Original subtitles

How are you,

Joan? I'm good.

And you?

I'm fine.

Everyone agrees.

I would laugh to hold out, but I was finally won over.

We should try to plead.

Voluntary manslaughter.

There's just too much evidence.

Your threat that you'd shoot him hours before.

He was unarmed, stationary.

Your testimony from the first trial. It's too much.

We'll lose.

It'll likely be eight years.

Good behavior.

You'll be out in three.

The alternative is life.

We just can't risk that.

Has the prosecution agreed to it?

We plan to take it to them in the morning.

They should go home.

Three years in prison?

It's the best result.

It's going to be a good transplant.

He has something to live for. I love you, Gina.

MDs, After The Bachelor, Wednesday on ABC.

What do you mean trial?

Today? If you can't plead it, which I highly recommend.

The guy's got two priors.

Lewd and lascivious.

What did he do?

Flash some teenagers.

It's a door. Look, if you don't want it... Oh, no, no, no, I do, I do.

It's just, it's not my time to prepare.

Just dump it best you can.

It's a court appointment.

Six months suspended is how it should go.

Right. Have you got the pleadings? Any pre -trial motions, suppression

Bobby met the guy at arraignment. A trial date was set.

You're up to speed.

Got it.

He's making us wait on purpose.

He's having his fun.

How long has it been?

Fifty minutes.

I'm giving him ten more.

We can't leave.

I'm not sitting here all day, Bobby.

He'll be here.

Gentlemen.

Sorry to keep you.

I've reviewed your plea offer.

It's rejected.

What?

Why?

Why?

Because your wife committed first -degree murder.

The only thing that would impel me to plead down to manslaughter would be a

perceived difficulty of prevailing a trial.

I don't have such a perception.

I feel confident the jury will reach the right result, as they did the first

time.

Accordingly, your offer is rejected.

Anything else to discuss?

This was a manslaughter.

You know it was a manslaughter, and you're an officer of the court.

Thank you, Eugene. I always value outside input.

Would you like to know the particular value I place on yours?

Are you cocky, Kenneth?

Maybe you need to review your track record against us. Haven't got the time.

But I'll tell you what, I'll go over the last matchup.

You gonna take the stand again, Bobby?

That went real well, didn't it?

By the way, who's gonna try it this time?

Jimmy?

Eugene?

Eleanor was a good choice, wasn't she?

Have a good day, boys.

What do we do now? We prepare to try it. Jimmy, you and Beck, I want research.

See if there's any grounds to suppress Lindsay's testimony.

How? I don't know. Go through the transcripts. See if Walsh made any

front to Lindsay not talking to the police. Maybe we can argue she was

into testifying by the DA.

Bobby. It's worth a shot.

Eleanor, the victim was seeing a shrink. Maybe he told the shrink he planned to

kill Lindsay. Privilege doesn't survive the patient. I interviewed a therapist.

It was a dead end. Well, subpoena his records. Maybe there's something in his

notes. Bobby, the victim's state of mind isn't relevant. You're thinking like a

loser.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.

Look, obviously, whatever we come up with is going to be desperate.

Eugene.

I'm interviewing potential experts on post -traumatic stress.

Hopefully, we can find somebody to label her insane.

Good. Okay, we all have work to do. Let's go at it.

Eleanor, can I talk to you a second?

Actually, I think I better get going on this research.

I was pissing.

Pardon my Frenchiness, but that's what I was doing. I had a bladder infection.

And you didn't use the restroom because...

I couldn't get there fast enough. I swear, I was not flashing those girls.

Though they totally wanted it.

Jamie Stringer. Yes, hello.

I wasn't wanking.

Yes.

Can we talk? Sure.

Three months, we're happy. How about six months, but we suspend it?

Can't. Third offense.

With a conviction he could get a year.

Does he know that? He claims he's innocent.

Yeah. I just heard. And his eloquence gives me pause.

But I'm still holding out for time.

Then I think we have a trial.

You were supposed to dump it.

What could I do? The client wanted his day in court. He's gonna get his day in

prison, Jamie.

Lots of them. He says he's innocent.

They all say they're innocent.

Bobby's expecting you to be freed up to work on Lindsay's case.

It should be a one -day trial.

You're supposed to dump it.

Buy a girl a drink?

Come on, Helen, they're your friends.

Okay.

Let's discount my friendship, your hatred, and just objectively look at

Lindsay did.

It's manslaughter.

Your opinion, not mine. Come on.

Woman vows to kill somebody.

Shoots an unarmed man after saying, see you in heaven.

That's not a murder.

I'm supposed to let her get away with this because she has a friend in her

office. Nobody's saying she should get away with it.

Did you read their brief to the SJC, Helen?

It wasn't about the law or the merits as much as it was an attack on me.

In open court, they attacked me. Because prosecutorial misconduct was their best

legal strategy, and you know that.

You know what I know?

25 years ago, There could have been a defense attorney on that stool drinking

with me.

End of the day, we were friends.

And you know why?

We were all in it for the same thing.

We were players in a justice system.

Fair representation.

Somewhere along the line, it changed.

The goal for defense attorneys became to beat it.

Beat the rap. We can beat it.

Let me tell you something, Helen.

Lawyers like Bobby Donald, They've destroyed the criminal justice system.

They hide the truth. They intimidate witnesses. They offer lies in court.

And in the process, they've destroyed people like me.

And that's why I hate them.

In order to have half a chance at getting a conviction, I have to compete

the same dirty tactics.

They've sapped us of any dignity, along with the courts, and I hate them for it.

We no longer go to work at an honorable place, Helen.

And you should hate them, too.

Okay, well, without disagreeing with all that, and I don't, my point is the

facts of this case suggest manslaughter, not murder one.

You didn't hear a thing I just said. Yes, I did, but... You know why Lindsay

pumped that guy with three bullets?

For the same reason my dog licks his balls. Because he can.

She's gotten so many guys off for crimes she knows they did, she figured she'd

easily get herself off.

She'd be able to beat it.

And I saw the same cocksure look on their faces in the courtroom, Helen.

They can beat it.

Well, they're not going to beat it.

They may have the resources to swing seven SOBs on the Supreme Court, but

eventually it comes back to the jury, comes back to me, and I'm telling you,

they're not going to beat it.

How did you get like this?

Last week, you lied to a suspect in order to trick her into a confession.

A false confession.

There's a reason I'm hard to look at, Helen.

You see yourself.

The love story continues this Wednesday at 9, 8 central on ABC.

After midnight.

I'm just about to go home.

What I said about you thinking like a loser, that

just came out of frustration.

You have to know I don't blame you.

I blame myself, Bobby.

Come on. We win trials, we lose trials, we excel, we don't excel. Sometimes

this...

Wasn't Lindsay.

We were waiting for our bus, and then we, like, saw him.

Him being?

Perv man.

Objection. Sustained.

You saw the defendant?

Yes. And what was he doing?

First we saw him stare at us.

Then we all kind of commented on it because we thought he was like a total

creepo. Am I allowed to say that?

Then what?

Then about 30 seconds later, I turn around and he's got his fly down and

holding out his big unit, offering it to us like it's a Krispy Kreme. It was

totally gross.

And could you see what he was doing with his...

He was just kind of wagging it for us, like we were dogs or something and we

wanted to play fetch.

It was totally foul.

Thank you, Dina.

It must have been kind of shocking to see what you refer to as the big unit.

Yeah, it freaked us all out.

And how far away from you was Mr. Pender standing?

He was on the other side of the street.

Was it a busy street, do you remember?

Fairly busy. It was around rush hour.

Lots of cars and so forth?

I guess.

And were you and the girls interested in looking at him?

Hello? No.

Well, how long did you look at him?

A few seconds at most, I'm so sure.

Okay. Thanks, Dina.

Donald Young, Dole Threat, and Hatcher?

Didn't you hear?

Oh, no, I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that today. Uh, perhaps another time?

Okay, yeah, great. Thanks for your call.

Who was that?

Another wacko angry over the reversal.

He asked if we could all shrivel up and die.

We've been getting a lot of hate mail, too.

People who think the conviction shouldn't have been overturned.

Eleanor. What?

They just gave you the facts.

Who sent this?

I don't know.

Likely moving forward at the time of impact.

Their witness testified the victim was likely stationary. Look, I've got the

transcript. I underlined it. This isn't the same analyst who testified.

I called the lab. It was a junior guy.

It's obviously a preliminary report, and probably Walsh had them redo it. The

point is, we never got it, and it's exculpatory.

Eugene, talk to this Mr. Hallbrenner. Eleanor, I want you to start preparing a

Rule 30.

Who sent us this? I don't know. Lucy found it in the fax.

Mr. Hallburn?

Hi,

I'm Eugene Young. I represent Lindsay Dole. I believe you investigated the

murder for which she was charged.

Who told you that?

I'm not sure why. Is it supposed to be a secret?

Mr. Young, I'm quite busy. If you'd like to make an appointment, I'd be happy to

give you whatever information I can.

I'm looking more for you to give me the information you can't.

Are we being cryptic now?

I'm sorry.

Let me be more clear.

Is this your report?

Where'd you get this?

The point is, I have it. Did you write it?

Yes. Who'd you give it to?

I'm afraid you'll have to make an appointment, Mr. Young. Did Kenneth

this report?

I don't know. I'm very busy. You'll have to excuse me.

I direct the court's attention to Rule 30 of the Massachusetts Criminal Law

Code, which calls for a dismissal with prejudice of the indictment where there

is egregious... Prosecutorial misconduct. There's been no misconduct.

Ms. Frutt is simply... I direct the court's attention to Exhibit 1 attached

our motion.

It's kitchen sink time. This isn't a kitchen sink, Mr. Walsh. It is an

memorandum which says the victim was likely moving towards Lindsay Dole.

of all, that memorandum is incorrect.

Second, it's work product. It's exculpatory. It's part of our internal

investigation. It's work product. We have many lab analysts. The report

The victim was likely moving forward.

But that was not the final conclusion of our analysts.

This is not a fifth grade math test. We don't have to show you our work.

We have to give you our findings. That's our obligation under the rules, and

that's what we did. Your Honor, we would like to conduct an evidentiary hearing.

Of course you would. You'd like to drag this out into perpetuity, but the law

does not allow... This was exculpatory evidence. I object to his smugness. He

had a duty to turn it over to us. Not if it's work product. At a minimum, we are

entitled to a hearing.

Who do you want to question?

The analyst who authored the report.

You will be stunned to learn he isn't volunteering his candor. Of course not.

He's probably worried you'll plan B him and accuse him of murder. All right.

I'm going to let you question this analyst, but turn it into a circus and

shut it down.

We're going to have a hearing?

Yes, we are, Mr. Walsh. Would that be all right?

Your Honor, since evidence will be presented, we'd like Ms. Dole to be

Ten o 'clock tomorrow morning.

You gave them that report.

Why didn't you at least have the integrity to be up front about it?

Is that your style?

To be up front?

The reason I did it anonymously... I'm one of your lieutenants.

Notwithstanding a few skirmishes, a pretty loyal lieutenant.

What would become of your reputation, not to mention your credibility in the

courtroom, if one of your minions betrayed you?

This wasn't about attacking you.

It was about giving defense a document they're entitled to have.

It's about following the rules, Ken.

That's where I locate my integrity in all of this.

Look, before you add me to a list of people that are out to get you, When I

started here I wanted to be you.

That's how much I admired you.

I have never seen a person demolish a hamburger at 9 .30 in the morning. Once

you do time, you'll understand.

Hey. Hey.

How are you?

I'm good.

Pardon the onions.

Hi, back.

Hi. Thanks for coming, Eugene.

You old enough?

Yeah.

Getting out even for a day.

We ready?

All set.

Eugene's taking the witness. I'll argue after.

You ready?

Yes.

I saw them standing there waiting for a bus or something.

And what were you doing at the time?

I was looking for a bookstore.

I'm a voracious reader.

You were looking for a bookstore?

Yes, yes. And then...

I noticed them.

They were all smoking cigarettes.

It was disgusting.

Cigarettes are a leading cause of cancer and death.

To see young people killing themselves, I couldn't stand it.

Did you have to go to the bathroom?

No, no. No, I exposed my swordsman because I had written on it, smoking

death.

You had that written on...

Well, it's no secret. Sex sells.

I mean, advertisers use it all the time.

I just figured the best way to put my message across was to put it on my

Thank you, Mr. Pender.

You told the police you were urinating.

Well, I didn't want to tip my defense.

I see.

You were arrested twice before for exposing yourself, were you not, Mr.

Yes, yes, both examples of blaming the messenger.

Oh, you had things written on your penis on those occasions?

Yes, I did.

The first time I was protesting world hunger, and the second one was during

election. It said gore.

I think the police mistook it for a verb.

You humiliated me. Hey, it's my life. I'm the one looking at jail here.

Well, why didn't you tell me what you planned to say? I didn't know.

I just decided to call an audible on the line. You know, the thought of you

arguing that it was a bad traffic day didn't make me squiggle with confidence.

You listen to me.

I graduated high school in three years. I graduated Yale with honors. I made law

review at Harvard. I excel at everything I do.

I'm even pretty.

I will not have you wreck my law career by making me look bad in court. I'm

supposed to get up in court now and blame it on big tobacco? You suck!

I'm not bringing you any more of my business.

We disagree internally all the time. It's called debate.

Yes, but your expert opinion was that Lawrence O'Malley was likely moving

forward. That was my initial conclusion.

Upon consultation with other analysts, I changed my position.

He was likely stationary.

Did you issue another report?

No. In fact, this letter is your only recorded finding, isn't it, Mr.

Hallburner? Yes.

So when you change your position...

You didn't issue a new report.

No, the case was taken over by my supervisor.

Your supervisor? That would be Joshua Illich?

Correct. So he took over the case, issued another report saying that the

was likely stationary?

Correct. And it was Mr. Illich who testified at trial?

Correct. Well, they kept you in the back room out of sight.

Objection sustained.

Mr. Hallbrunner, after you issued your report, did anybody ask you to change

your mind?

People argue their points of view in order to get people to change their

That happened here.

Nobody forced me.

People argued their points of view. You mean other analysts?

Correct. Did Mr. Walsh ever argue his point of view to you?

Yes. So he read your report?

Yes. And he disagreed with it?

Yes. Did he ask you to alter your findings?

He disagreed with my report.

That wasn't my question, Mr. Hallbrunner. Did he ask you to alter

Yes.

And your response?

I refused.

And at that point, your supervisor took over the case, and a subsequent report

was issued contradicting your findings.

Is that what happened, Mr. Hallbrunner?

Something like that.

Thank you, Mr. Hallbrunner.

You said I asked you to reissue a report.

Did I force you to?

No. And was I the only one who disagreed with your findings?

No. Other analysts looked at the same evidence you did and reached a different

conclusion. Am I right?

You are.

In fact, three analysts senior to you.

Isn't that right?

It is.

More experienced analysts?

Yes. In fact, the consensus of your department?

was that Mr. O'Malley was likely standing in a stationary position at the

Lindsay Dole shot him three times.

Wasn't that the consensus?

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Hallbrenner.

That's all I have.

The witness may step down.

Mr. Walsh, if you have anything to say, I'll hear it now. Then I'll give defense

an opportunity to sum up as well.

Thank you, Your Honor.

As I said earlier, this was a preliminary internal memorandum.

which clearly falls within the definition of work product.

It wasn't evidence.

Certainly, we are required to share with defense our findings, but not our

thinking or consultations, which lead to those findings.

Mr. Hallbrenner's report represents a minority point of view, which we deem

neither accurate nor relevant to our prosecution.

It was not relied on. It was not a factor.

Moreover, Your Honor, even should you find that we should have turned this

preliminary report over, what's the harm?

This case never turned on whether or not the victim was moving forward.

Lindsay Dole never maintained the victim was coming towards her. In their

testimony, in their statements to the police, Lindsay and Bobby Donald never

even suggested that the victim was coming towards her.

They didn't argue self -defense.

They alleged battered woman syndrome.

The victim's position or forward movement has nothing to do with that

nor did they ever suggest it did.

What we have here is a desperate ploy from a convicted murderer who finds

herself all out of appeals.

It's nonsense.

It's an insult to this court, to our system of criminal justice, and your

shouldn't indulge it further.

Thank you.

He had in his hands a report that was exculpatory.

He had a duty to give it to us. He didn't.

That is black and white prosecutorial misconduct.

We were forced to defend our entire case without knowing the crime lab findings

were in dispute as to whether the victim was standing still.

That dispute was kept from us.

Nobody, nobody can make an argument that that wasn't.

Now, Mr. Walsh has the temerity to actually argue that the victim's forward

movement or lack of it was a non -issue. When all through the trial, he hammered

it. He put up witnesses to say that Mr.

O'Malley was stationary.

In its closing, he said it over and over and over again. Look at the transcript.

He was not moving towards her, never made a movement, standing still. He

repeated it.

He drove it home as the linchpin of his case, and he stands before you today as

a bald -faced liar saying that it was a non -issue. Well, it wouldn't have been

a non -issue to the jury.

This man...

has systematically committed prejudicial misconduct in this case during

discovery, during the trial, and it constitutes a gross and egregious

of Rule 30, and we ask the court to dismiss this indictment with prejudice,

in the alternative, to strike the record of the first trial, the entire record,

including all...

There's no authority for that. Our argument to the jury would have changed

we known the existence of this report.

Lindsay Dole was prejudiced by Mr.

Walsh's nondisclosure. That prejudice can only be cured by the court's

of the first trial in its entirety. Your Honor. I am not finished. You're both

finished.

It's in my yard now.

I'll take this under advisement. I'll call you this afternoon when I reach my

decision. We're adjourned.

How did it even get this far? Because he wanted his day in court. He told me he

was urinating. He never said it was an anti -smoking campaign.

What do I do?

What do you do?

You argue it. Argue it? Yes. He says he's a political activist. You have no

proof he isn't. You argue it. You play the hand you're dealt, Jamie.

Now get in there and close.

Right.

Right.

Hey, I told you to dump it.

What, are you stalking me?

Kind of early, isn't it?

It's after lunch.

How'd I do?

Well, I thought you did a good job.

But so did Eleanor.

If he expunges the first trial, you have to plea.

I'll drive off that bridge when I come to it.

It wasn't my paranoia, Helen. You heard her. She attacked me.

She called me a liar. It was an attack.

And the papers will print what she said, and my kids will have to read it.

Again, it's legal strategy.

But when this is over, you really need to

take a long walk.

And ask yourself what you did to incur the attack.

Hey, some of the stuff I've been doing, I'll take the walk with you.

I don't think we need to waste any more of your time here.

Three witnesses saw the defendant expose and grope his genitalia in a lewd and

lascivious manner.

Their testimony stands uncontroverted, unblemished for that matter.

Mr. Pender has twice before been arrested and convicted for this very

behavior. To the police, he says he was urinating. Then on the stand, he

suddenly claims that he was trying to dissuade these three women from smoking.

Obviously, he doesn't take this seriously.

I think we need to impress upon him that we do.

Free speech is something that we hold dear in the United States of America.

We don't punish somebody for exercising their First Amendment right simply

because we don't like the way the message was delivered.

Political protest in this country has often been shocking, provocative, even

offensive. It's to get attention.

Whether it's nudity or burning draft cards, the American flag, dissidents.

have historically chosen antagonistic methods to convey political beliefs that

they consider precious and... Oh!

Your Honor!

Bailiff, get that man's pants on.

Get his pants on now.

Save the rainforest? It was written right across... So what happened?

Well... The judge called a mistrial, then set the retrial for next July, then

held him with no bail, which means effectively he got ten months of time.

I offered to plead out at six months.

The DA said okay.

That was good.

Good decision.

But the client won't sign off.

What? He wants to appeal.

Jamie, you make him sign off.

You go back there right now, you get tough with him, and you make him sign

Now go.

Nothing from the clerk's office?

He's still in chambers.

It's almost 3 .30. Which means he's really considerate. We have a chance.

Eleanor?

I thought you nailed it in there.

Seriously.

I want to appeal. You need to appeal to a shrink.

You ruined my first closing argument.

I was trying for a mistrial, which I got.

Yes, but you weren't counting on no bail, were you, Mr. Free Speech?

Six months is the deal. He can't deny bail. I haven't been proven guilty. He

can. He did.

You want to write your congressman? Fine. But since you can't deliver the

message personally, you might want to consider stationary.

Take the six months and be done with it.

He's coming in.

Judges always hate it when they're asked to consider the big picture.

It usually means that justice in the short run has to take a beating.

Here, the big picture is the integrity of the judicial process.

It's a truism that any system can only be as dignified as its players, which

means for criminal justice, the truth is indeed ugly.

Defense attorneys long ago began slithering under the bar.

Prosecutors soon followed. By now, we've come to expect it.

But Mr. Walsh, that doesn't mean we must always bring ourselves to accept it.

The Supreme Judicial Court has found that you willfully violated Ms. Dole's

Fifth Amendment rights, that you willfully violated her Sixth Amendment

and now we learn that you had an exculpatory report in your hand which

duty -bound to reveal, and you squashed it.

That other prosecutors might do this only further persuades me that the big

picture needs adjusting.

I find your misconduct to be deliberate, egregious, and outrageous.

I am granting defense counsel's Rule 30 motion for post -conviction relief. I am

dismissing the indictment with prejudice.

The defendant is to be released immediately.

We're adjourned.

What happened?

It's over.

I want to go home.

Take me home.

It's a sad but all too familiar comment on our society where in the end money

talks.

Money.

Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, the corruption of greed.

People use our courts today.

The Lord is my shepherd. I won't walk in the shadow of the valley of

money.

I stand tall today.

I'll sleep tonight.

People can kill, murder, get off on a technicality, but God forbid the

murderer's civil rights.

The Lord will be my truth.

If Lindsay Dole had been a black welfare prostitute from Roxbury, you'd think

we'd be here?

Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

But justice didn't sing today.

Justice doesn't sing in these halls anymore.

Justice has gone mute.