Original subtitles

- There are a lot of ways I could go at this point.

I could become an independent producer.

I could become an agent.

- I thought you were happy being a studio executive, Arnie.

- Gwen, in show business, a sense of complacency

is a very dangerous thing.

- I'm thinking of opening a restaurant.

- A restaurant?

- Yeah, these guys that started the California Pizza Kitchen

were both lawyers.

- What kind of restaurant? - I don't know yet.

- What about fast food Jewish?

- Fast food Jewish?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I think it would be great to be able to walk up to a counter

and get a little paper cone filled with kasha varnishkes.

- Well, I know that's something I've always wanted to do.

- Well, shall we get started?

Falcone versus Falcone.

- Yeah, another divorce.

I'm meeting with the woman for the first time today.

I'll try to dispose of it as painlessly as possible.

I'm really not up for a fight.

- People versus Quinn.

- That's my murder case.

The jury's picked.

We go to trial later today.

- Are you still holding with a plea of temporary insanity?

- I don't believe in it, but it's all I got.

- Samuels versus San Fernando Psychiatric.

- Uh, all I know is this is a negligence action

and Samuels knows some people in the Clinton administration.

- Well, we knew some people in the Clinton administration.

Mickey Kantor and Warren Christopher

both came out of LA law firms.

They're tapping all kinds of people

from here to do all kinds of things.

What do we get?

Nothing.

- Are you done, Douglas? - Yeah.

- Good.

I have something I want to say.

I've sat by and watched as this place has changed.

People have dissipated their time and wasted their talent.

You have all, in varying degrees,

pursued other enterprises and neglected

the one that this place was built on, the law.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a law office.

And while you're present here, you will practice law, period.

- Leland--

- I'm not done!

What you do on your own time is your own business,

but the work week belongs to me.

So you're all going to have to do a little soul searching.

I want to see all partners in my office at 5 o'clock today.

I will expect either a commitment or a resignation.

[theme music]

- Arnold Becker.

- That's me.

- I'm Yvette Falcone.

- Hi.

What can I do for you?

Please, have a seat.

- I want a divorce.

- Most people who come to see me do.

- I've been married six years.

There are no children.

My husband was bringing in about a million a year.

He's a prizefighter.

- Your husband is Bobby Falcone.

- Right.

- I've seen him fight.

- Not recently you haven't.

He hasn't had a fight in more than a year.

- What's the problem?

- I'm the problem.

He knows that half of what he earns while he's married to me

is mine.

Since he doesn't want to pay me, he's stopped fighting.

- Let me get in touch with his attorney.

- I did everything a fighter's wife is supposed to do.

I took care of him when he needed taking care of.

I left him alone when he needed that.

When he'd fight, I'd sit at ringside wearing a low cut

top, short skirt because it was important for him

that the whole world saw what he had.

Now, because I go out on him one time,

he wants to send me on my way with $50,000

and a pat on the ass?

No way.

I want you to fight for me, Mr. Becker.

And I want you to fight for me hard.

- Call me, Arnie.

- Let me make some introductions.

Gerard Samuels.

Leland McKenzie, our senior partner.

- Samuels.

- Douglas Brackman.

- Nice to meet you.

- Please sit.

- How's everything in Washington?

- Well, at this point, everyone's still

getting used to everyone else.

- Are you spending most of your time there?

- I go back and forth.

One aspect of political life is remaining in a state

of continual availability.

- In other words, when your president needs you,

there are no excuses.

- Right.

- God, I love that.

[chuckles]

- What's your background, Mr. Samuels?

How did you come to be a part of the Clinton inner circle?

- Well, I was pretty much of an academic.

I got my doctorate in labor relations

and organizational development at MIT.

I got to know Bob Reich pretty much through

attending conferences.

I think I delivered a paper he was

particularly interested in at one point,

and we got to be friends.

Plus, when I moved out here, I got to know Mickey Kantor.

- Through Bob Reich? - No.

Actually, we were introduced by a friend who worked at Manatt,

which was also Mickey's firm.

- I'm curious, how come you didn't take this to Manatt?

- Well, it was our feeling we wanted

this to be handled by a firm without Washington connections.

- And tragically, that's us.

- How can we help you, Mr. Samuels?

- For a number of years now, mental hospitals have been

releasing patients into the community

without making any real adequate provision for follow-up care.

As a result, two things are happening,

people who are in need of treatment

haven't been getting it and our cities

have been inundated with disoriented, sometimes

dangerous individuals who constitute

a threat to themselves as well as those around them.

I want to bring a test case by suing San Fernando Psychiatric.

- Generally, you need a relationship or a nexus

to the event you're suing over.

- I'm a concerned citizen.

We believe that's nexus enough.

- And when you say we, who are you referring to?

- I'm referring to various individuals

at the highest levels of the Clinton administration.

- I think you've got a great case.

- Will you please describe the events

that took place on the morning of March 3, 1992?

- I was in the yard hanging the wash on the line.

And all of a sudden, I heard a gunshot.

Then I heard another and another.

- And what did you do?

- I ran into the house, into my son's room.

- And what did you find there?

- I found my son lying in his bed in a pool of blood.

And I found him standing there with a gun in his hand.

- Let the record indicate that the witness has identified

the defendant Thomas Quinn.

What, if anything, did Mr. Quinn say to you at that time?

- He said, let me pass, and walked out.

He was as calm and collected as though nothing had happened.

You'd never thought he just murdered somebody in his sleep.

- Objection.

- Sustained.

The last part of the witness' response is stricken.

The rest of it can stand.

- I have nothing further.

- I know this is painful for you, Ms. Hackett.

So I'm going to be as brief as possible.

Was your son living at your home at the time he died?

- Yes.

- He had recently been living elsewhere, had he not?

- Yes, he was in prison.

- And what was it that he was in prison for, ma'am?

- He was in prison for rape.

Who was his victim, Ms. Hackett?

- It was his daughter.

And I don't make any excuses for that.

- You also don't stop loving him, do you?

- No.

- You don't stop wanting to protect him.

- He was my son.

- I understand that.

Is it possible for you to understand the way Thomas

Quinn felt about his child?

You don't have to answer that.

I have nothing further.

[siren wailing]

- I have never had real access to power before, Stuart.

It's an incredible sensation.

- I'd be wary of that if I were you.

- Why?

- Because it's a seduction, and I'm wary of that.

- When we are invited to the White House,

then tell me how wary you are of being seduced.

I mean, come on, we're only human.

This is heady stuff.

I am representing a friend of Bill's.

- It's 5 o'clock.

We should go see Leland.

[door opens]

[chatter]

- I'm in.

Whatever you need from me, Leland, you got it.

- That goes for me too.

- That goes for both of us.

- What about you, Arnold?

- What about me?

My first reaction when you made your ultimatum

was to say to hell with you.

I have a job at a studio.

I have a whole other career going.

Why should I give that up?

Then I thought to myself, what is it that I do at the studio?

I get handed scripts.

I read them.

I end up sitting there pretending to have an opinion,

and I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

- Chances are neither do most of the people you work with.

- Well, that may be, but--

but I don't like feeling that way.

I don't like pretending.

I know what I'm talking about when I'm in here.

When I'm being a lawyer, I know exactly what I'm doing.

And that says something to me.

You've got me, Leland, 100%.

- Good.

It's difficult for me to imagine this place

without the four of you.

I'm grateful I don't have to.

- We're grateful too.

- I believe that at the time of the shooting,

Mr. Quinn was not in control of his faculties.

He was incapable of understanding

the nature of his act and unable to distinguish between right

and wrong.

- You say this despite the fact that the defendant

was in all other respects highly functional.

- Yes.

- What was it, Doctor, that in your expert opinion

accounted for the defendant going temporarily insane?

- Well, Mr. Quinn's relationship with his daughter

is such that her rape became an event

of overwhelming significance.

When he finally confronted the man responsible,

he lost all capacity to control himself

or to comprehend the moral dimensions of his act.

- Thank you, Doctor.

Nothing further.

- Let me understand something, Doctor.

Thomas Quinn took a ...38 caliber revolver.

He loaded it with six bullets.

He put it in his pocket, got in his car,

and drove to the home of Kevin Hackett.

Up to this point, he hadn't seen the man who raped his daughter,

had he?

- No, but the effect of having Mr.

Hackett released from prison and living nearby

was certainly felt.

- A simple yes or no was all that I asked for.

Was Mr. Quinn insane when he loaded his gun?

- No.

- Was he insane when he pried open a window to gain

entrance to the Hackett house?

- No.

- Was he insane following the moment

when he pulled the trigger?

- No, it was a transitory state.

- In other words, it lasted just long enough

to provide him with a defense.

- Objection!

- Withdrawn.

I have nothing further.

[chatter]

- I'm sorry I'm late.

I'm in a conference call for nearly an hour--

oh, thank you--with my office in Washington

and our Secretary of Health and Human Services.

- Donna Shalala?

- Yeah, you know her?

- No, but I get the feeling she's very bright.

- Incredibly bright.

You know what we were talking about, don't you?

- No.

- This lawsuit.

There are a lot of people in Washington

who are very interested in what we're doing here.

- Well, we have a preliminary conference

at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

The hospital was caught rather off guard, I must say.

- Great.

That's just where we want them.

- One of the things I've done is to start

lining up patient histories.

I've got a private investigator searching out mental patients

who've been released from the hospital

so that we can begin taking affidavits and building

a base of plaintiffs.

- Great.

Well, Donna's going to be of considerable assistance

in helping us locate people as well as put together some kind

of statistical analysis.

I mean, anecdotal information is fine.

To get people's attention in Washington,

you've got to come in strong with the numbers.

- Well, we can use all the help we can get.

- This is a rather large undertaking for a firm

of your size, isn't it?

- Yes, it is, but we can handle it.

We have a very energetic and very devoted

staff of attorneys here.

And I want you to know that this case has become an extremely

high priority item.

- Did I ever tell you whose idea this lawsuit was?

- I assumed it was yours.

- It was Hillary's.

- Really?

- It was the night after the election.

I was down in Little Rock.

A bunch of us were sitting around this big kitchen table.

James Carville had just made this incredible meal.

We finished eating it, and James starts

doing these impersonations.

And somebody-- I can't remember who it was-- says,

oh, you know, James, with a little work,

you know, you could be one of those street

people on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Now, that got us talking about that whole issue.

And Hillary, from out of nowhere,

looks up from this Ben & Jerry's container

and says, let's sue them.

Stephanopoulos goes, sue who?

She says, let's sue the hospitals that discharged them.

And this is what you have to understand about Hillary,

she had the whole thing figured out.

She knew exactly where she wanted to go with that.

She is-- she's a remarkable woman.

She really is.

- She also seems utterly human to me.

I almost have the feeling that I know her.

- Yeah, well, you should know her.

And she-- she should know you.

- Yeah, well.

- She's going to be in Los Angeles next month.

I'd like to have a dinner party and see

to it that that happens.

You interested?

- Sure, I'm interested.

- Great.

So we should get back to work.

- Right.

Right.

[clears throat]

- Would you state your name for the record, please.

- Bobby Falcone.

- What's your occupation?

- I'm a boxer.

- What was your income for 1991, sir?

- I really don't know.

- Well, I have here your 1991 tax return.

- If you have his tax returns, what do you have

to ask him what his income is?

- I'm not deposing a tax return, Mr. Brunner.

I'm deposing him.

Would you agree that the figure of 1.35 million is correct?

- That's what it says, that's what it

is I don't mess with Uncle Sam.

- Would you please tell us what your income for 1992 was?

- I didn't have an income in 1992.

- Why was that?

- Because I didn't have any fights.

- Why was it that you didn't have any fights?

- Why?

I'll tell you why.

It was because my wife betrayed me, all right?

She did what no man could do.

She destroyed me.

That night in Atlantic City when I saw her coming out

of some other guy's hotel room, it was like I got

hit by a truck.

My confidence was shot.

My nerves was shot.

I couldn't train.

I couldn't fight.

I couldn't do nothing.

- In other words, you were suddenly

afraid to step in the ring?

- That's right.

- You knew, did you not, that by delaying your fights

until after the divorce, you'd be

preventing the purses from those fights

from becoming marital property?

- Is that why you think I did it?

- Yeah, that's why I think you did it.

Where do you think he got it from?

- You had nothing to do with it, right, Yvette?

- Don't put that on me, Bobby.

- I am putting it on you.

- You didn't fight those fights because you didn't

want me to have the money.

According to my lawyer here, you owe me

what my share would have been.

- When do we get to ask her some questions?

- Tomorrow morning.

- Good.

- Are you kidding?

- No, Mr. Pike, we're not kidding.

- You're suing us for releasing patients 25 years ago?

- That's right.

- Mr. Samuels, what is your legal standing

to be suing us at all?

- I'm a concerned citizen.

- That's it?

- Mr. Samuels is suing for public nuisance

arising out of negligence.

We believe that being a member of the community

gives him standing.

- This is an utterly groundless suit.

- We clearly have a difference of opinion.

- Yes, we do.

And I'll tell you how we're going to settle

this difference of opinion.

I'm going to take this case to court

and have it dismissed with prejudice and with costs.

- Don't threaten me, Mr. Pike.

Bring your motion.

I'll oppose it.

And we'll see how the court rules.

- And just so you know who will be filing

amicus briefs on our behalf, the Department of Health and Human

Services, the Justice Department, the Children's

Defense Fund, the People for the American Way,

and very possibly Barbra Streisand.

- Barbra Streisand?

- In case it hasn't dawned on you yet, this is our time.

- Miss Quinn, would you describe for us the events that

took place on August 19, 1985?

- I'd gone on a camping trip to the Angeles National Forest

with a couple of my friends.

They were still sleeping when I woke up,

so I decided I would go for a walk.

I followed a trail through the woods

till I got to this stream.

It was so pretty.

So I just sat down.

I took off my shoes.

I dangled my feet in the water.

I'd been there a few minutes when I heard someone coming.

I thought it would be one of my friends,

but when I looked up, I--

I saw it was this man I'd never seen before.

- Tell us what happened next, please.

- He sat down next to me.

He asked me my name.

I told him.

He said that he'd been watching me for a while

from behind these trees and that I owed

it to him to go for a swim.

When I continued to refuse, he started to--

put his hands on me.

- I'm going to have to ask you to get specific here,

Miss Quinn.

- And I'm going to have to object.

This isn't a rape trial.

The excruciating details of what happened nearly eight years ago

are hardly relevant to the issues of this case.

- Your Honor, the only issue in this case

is the state of mind of the defendant

at the time of the shooting.

- Objection overruled.

The witness may answer.

- He put his hands on my breasts, on my legs,

between my legs.

When I screamed, he threw me in the creek

and he jumped in after me and he held my head under the water.

And he just kept pushing my head under the water

and holding it there over and over again.

And then he finally dragged me out of the water

and he threw me on the ground and he raped me.

- What happened next?

- When he got finished--

he left.

And I started back, but I got lost.

I couldn't find the road.

I couldn't find my friends.

I-- after a while, I couldn't walk anymore,

so I just curled up under a tree.

- How long were you lost in that forest?

- Six days.

- That was almost eight years ago.

- Yeah.

- How are you doing?

- I'm OK.

- Did you ever go to college?

- No.

- Do you have a job?

- Yeah, I work part-time at a library.

- Mm.

Where do you live?

- I live with my father.

- Have you tried to put what happened to you on that camping

trip behind you?

- Yeah.

- Have you managed to do that?

- No.

- Thank you, Miss Quinn.

I have no further questions.

- The prosecution has no questions for this witness.

[music playing]

- Chelsea is a great kid.

- Is she?

- She really is.

Everybody is so concerned about her

with the public scrutiny and the press,

but the truth is she's going to be fine.

- What's your sense of their policy toward the inner city?

- My sense is they're committed to it.

I mean, listen, appointing Henry Cisneros, as far as I'm

concerned, represents a real departure

from the prevailing policy of the Reagan-Bush years.

- Jonathan would be a tremendous asset in that regard.

- Well, maybe I can put him in touch with some people.

- Yeah, that'd be.

- All right, Jonathan.

- Another area we're looking for input is the judiciary.

Bill wants his appointments to the Supreme Court and the

federal bench to be informed.

Leland, I would bet you would have a lot to say about that.

- Yes, I would.

- Well, I think you should say it to someone who's listening.

Here's what I would like to do.

One weekend when Bill and Hillary were out here

at their house in Summerland.

I'll take a group of you up there.

- Leland, we may have to set up an office in Washington.

- [chuckles] Well, you know, we may get that.

- You're making a joke, but at some point,

that may become necessary.

- If it becomes necessary, it's necessary.

- I'm ready.

- We're talking about politics of inclusion, folks.

Just like I'm a friend of Bill's, I'd like to see

you all become friends of Bill.

- Here you all are.

What's going on?

- We're Just having a little chat.

That's all. - Uh-huh.

- Is there something you need, Ann?

- Is there something I need?

Yeah.

Gwen, I need your help on Mr. Samuels' case.

Arnie, you've got people in the conference

room waiting for you.

Douglas, Leland, I'd like to talk to you out here

for a moment, if I might.

Suddenly, I'm not in the meetings?

- Ann, it was an informal get together.

- Was it informal?

Nothing of a business nature was discussed?

- Ann, you're not being excluded if that's

what you're worried about.

- That is what I'm worried about, Douglas.

And if I'm not in the room, I am, perforce, excluded.

Now, let's get one thing straight,

I am doing all the spade work for this guy,

I am carrying 100% of the workload,

and if anything happens pertaining

to him or his connections, I want to know about it.

Are we in accord on that? - Yes.

Yes, we are.

- Good.

Gerard, we've got work to do.

- I have a feeling that she and Hillary are

going to get along just fine.

- Is it true, Ms. Falcone, that you have the following

collection of furs?

A full length lynx, a red fox bombardier's jacket,

a leather cape trimmed in sable, and a stole

constructed of white mink teddy bears?

- OK.

- I assume your husband paid for all of those.

- Who else?

- What's your point here, Mr. Brunner?

Nobody's contesting who earns the money.

- Well, this isn't about who earns it.

This is about who spends it.

- Like he didn't want to see me at ringside wearing those furs?

- Well, let's talk about ringside

for a moment, Ms. Falcone.

You were at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas the night

your husband fought Vinny Pazienza, were you not?

- I was at all my husband's fights.

- Well, right now, I'd like to talk

about that one in particular.

Do you remember who it was were talking

to at ringside that night?

- No, I don't.

- Does the name Jack Nicholson ring a bell?

- So I was talking to Jack.

So what?

- Isn't it a fact, ma'am, that your husband made it

a practice of trying to make eye contact

with you between rounds? - Yeah.

- Well, isn't it also a fact that during that fight

in Vegas, every time he looked up you were

fawning over Mr. Nicholson?

- I was not fawning over him.

I was talking to him.

- All right, Ms. Falcone, enough about Jack Nicholson.

What was it you were doing that night in Atlantic City?

- We're here to discuss finances.

- Trump Plaza, another man's room, another man's bed.

You knew full well the effect that it

would have on your husband, yet you

went ahead and did it anyway.

- Bobby, did you ever ask yourself why I did it?

- I don't care why you did it.

- I care.

I care that I felt neglected.

I care that you took me for granted.

I care that all anybody ever worried about

was whether or not you were happy.

Is Bobby all right?

How's Bobby feeling?

What does Bobby need?

What about me, huh?

What does Yvette need?

- That's it.

He's done asking me questions.

You're done asking her questions.

I spent enough money on this broad to last three lifetimes.

You want anything else out of me, you come to court.

Come on, let's get out of here.

- That wasn't easy for me.

Bobby only surrounds himself with people who tell

him he's right all the time.

Nobody stands up to him.

- We need to talk about what we're going to do next.

- You do.

- What's that?

- Stand up to him.

You're not the least bit afraid.

- This is what I do for a living, Yvette.

- Well, I can't tell you how grateful

I am to have you on my side.

Are you free for lunch by any chance?

I guess you could just say I'm an old-fashioned girl, Arnie.

I love watching men fight.

- Is that why you married a boxer?

- That's one reason, yeah.

Truth is there's all kinds of fighting.

In some ways, I feel as though I've grown out of the kind

my husband does.

- Right now, you're still angry.

That's OK.

I'm not saying you don't have a right to be angry.

- I know you're not.

- It's just a matter of getting past that.

- See, Arnie, I know you have my best interests at heart.

I also know that for many women, the advice

you're giving me is exactly what they need to hear.

I'm not like them.

I don't need a shrink.

I don't need a father figure.

I don't need someone to hold my hand.

- What do you need?

- Someone who doesn't flinch, someone

who won't act reasonable with my husband, who won't back up,

who will take it to him and take him out.

- You really think that's what's called for here?

- Oh, yeah.

Not only that, I think that's who you really are.

I think underneath that reasonable, sensitive exterior,

there's a killer and a stud trying to break free.

- There may be something to that.

- Ah.

Do you have a hard and fast policy against getting

sexually involved with clients?

- It's hard, just not terribly fast.

I'm kidding.

- Really?

I was hoping you were serious.

- Mr. Quinn, I'd like you to tell us

why on the 3rd of March 1992, you decided

to go and see Kevin Hackett.

- I wanted him to know what he had done to my daughter.

I wanted him to hear it from me.

- Why the gun, Mr. Quinn?

- I wanted to frighten him.

I wanted him to experience a small fraction of the terror

that he had put my daughter through,

and I couldn't do that with words alone.

- Would you describe for the court what happened when

you got to the Hackett house?

- The first thing I did was to knock on the door.

His car was out front, so I knew he was there.

And when no one answered, I went in through a window.

- What did you do when you found him?

- I woke him up.

- Tell me what you said, Mr. Quinn.

- I said, my name is Thomas Quinn

and I'm here to talk to you about my daughter.

- And how did he respond?

- He sat up in bed and lit a cigarette,

asked me what she looked like these days.

I said, what difference does that make?

He proceeded to tell me what a foxy 16-year-old she had been.

He described to me in great detail what her body looked

like when it was soaking wet--

described what she had felt like,

described how he had raped her in words I will not repeat.

Well, I let him finish--

but I took out my gun and I shot him.

- Mr, Quinn, what was in your mind at that moment?

- I heard my daughter's voice.

I saw the way she had looked when she was a little girl--

the way she had looked when her mother was still alive.

And I felt as though I could--

I could still protect her from that man.

So I did.

I stopped him.

- I have nothing further.

- You don't ordinarily carry a gun, do you, sir?

- No.

- But you carried one this time, didn't you?

- Well, I said I wanted to scare him.

- Right.

And when you knocked on the door and no one answered,

you went through a window and crept through the house

until you found Kevin Hackett sleeping in his bed?

- That's right.

- Now, is it your testimony, sir, that you were temporarily

insane during all that?

- Yes.

- And you're saying that the sight of this individual

coupled with his uttering of your daughter's name

pushed you over the edge?

- He did more than utter her name.

- Let's say that he did.

The question I'm asking is whether or not you were in fact

insane when you killed him?

- Objection.

- Sustained.

- Mr. Quinn, at the time you shot and killed Kevin Hackett,

did you understand the act you were performing?

- I wasn't really thinking about it.

- I didn't ask you whether or not you were thinking about it.

I asked you whether or not you understood what you were doing.

- I don't know.

- You had lost touch with reality

to that extent, Mr. Quinn?

You didn't know you were carrying a loaded gun?

You didn't know the difference between right and wrong?

- Objection, Your Honor. - Sustained.

One question at a time, Ms. Schiff.

- Were you able to distinguish between right and wrong

at the time of the shooting?

I'll ask you again, sir.

Were you able to distinguish between right and wrong?

- Of course, I was.

And of course, I understood what it was that I did.

This beast destroyed my little girl's life.

And for that, he served a big seven years in prison.

I wasn't insane.

I set out to kill him and that's what I did.

And I killed him because he deserved to die.

[chatter]

- Good morning, gentlemen.

- Ms. Kelsey.

- I must say I'm rather surprised that you

wanted to reconvene today.

- Were you?

- Well, given the tenor of yesterday's meeting,

I was under the impression that you weren't

taking us all that seriously.

- Well, let me assure you, we take you very seriously.

- Good.

What I'm going to want access to right off the bat

are the records of patients who were

released from the hospital.

- Did you have any particular patient in mind

when you initiated this action, Mr. Samuels?

- We discussed this yesterday.

- I was addressing my question to your client, Ms. Kelsey.

- Given that I am my client's legal representative,

I was assuming that you were addressing

your question to both of us.

- I think it's possible your client is

possessed of certain information he has not yet shared with you.

- Look, are we here to discuss moving forward with this

or aren't we? - We are.

- Fine.

In that case, we would like to know

if you are prepared to begin furnishing us with records.

- Why don't we start with this?

- Oh!

Very tricky, guys.

- Gerard, let me read it.

- It's not necessary that you read this.

This is a diversionary tactic.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the issues at hand.

- That's the hospital file on Mr.

Samuels' mother, Ms. Kelsey.

We believe that's what's motivating this gentleman,

and we think it's best to be honest about it, particularly

when it can be argued that it is her family that

is responsible for what happened to her.

- Oh, really, Mr. Pike, huh?

And how do you figure that, huh?

How do you figure that?

How do you figure that a salesman working two jobs

with a 10-year-old son could take care of a woman who was

compulsively depressed, huh?

Who was-- who was delusional?

Who wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep,

would pace back and forth all night

long because she was hearing voices nobody else could hear.

How do you figure that?

- Gerard, what's going on?

- My mother was a patient in the hospital that these--

these gentlemen represent.

She was-- began as a mild obsessive compulsive disorder

case and got gradually worse.

She was admitted in April 1966 and then released in June 1969

so that she could return home, but the problem was she--

she needed to be cared for.

She needed to be protected!

One day, she just wandered off and she never came back.

I don't know Mickey Kantor--

or Bob Reich-- or Donna Shalala--

or Hillary Clinton.

I live with my father--

in Canoga Park.

I-- I th--

I think about my mother--

every-- every single day.

[sobbing]

- I don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

- Well, what exactly changed?

- What changed? I told you.

He disavowed everything we've been

claiming throughout the trial.

He told the jury to find him guilty.

- Which doesn't mean they're going to.

- Gwen, if they don't believe he was temporarily insane,

they have no basis on which to exonerate him.

- The basis is they don't want to send him to jail.

The basis is they like him.

- Do you think that's enough?

- You're the trial lawyer, but I have

to believe that every woman on that jury

wants to have a father like him and every man on that jury

wants to be a father like him.

I think that's plenty.

- I have to get to court.

- Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.

The only problem is it wasn't the Lord talking.

It was Tom Quinn.

What happened to Laura Quinn was horrible.

No one can deny that.

Kevin Hackett committed a terrible crime,

a crime for which he was tried, convicted,

and sentenced to prison.

He served that sentence.

And as is the case with anyone else, he was released.

The length of his sentence is not at issue here

nor is the nature of Mr. Hackett's crime.

The only crime we're here to consider is Mr. Quinn's.

And he went to see Kevin Hackett carrying a loaded gun.

He broke into Mr. Hackett's house,

confronted him while he lay in his bed, and he executed him.

This was not an act of self-defense.

By his own admission, he was not temporarily insane at the time.

It was an act of murder.

And it must be seen for what it is and it must be punished.

I ask that you find Tom Quinn guilty.

[chatter]

- By his own admission, he was not temporarily insane.

You heard Tom Quinn say it.

You heard the prosecutor repeat it.

The fact is they're both wrong.

Mr. Quinn is no more in a position

to authoritatively testify to his own sanity

than he is to his own insanity.

It's you who are charged with the responsibility

of determining that.

And all you can do is speculate.

What was Tom Quinn's state of mind

when he faced the man who had raped

and brutalized his daughter?

The man who had single-handedly transformed her from a normally

happy and healthy teenager into a frail and frightened woman,

a woman who has lost an irretrievable part of her life

for no other reason than that a depraved and vicious man

wanted to avail himself of her?

What must it have been like for Tom Quinn to stand face

to face with that man, to hear him boast of his conquest

and further defile the woman he had already destroyed?

Was he insane when he pulled the trigger?

Ask yourself, if it had been your daughter

and you had been face to face with the man who

did what this man did, how sane would you have been?

Ask yourself if Tom Quinn really deserves

to go to prison for doing what each of us in our hearts

would have wanted to do ourselves.

[chatter]

- Something about Samuels, huh?

- Yes, it is.

It's potentially a wonderful opportunity for all of us.

- You mean you haven't heard?

- Heard what?

- Gerard Samuels doesn't know a soul in Washington,

made the whole thing up.

- What?

- Yeah.

Ann said it all came out yesterday.

Either he's delusional or a very good liar.

Either way, he's no friend of Bill's.

- When you say that he's no friend of Bill's, do you

mean he's not a close friend?

- He's not any kind of a friend.

He doesn't know Bill and Bill doesn't know him.

- When you say that he doesn't know Bill,

do you mean he doesn't know Bill,

but that there are others within the Washington establishment

that he does know?

For instance, does he know Mickey Kantor?

Does he know Warren Christopher?

- Douglas, he doesn't know anybody!

[sighs]

- I feel like such an idiot.

- Well, there's no reason for you to feel that way.

You did what anybody would have done.

- But I wanted it so badly, you know.

I mean, I wouldn't have thought that being near power

would have been so important to me.

It was.

It was all I could think about.

[knocking on door]

Gerard-- what are you doing here?

- I called him.

I asked him to come in.

- I'm still a client, right?

- Yeah, Gerard, I guess you're still a client.

- Except we all know the only reason

you took my case is because I said I knew all those people.

- Is that why you said it?

- I said it so that I wouldn't be who I was.

I do that.

I make things up.

I sit in my house and I invent other people for myself

to become.

I was 10 years old when my mom came back to live with us.

She would act so crazy, you know.

So what I would do was I'd stay in my room

and I'd pretend to be someone else.

- Do you know when you're pretending?

- No.

Not always.

What happens to me now is that I invent someone for myself to be

and then I become that person.

I'm them.

I'm them when I'm around other people.

I'm them when I'm by myself.

I wish I could stop.

I wish-- I wish I could control my mind--

but I can't.

I'm my mother's son--

you know.

- Yeah, and I'm sure that's not an easy thing to be.

But what you have to trust in now,

Gerard, is that we don't need for you

to be anybody other than who you are in order

for us to help you.

- But I--

I don't have a case.

- Maybe you don't, but you came into our office

and we took you on as a client.

And that means we owe you something.

Now, maybe you need a lawyer, maybe you need a shrink,

maybe you just need somebody to listen

to you when you don't want to pretend you're somebody else.

But whatever it is, my name is Stuart Markowitz,

this is my office, I'm here to help you however I can.

OK?

- OK.

- What we do straight off the bat

is place notice on the State Athletic Commission.

That way, we put them on notice that there will

be a claim on his earnings. - Sounds great.

- Now, what I want to do at the same time

as that is I want to subpoena his manager, his trainer,

his accountant, and every sparring partner

he's had over the past two years.

He says he didn't want to fight because he wasn't ready.

I want to hear what they say.

- You're pumped up, aren't ya?

- A little.

- I want you pumped up a lot.

I shouldn't have done that, right?

- I don't know.

- It's just that you have this effect on me, you know.

Seeing you fight for me has this effect on me.

[knocking on door]

- What is this I see?

- Don't you knock?

- I did knock.

You didn't hear it.

I guess you was otherwise engaged.

- I guess we were.

- Look, this is one of those classically

embarrassing moments.

- Oh, I'm not embarrassed, man.

I'm mad!

- Uh, you have every right to be mad.

- I came here because she told me to come.

I came here because she said she wanted to talk.

I came here for that!

And I got to see this?

- Look, I'm sorry.

Nobody planned for this to happen.

- Put up your hands.

- I'm not going to put up my hands.

- Come on, I'll hit you with jabs, just left-handed jabs.

Come on, big shot!

- Look, Bobby, you hit me with a jab,

a combination, a hook or anything else,

your career is over.

- I ain't thinking about my career right now.

- Well, maybe you should be.

You're a professional prizefighter

licensed by the State Athletic Commission.

Use your hands outside the ring, you're committing a felony.

That means you won't be permitted

to fight for a long time, long enough so there

won't be any more big fights.

There won't be any more big purses.

And what purses there are will in all likelihood

go to me since I will sue you and I will win.

- I ain't going to do what I did the last time

you cheated on me.

I ain't going to fall apart this time.

This time, I'm taking everything that I'm feeling right now

and I'm going back into the ring.

I'm going back into the ring, and you

watch what I do in there.

And when you're finished with this guy, call me.

- You are incredible.

- Get out of my office.

- What?

- I said get out of my office.

Find yourself another lawyer.

- Why?

What did I do?

- You set me up.

You set him up.

- Why would I want to do that?

- So you could sit back and watch.

I'll send over your file.

I'll return your check.

You can either give them both to a lawyer who wants to sleep

with you more desperately than I do,

or, since he's willing to be your gladiator again,

you can go back to your husband.

[chatter]

- How are you doing?

- OK.

- You feel like taking a walk?

- No.

I'm all right.

- Hi, Daddy.

- Laura.

What are you doing here?

- I wanted to be with you.

- You didn't have to come down here.

- I wanted to.

I wanted to be with you, daddy.

- Jury's back.

Let's go.

- Has the jury reached a verdict?

- We have, Your Honor.

- What say you?

- We find the defendant Thomas Quinn not

guilty by reason of insanity.

- By the power entrusted to me by the California Penal

Code Section 1026, I find the defendant

to be no longer insane.

Mr. Quinn, you're free to go.

We're adjourned.

[chuckles]

- I can't thank you enough. - Don't worry about it, Tom.

It was a pleasure.

- Um, I'd like to thank you too.

- Well, you're welcome, Laura.

Good luck.

- Come on, honey, let's go home.

- You weren't the least bit mad at him, were you?

- No.

- Why is that?

- Why should I be mad at him?

Because he's got problems?

Because he's mentally ill?

- You think that's what it is?

- Well, I don't think it's because he's evil.

- You don't?

- No.

I think it's because he had a real rough time growing up.

Now he's trying to get through life the best he can.

- Come here.

Watching you with Gerard in your office today

reminded me of how much I love you.

- So, uh, how much do you love me?

- Very much.

Very, very much.

[theme music]