Helen: Yes. The law does protect spouses from giving testimony against each other but there is no such immunity when it comes to father and son, and they don't get to just make up a law because in there minds the love is just as powerful. What's at stake here is the integrity of this process. He committed perjury, he lied under oath and if we tolerate it we have to consider the worst-case scenario, the day may come where witnesses lie to help free premeditated murderers. This case, this case is the worst-case scenario a murderer is walking free because the defendant committed perjury. Your honour, you and I… you and I walk in to this courtroom every day without clients. In essence, we work for the room. What he did to this room… And technicalities and fourth amendments… He killed her and stuffed her in a closet. He killed a nun! He…
Everyone looks shocked.
Ellenor: Helen
Helen: I'm sorry. He, he lied. We work for the room, your honour, we work for the room.
She walks back to her table with Ellenor's worried glance following her.
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Another courtroom.
Helms: I did say once that I thought I wounded him, but I was wrong
Rebecca: And what suddenly convinced you you were wrong?
Helms: When we caught him he wasn't wounded so obviously, I was wrong.
Rebecca: Or maybe the man you shot at, the man shooting at you, was not the same man you chased in the stairwell?
Helms: No, it was him. I saw his face.
Rebecca: And what about the blood that was found?
Helms: That was old dried blood.
Rebecca: In this report -
Helms: I first thought it was fresh because in my excitement I thought I wounded him, but it was old dried blood that had been there.
Rebecca: And did you test this blood to determine -
Thompson: Objection. Relevance.
Swackheim: Sustained
Rebecca: Your honour,
Swackheim: The jury will disregard any mention of blood. It has no relevance whatsoever! Counsel, step up.
Rebecca: Those blood samples could exonerate my client. He can't know it's old blood and the fact that those samples were somehow lost…
Swackheim: There will be no mention of blood, it's not relevant and if you mention the police losing it you but yourself a jail cell.
Rebecca: I am just trying…
Swackheim: This trial will not be prevented by sleazy defence lawyering. I've had about enough of you already, damn it!
Helen's office
Lindsay: You need to take some time off.
Helen: Yeah. I'm not losing my mind, Lindsay, I….
Lindsay: You just mixed up defendants. You called the perjurer a nun killer, Helen. I'm worried about you. You've had this look in your eye lately and your voice… Will they give you some time off?
Helen: I think so. It's just not fair anymore.
Lindsay: What's not fair? Tell me what's not fair.
Helen: My sister has a radio.
Lindsay: Your sister has a radio?
Helen: She has a nice job at an insurance company. She gets to sit at a desk, and she plays her radio. She can hear music during the day. Just once I'd like to turn up the radio in that room…and sing the bad days away. Sing away.
Lindsay: If I have to take you on vacation myself, I will. You definitely need some time off.
The conference room.
Bobby: Four patients in three days, all routine surgeries, all dead from streptococcus sepsis. Your hospital had a bacteria.
Leach: Four cases does not constitute an outbreak.
Bobby: All the same strain? In three days and you don't tell him? He asked what happened you just leave that out?
Leach: The other patients have privacy rights, I just can't reveal their case histories.
Bobby: Is that what your going to say when I recall you? Seven million dollars today or I notify the health marshal.
Walton: That kind of threat could get you a trip to the overseer.
Bobby: I'll risk it. I'm tempted to call the district attorney. This borders on corporate murder. You had a lethal strain of bacteria killing patients and you sat on it! The health marshal might close your doors to investigate it. At 300,000 a day, that'll run you two to three million and that's just in actuals. The long term damage could be worse, that's probably why you concealed the outbreak in the first place. You were afraid the health marshal would move in. You'll pay the seven today and be grateful and I don't care how you split your policies.
Walton: You still haven't discovered negligence as to her cause of death.
Bobby: I can establish a cover up and that's all I need and we all know it.
Minor: I asked you what happened and you looked me in the eye and say, "I don't know". You looked me right in the eye.
Leach: Because of him, Arnold. We get sued for everything because of lawyers like him. Every patient that comes through the door we have to look at as a potential plaintiff. There was nothing I could say after that could bring her back.
Bobby: So, why even volunteer the truth?
Leach: Yes, sometimes we lie, Mr. Donnell.
Walton: Nelson,
Leach: I'm talking in general, lawsuits have driven the truth under ground, Mr. Donnell.
Bobby: Well, this one dug it up, didn't it?
Walton: I'll have to discuss all this with the board before I get back to you.
Bobby: You're authorized to settle.
Walton: Not at that amount.
Bobby: Well, then, go talk to them.
Walton and Leach leave.
Minor: I thought he was a good man.
Eugene: He probably is. That's what's so sad about it.
A courtroom
Rebecca: How did it happen that we can't trust the police? I mean, this is an institution that is supposed to protect us. I don't doubt these officers think the guy is Byron Little. They tackled him in the stairwell after they saw the man on the balcony run into the stairwell. It's completely reasonable to believe it must be the same guy. Hey, I did. I mean one look at him, he looks like your typical urban criminal. He acts violent and we all know our honourable your honour thinks he's the guy too. But mistakes and cover-ups, those are two very different things. One of the officers said he wounded the suspect, blood was even found on the balcony, though it's been deemed irrelevant for the sake of this trial, but when they examined Mr. Little back at the police station they found no wound, and suddenly the officer amends his account and says he must have missed. And they march into this court and positively identify him as the shooter. They see him 30 feet above on a darkened balcony for three seconds tops, all the while being shot at and yet, they're positive. Not it looked like him, not it was probably him, definitely him. How could that be? And why start hiding internal reports from the defence lawyers? Why forget to mention the blood? Why come in with all this absolute, positive eyewitness accounts? Why forget to tell us 'oh yeah, one of our officers who was so positive wasn't so positive before he changed his mind'. Why not just be up front with what you got? Why? Because without all that absolute positive stuff, they lose him, they lose the guy they think did it. And let's be fair, they lose so many, and I know it turns stomachs. It's turned our honourable your honour's stomach so, he thinks nothing now of taping criminal defendant mouths' shut, of handcuffing them, making them look guilty. Hey, it's his court, he's old, he's probably had enough and he doesn't care. But the thing about juries, it tends to be their one and only time serving this process. So, they tend to take it seriously, and not just rush through with a bunch of assumptions. And therein lies Byron Little's only hope. Not with the police, not with our honourable your honour, it's with you. You have two choices here. You can hold up the oath you took at the beginning of all this, or not. Maybe guys like this, we're not supposed to care.
Rebecca sits.
Thompson: Two eyewitnesses saw him shoot the gun, saw him run into the stairwell. They pursued him into the stairwell and caught him. Sometimes we just want things to be all juicy and complicated when they're not.
Thompson sits down
A courtroom.
Hollings: I am mindful of how difficult it must be to be faced with testifying against one's own father, especially when that testimony could result in life imprisonment. But I am also mindful of the courts' need to assure the integrity of this criminal justice process. Perjury is to be taken very, very seriously. I know you know this. I know you were apprised of the risks. Nevertheless, you chose to assume those risks. In fact, given these warnings, your commission of perjury was particularly knowing. I sentence you to 20 years, at [something something] {I couldn't pick it up}. The sentence is to begin immediately. Bailiff. We're adjourned.
Ellenor: (to Gary) We'll appeal.
Gary: (as the bailiff takes him away) Ellenor,
Ellenor: Gary, I want you to hang in there. We're going to appeal. We're going to appeal.
Ellenor looks desperate. Gordon sits down, stunned. Helen's face is expressionless as she stares straight ahead. We see Lindsay in the gallery looking at her worriedly, but Helen doesn't move.
Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt
Eugene: How'd it go?
Ellenor: Not good
Ellenor goes to conference room and Eugene follows her.
Eugene: Tell me.
Ellenor: He's just a kid. He got afraid at the last second. He didn't want to hurt his dad.
Eugene: What'd he get?
Ellenor: Maximum. 20 years. God, Eugene, what have I done?
Eugene: Hey, this isn't on you, Ellenor
Ellenor: If I would've come down on him harder, if I would have just anticipated a felony murder…
Eugene: This isn't on you.
Ellenor: He's going away for 20 years.
A courtroom
Swackheim: Will the defendant please rise? Has the jury reached a unanimous verdict?
Foreperson: We have, your honour.
Swackheim: What say you?
Foreperson: On the matter of the Commonwealth vs. Byron Little, on the charge of attempted murder, we find the defendant not guilty.
Swackheim: Unlock him, let him go. Jury's free, we're adjourned.
Little walks away
Rebecca: You're welcome.
The camera pulls back, showing Rebecca sitting in the courtroom as everyone leaves.
-------------------- End --------------------