

Then what?

The next thing I remember, the gun was going off and he was falling backwards.

Meredith was screaming and he was lying there.

Bleeding.

You shot him?

Yes.

Professor Pearson, did you willfully?

shoot this man?

I don't know.

You don't know?

Well, I felt myself getting angry, and I looked at the cat, and my hand,

it just clenched, and I was squeezing the gun, and bullets were coming out.

It was not something I decided to do.

It just, it just happened.

Give me one reason I should speak to you.

The reason is I don't think George Volkman killed your daughter.

You're being paid to think that. I get paid to represent him.

What I think isn't up for sale.

The police seem pretty sure.

Given the circumstances, it's pretty easy to be convinced that Mr. Volkman is

involved.

I'm here making room for the possibility that the real killer is still out

there.

That's why I've come to talk.

The people I've spoken with, they say that it's not normal behavior for Susan

go to some bar alone.

It isn't. Well, could she have been upset about something?

Mr. Volkman said that when he first started speaking with her, she seemed

Is it possible that she could have gone to the bar to drown out some kind of

sorrow? I don't know.

What about her boyfriend?

Were things good between them?

I think so. I... I know she loved him.

Which is another reason she wouldn't be going to some motel with a guy she met

in a bar.

Well, could they have had a fight? I mean, was she depressed about that,

to a bar? She was depressed. I doubt it was about her boyfriend, Mr. Young.

I was just diagnosed with liver cancer.

I don't have much time.

But I still don't think she would deal with that by going to a bar.

That's wrong. We did leave together. Well, they've got witnesses saying you

didn't. We didn't walk out the door together.

I went first because my car was parked a ways off. I went to get it. I drove

back to pick her up. Did anybody see her get in the car with you? I don't know.

What, they think I abducted her now?

Why did you go to a motel, George? You've got your place. She has hers. Why

motel? It seemed more romantic.

I don't know. My place was a mess.

Too many videotapes strewn about. You know what, Eleanor? I'm just asking the

questions they'll be asking. Do you have any questions to my innocence?

Get up and walk away.

I'll find somebody else.

She had her head cut off, for God's sakes.

I have a motion scheduled to suppress the videotapes.

We don't want them coming into evidence.

I have no doubt.

The prosecution will try to use them.

Is there anything else you need?

Anybody I can call for you?

No.

You say that your hand just squeezed and bullets started coming out. Yes. Did

you squeeze just once or did you squeeze five times?

I don't remember.

You don't remember.

I was probably in shock, Mr. Bullock, and raged. The man had killed my cat.

I was thinking probably he'd kill me, maybe my wife. Did you think he was

to kill you or your wife when you pulled the trigger?

Well, no, not at that second, but... So you do have some memory of what you were

thinking. And you did pull the trigger. I didn't consciously pull it. It just

went off. Five times?

Yes. See, this is what I have a problem with.

The squeeze and release, the squeeze and release, the squeeze and release, the

squeeze and release, the squeeze and release, which I am told is the only way

this weapon could possibly have gone off five times.

Now, I have here the gun, though it's not loaded.

Could you take this, please?

Objection!

He's already described what happened. I'd like him to demonstrate.

I'll allow it. Come on, you've got to be kidding me. I'll allow it.

Sit down, both of you.

Could you stand up, Mr. Pearson, and step out?

I would like you to show us exactly how you were holding this gun when it went

off five times.

Could you squeeze, please? It's not loaded.

Rejection! Counsel, what else are you looking for?

I'd like him to make it click five times, Your Honor. See how this possibly

could have happened.

Please show us, Mr. Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Pierce.

I'll take the gun back, please.

Yeah.

I'll say he possibly could have become violent.

I won't go any further than that.

Doctor... That's as far as I go, Mr. Donald. I am limited to the truth.

Am I not?

Yes.

I'll see you at the courthouse.

Doctor, we don't want you to do anything but tell the truth.

But you don't know Anderson Pearson.

There's no other way to say this.

He needs you desperately.

Where are we on SRAM?

Same.

They'll say the gun could have possibly... put the light trigger in the

slightest squeeze.

He sunk himself.

It's not over.

We still need only one juror.

All he had to do was stick with I don't remember.

I guess we should have coached him a little better. Bobby, we did everything

suborn perjury as it was.

Look, everybody in that room knows what really happened. Our job is still the

same. We just need to find one juror to pretend otherwise.

The videotapes would have no relevance whatsoever except a comment on my

client's character, which is totally inadmissible. We'd be offering the tapes

only to show a pattern, Your Honor. A pattern? Some of the tapes involve

scenes which border on sadomasochism. We believe we can show.

A statistical correlation between the men who commit sex crimes. This is so

ridiculous. Can I finish? This is a homicide case. It is not a sex crime.

We don't know that, counsel.

There is no evidence of rape or forced... Nor is there any conclusive

that the intercourse didn't occur after she was headless.

Your Honor.

As an officer of this court, I must go on record with my disgust with that

comment. Take exception all you want, but the fact remains. The police have

never even suggested such a scenario. I doubt they even considered it. Maybe

they should.

Under the heading that depravity, too, can be in the eye of the beholder, I

would ask that you be recused from this case. Your Honor. I can tell you George

Vogelman could not be capable of having such a sick thought. I would hate for

him to be in the hands of a judge who could be. Look, we're getting way off

track now. The issue today is these videotapes. I want to see the specific

we are talking about before I make... You would, Eleanor.

I will see the tapes in question.

Then, I'll make my ruling.

Defense calls Dr. Walter Matthews to the stand.

Sidebar, Your Honor.

We object to this witness on grounds of relevance.

What's your role for proof?

Dr. Matthews will testify that Mr. Breyer posed a risk of danger to my

and his family. Which might be relevant if you were arguing self -defense, but

under the theory that Mr.

Pearson involuntarily pulled the trigger.

The victim's state of mind has no meaning.

I agree.

Your Honor, panic, fear, anger, it all factored into my client clenching onto

that gun.

To the extent that the victim posed a risk of bodily harm. You're trying to

squeeze in self -defense, Counsel.

We're not. The only thing relevant is your client's state of mind. This

has nothing to say to that. This witness will speak to the threat posed by the

victim, which goes to Anderson Pearson's state of mind.

It's a nice try.

You are shutting down our whole defense.

I'm shutting down this guy.

He's not relevant. I want our objection noted for the record.

So noted. Step back.

Dr. Matthews, you're excused.

Get out of my face, Eugene.

I'm in your face, Eleanor, and I will stay in your face. If Guy says something

like that in open court, I don't care if he's a judge or... The point is to win

a motion. If you take it on the judge... We already lost the motion. You don't

know that. What happened?

She went ballistic on a judge in open court. I did not go ballistic.

All right. He suggested that my client had sex with a headless corpse. I'm

supposed to... Maybe he did us a favor.

What? Well, now we got an idea of how people see things.

Eleanor, this was a beautiful woman with a boyfriend.

You ever ask yourself what the hell she's doing with George?

Maybe you just assume a pretty girl would go to a motel with a schlub like

but the jury won't. You keep looking at this and saying, of course he's

innocent, but you're the only one doing that. And if you don't get some

perspective real fast, then at least be a good lawyer and a good friend and tell

George to hire himself a new attorney, because he didn't have a good one in

court today.

It's an extremely light trigger. This is a sophisticated and sensitive firearm.

Now, you heard Mr.

Pearson's testimony.

Let his hand clench down the trigger.

And five shots fired.

Is that possible, Mr. Schramm? If he squeezed the trigger one time, it would

be possible for the weapon to discharge five times. No.

Is it your testimony that it's impossible, Mr. Schramm? The way he

I think what happened was this. His hand seized up a little.

And it trembled.

Causing the fingers to shake. Maybe even twitch a little bit.

If that happened, it's not only possible for the gun to go off again and again,

I would consider it likely.

Likely? Yeah, you have to understand, this gun has an automatic recoil.

If his hand is trembling, pulling at the trigger but not pulling too hard, it

will recoil automatically and fire automatically.

It's extremely plausible.

Thank you.

Not only do I reject that likelihood, I'm offended by Mr. Schramm's testimony.

Why is that, sir?

As manufacturer of this particular firearm, I take exception to the notion

these weapons just go off with the tremble of a finger.

It's preposterous. You have to pull, semi -automatic or not.

Of course, if these guns could go off with a trembling squeeze.

you might be exposed to a massive product liability action. Which is one

reasons we wouldn't let the gun be so temperamental.

And also a reason you'd be sitting in court spouting that it could never

I can't say the morning went well, but Schramm was much better than I ever

thought. The trembling fingers, he could have bought us reasonable doubt.

So where are we?

I would love to be able to put on a witness who saw your hand start to

If we had that to back up Schramm's testimony, plus we could end on an

high point.

Otherwise, I think we're still behind.

I saw his handshake.

Are you sure?

I'm positive.

Good. Then you're up next.

He was pointing the gun and I could just see his face going red.

Did you say anything to your husband?

No. He's pointing a gun at a man. His face is going red and you didn't say

anything? Like put the gun down? No.

I thank God he had that gun. Otherwise, I didn't know what that man would do to

us. Everything seemed to go in slow motion.

And then, Anderson's hand started to shake.

Not a lot, but he was trembling.

He was standing there like a statue.

And then suddenly, bullets just started coming out.

Mrs. Pearson, your husband...

is on trial here for executing a man. And I'm telling you that's not how it

happened.

He is the most gentle man on earth.

I would ask you to put yourself in his position.

But it would be impossible for you to do so.

You love your husband very much.

Yes. And you don't want to see him go to prison, do you?

Of course not. When the police asked you that night what happened, you

didn't tell them anything about any shaking hand, did you?

I was in shock that night.

Oh.

Nothing further.

George, I want to apologize for what happened this morning.

I just lost it in there when the judge said... I know.

Thank you for losing it.

Okay, George.

It's brutal truth time.

Me first.

The idea that you could do what happened to that girl, not only can I not

believe it, but it might be impossible for me to believe it.

You and I talked on the phone every night for a month. We shared some of our

most intimate secrets.

And the idea that I could have not seen... What are you saying?

I'm admitting that maybe I had some denial myself.

Obviously, I don't want to admit that I could misjudge somebody, so it's just

possible that some of my own denial is what caused me... You're not sure?

About my innocence.

I believe that you're innocent.

I'm just not necessarily sure that I can trust myself to.

Forget about what I believe.

Forget about what you want me to believe.

You are in trouble, and you could go away for it, and your very best chance

not going away is by telling me the truth.

It doesn't really matter to us.

If I can't convince you, what chance do I have with 12 strangers?

We all know what really happened.

When Mr. Burr killed that cat, it was last straw.

Can we understand why Anderson Pearson pulled that trigger? Of course.

Who amongst us wouldn't be tempted?

He'd had enough.

I don't think the defense counsel really expects you to believe that he

involuntarily pulled the trigger.

This all comes down to a simple bet.

The defense is wagering that you will say, to hell with the law.

And endorse a vigilante.

We bet.

We hope.

You won't.

How dare anybody say we all know.

None of us can pretend to know what that moment must have been like.

When a man who has stalked you, a man who has vandalized your property, a man

who is a diagnosed violent schizophrenic shows up at your front door, says he

won't hurt you because he's just a mouse.

The mouse that just strangled your cat.

We all know.

Like normal thought patterns go through your head at a moment like this? You

heard Meredith Pearson tell you an hour ago it would be impossible to put

yourself into my client's position.

His hands started to tremble.

His fingers slightly seized.

The gun went off.

You heard Anderson Pearson tell you that. Meredith Pearson saw it.

John Schramm, an expert on this weapon, showed you how this kind of tremble with

a light trigger and the auto recoil could cause this exact result.

We all know.

Like my associate predicted at the very start, the prosecution stayed far away

from asking who's the good guy here because that we do know.

Anderson Pearson is no criminal.

The question here is, are you going to hand him a life sentence because we all

know?

So easy, isn't it?

I think we got a chance at reasonable doubt.

But what Bullock said, it rang pretty true in there.

I'd like to offer manslaughter right now.

Parole, you'd be out in three years.

It's crazy for us to roll with the alternative.

Prison? Three years is better than 18 to life, Meredith.

Professor.

Professor.

The clock is ticking.

They could come back.

I'm tempted.

We both went with manslaughter, Gavin.

Three years.

He shouldn't do more, he shouldn't do less. I think he should do more, Bobby.

Four?

Four and a half?

I'm going to reject the offer.

You really think they want to put him away?

Do they want to? No.

But will they?

I'm staying with murder, too.

You should have seen his face, Eugene.

When I doubted him, he just fell from the inside out.

I might as well have pronounced him dead.

You believe he's innocent.

I know it, Eugene.

I know it.

Then we fight for him, Eleanor.

Somebody else did it. We go to work on finding out who.

We fight.

Will you first chair?

I think I'm too close.

I'll first chair.

And we'll win.

Mr.

Donald, are you feeling confident about an acquittal? We have nothing to say.

Please excuse us.

They're televising you? She let cameras in for the verdict.

How long were they out?

Less than two hours.

What does that mean?

Acquittal.

Will the defendant please rise?

Madam foreperson, the jury has reached its verdict.

We have, Your Honor. What say you?

Commonwealth v.

Anderson Pearson on the charge of murder in the second degree. We find the

defendant, Anderson Pearson, guilty.

This matter is adjourned.

Will you help her?

Will you help her?

We'll appeal.

We'll explore whatever options.