NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,
the police who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Last year was a total aberration.
Last year was the beginning of a dynasty
with a capital
Without Pedro? No way.
That's right. Who's your daddy?
At least it's not Steinbrenner.
Big Unit, baby. World championship,
back where it belongs. The Bronx!
Pedro is a Met.
Good luck. Guy's been in there half an hour.
Hey, fella? Everything all right?
Think he died in there.
Smells like he did. Come on!
(TRAIN HORN BLOWING)
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
Morning rush, 8:22 to Grand Central. Five DOAs and counting.
What about the driver?
Dogs don't think anybody's in there.
We'll know for sure once we open her up.
Witnesses?
Two so far. Railroad guys.
Don't know how much they could have seen
fixing a switch 100 yards away.
We'll need to talk to them anyway. Casey Jones, too.
Casey Jones?
The driver of the train. What do you call it? The engineer.
This isn't some crossing in the middle of a cornfield in Kansas.
How the hell did this thing get on the tracks?
The busted guard gate up the service road,
it looks like he crashed through there.
Any security video? Supposed to be.
I'll call the monitoring center and get it cued up.
From every camera in the yard. We're gonna need ID on this vehicle.
We ran the plates already. Stolen.
Off a car in Van Cortlandt Park three days ago.
Soon as CSU finds the VIN...
The rest of the passengers, bumps and bruises,
we need everybody lD'd, everybody interviewed.
There's a public school close by, we're gonna bus them over there.
Follow up at the hospitals with the serious injured later.
All right, thanks a lot, Sarge. Good work.
Stolen plates, busted gate, restricted area. This is no accident.
He'd have to know about the gates, the schedule, the crossing.
Disgruntled employee?
Been known to happen. Mayhem in the workplace.
That's one possibility. I have another.
Terrorists.
That's a cheery thought.
I'm full of them, pal.
Suddenly we're on top of the damn thing.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
No signals, no alarms?
No warning whatsoever.
Just that damn SUV, looming up at me.
I slammed on the brakes, but...
Felt like we were going over a cliff. Slid right into it.
You know, I maybe heard something coming over the radio
just as we were plowing into the guy.
Awarning?
Could've been.
To tell you the truth, between the horn and the brakes
and the sound of the crash, my ears are still ringing.
FONTANA: You get anything?
No. They were clear down the other end of the yard,
they didn't even see the crash.
Any trace of the driver?
Dogs were right. Whoever was in there is long gone.
ASSISTANT M.E.: Seven dead here.
Halfa dozen on their way to the O.R., could go either way.
Did they get everyone off the train?
So they tell me. All right, thanks.
What do we have?
Seven so far, it could possibly go as high as 13.
What about the driver?
No trace of the bastard.
Are the Feds working the terrorist angle?
Well, the Joint Terrorism Task Force is checking to see
if today is some kind of anniversary
that might've triggered an attack.
Grand Central, Penn Station and Metro-North are all on red alert.
Anybody take credit for it yet?
Not yet.
Well, if he is aterrorist, he's no suicide martyr.
Not all of them are. The guys who hit the trains in Madrid
hid their bombs in suitcases and gym bags
and got the hell out of there.
Like this guy.
I gotta tell you, this doesn't feel like aterrorist.
It feels like a nut job to me.
Well, let's hope you're right.
Oh, man. He just blew right on through there.
Yeah, but the question is who was minding the store?
When the car crashed through the gate,
why didn't it set off an alarm?
It did. But by the time we radioed the train...
Why the slow response?
Happened at shift change, 8:00 a.m.
Yeah, sure. Coffee and danish,
somebody reading the newspaper,
nobody's paying attention to the monitors.
Guy knew what he was doing.
Pull it up a little closer.
Well, somebody's in there, but I can't tell if he's black or white, young or old.
Male or female, for that matter.
Camera's set up to catch kids coming over the gate,
trespassers, not cars crashing through it.
Well, he crashed the gate at 8:00 straight up, right?
FONTANA: Right.
Collision with the train occurred at 8:03.
He's cutting it pretty close.
What time was the site secured?
FONTANA: 8:20.
So he had time to get away.
How many ways out of the train yard?
Couple of pedestrian gates, but they were locked.
Security cameras?
We've already looked at that footage.
Nobody in or out of those gates, before or after.
Maybe he walked out the way he came in. Right through there.
He might still be in with the passengers hiding in plain sight.
Parks the SUV on the tracks,
sticks around to see what happens.
All that chaos, who's gonna notice?
Yeah, then they seal off the scene,
he's stuck, gets processed with everyone else.
We'll go back, see if they come across anybody that doesn't seem to fit.
We've processed 100, roughly. Another 120 or so to go.
What about the ones who went to hospitals?
We'll follow up on them in a day or two.
Do you get Aided reports on everybody?
We're looking at IDs, addresses,
dates of birth, where people got on, where they were headed.
Tickets? If they got 'em. Lot of people don't.
It's a commuter line.
You ever ride it? Perish the thought.
Yeah, we're pretty casual as far as tickets go.
A lot of monthly passes.
Is there anyone we should re-interview?
Nobody on the train saw nothing.
I mean, one minute they're cruising along
like every other day, and the next...
We were just wondering if one of the passengers wasn't a passenger at all.
You mean the driver of the SUV?
Anybody strikes us as wrong, we flag them, definitely.
What's the latest tally?
Last I heard, it's up to nine.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Fontana.
Well, that's great. Thanks.
They got the VIN number.
What about prints? DNA?
Come on, you don't want the whole thing handed to you
on a silver platter, do you?
Why not? A ground ball every once in a while?
The SUV belongs to a guy named Lenny Thorne.
Why does that name ring a bell?
Date rape, a hung jury, mistrial.
Right. The D.A.'s gonna retry that case.
He even held a press conference to that effect.
Guess who the A.D.A. was? Marc Nesoff.
Should I know that name?
Doesn't matter. Guess where he was yesterday morning?
On the train?
On his way into the office.
FONTANA: Nesoff lives in Chappaqua.
He takes the same train into Grand Central every day of the week.
Wouldn't be hard for Thorne to figure that out.
What do we know about this Mr. Thorne?
Systems analyst, college educated creep.
There was an earlier case, the woman dropped the criminal charges,
she took a big civil settlement, his family paid her off.
I'm not sure it's enough for a warrant.
FONTANA: Well, it should be.
Well, this is a terrorist investigation, right?
As of now.
Patriot Act. We've got more than enough to get a warrant under that.
I assume he's armed and dangerous.
Police! Freeze!
FALCO: Get your hands up! Let me see your hands!
OFFICER: Captain, clear.
Hands on your head! On your knees!
Shut yourmouth! Shut up!
No problem. You heard the man, shut up!
Detectives, we found this in the bedroom closet.
It isn't mine. I have no idea how it got there.
Man, don't even go there, we're not in the mood.
I don't know.
FONTANA: You don't know?
Nope. I don't know.
But it's your car.
Must've been stolen. Did you report it?
I didn't know it was gone, until y'all come crashing in my apartment.
When was the last time you saw it?
Couple days ago.
Told you. Found a primo parking spot.
Didn't have to move it until Tuesday.
You stole some plates, you put them on your car,
you drove the car onto the tracks,
derailing the train, and killing 10...
Twelve.
Twelve people and injuring God knows how many others.
Wasn't me.
You know who was on that train?
No idea, man.
Marc Nesoff.
Nesoffthe D.A.?
No way. Way.
He hurt?
Too bad for you, no, he wasn't.
That's quite a coincidence that your car derails the train that Nesoff was on.
All it is. A coincidence.
Oh, no, Lenny. It's much more than that.
It's called motive.
M-O-T-I-V-E. Motive.
I'm not worried about the retrial
if that's why you think I did this.
You tied that girl up in her own apartment, you raped her at gunpoint.
It was a game. She asked me to.
Is that how she wound up in the hospital? Playing a game?
They got you cold on rape, sodomy, false imprisonment.
I'll beat the next one same as I beat the first trial.
A mistrial? Hung jury? You won't get that lucky again.
Luck had nothing to do with it.
All I need is one girl on that jury to make eye contact with.
You're not that charming.
I just convince her I could never have done
such a nasty thing as they claim I did.
She looks in my eyes and she knows.
I'm not that kind of guy.
He's a cocky bastard.
The guy's a piece of work.
So what do you think?
Oh, I like him a lot for it.
I think he looks good. Means, motive, opportunity, he's got no alibi to speak of.
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
Sorry to disturb you, Loo. Lab said it was urgent.
Thanks.
Well, they got two sets of prints on the steering wheel,
Thorne's and someone who's not in the system.
Doesn't mean anything.
He's right. He could have loaned his car to a friend a week ago, or a month ago.
Well, better to put it to rest anyway.
Go on over to Intel,
see if they've finished checking backgrounds on the passengers.
What about Prince Charming here? We were just getting started.
I'll take care of him.
Post 9111, we do more terrorism than drug work, truthfully.
We have agents from Customs, Immigration, NYPD, DEA, IRS, FBI,
and access to all their systems.
Do you think that this was a terrorist attack?
At first I thought, "Okay, here we go."
But it's been quiet,
no chatter, no other incidents.
We're starting to be reasonably confident this was an isolated criminal act only.
We hear you have a suspect in custody.
Yeah, it looks good for us.
But there's a second set of prints.
We all know fingerprints don't come with a time stamp.
You complete the backgrounds on all the Aideds yet?
Yeah. Anybodyjump outatyou?
Aside from the faked injuries,
in anticipation of a big insurance settlement with the railroad?
People are amazing.
Hey, you have to answer when opportunity knocks.
Twelve men between the ages of 16 and 75
who had no ticket stub, no monthly pass,
couldn't remember where they boarded the train,
or had an inappropriate address relative to their station stop.
You run 'em?
No criminal records, not on any watch list. Four were vets,
we had BCI do a comparison against the second set of prints,
eliminated them right away.
Here are the other eight, for what it's worth.
Thank you very much. My pleasure.
Well, two of them live uptown,
near where Thorne says his SUV was stolen.
This list assumes these guys had real IDs.
But let's say that the driver is not a terrorist.
He stays around too long, he gets stuck there.
Has to show his real ID.
What have we got to lose?
I was visiting my girlfriend.
You told the detective you boarded the train at Purchase.
I was confused, okay? Freaked out.
I hit my head in the crash, I was groggy, okay? I kept saying Purchase,
I meant White Plains.
My girlfriend goes to Purchase,
her folks live in White Plains, okay?
Would you watch your tone of voice with us, please?
What are you, my parents?
If you don't stop acting like a tough guy right now,
I'm gonna take you over my knee and I'm gonna spank you
in front of all of your friends.
You get the message?
Sorry.
You showed the detective a student ID?
Yeah. We need to see it.
Uh, sure.
I already told the cops I didn't see anything before the crash.
Police officers. What?
"Cops" it's an offensive term.
Oh. Okay. I didn't know.
Now you do.
Okay, we're gonna have to copy this
see if it's authentic, these are easy to fake.
Oh, man I need it to get into the Student Union.
How am I gonna get dinner?
You don't have anything else? Passport? Driver's license?
Neither one.
FONTANA: How come you don't have a driver's license?
I don't drive.
You don't know how to drive a car?
This is New York City, never had to learn.
I'm a third generation, no driver's license New Yorker.
No driver's license. No passport.
So if we said to you, "Don't leave town."
Wouldn't dream of it.
"Dave Buckley, 35. Construction worker,
"cuts and bruises, treated at the scene."
Well, at least this guy has a driver's license.
I'd like to get done with this thing,
have another go at Lenny Thorne.
So would I.
BUCKLEY: Who is it?
New York City Police Department, Mr. Buckley.
Hang on a second.
Hey, yeah, come on in.
Sorry about the mess. I'm not much of a housekeeper.
Let me clear you a spot here.
That's okay, we won't be here that long.
We just wanted to ask you a few more questions about the train.
Looks like you've got cut up a little bit.
Uh, yeah, you know, flying glass.
You got kids?
Yeah, that's my daughter. She's six going on 16.
I know what you mean. I got two, a boy and a girl, three and six, also.
Yeah, those little girls, they're the best, though, huh? That father-daughter thing?
Oh, it's great.
Yeah I wish I could freeze her just at that age, you know?
You divorced?
Separated.
You know, just a temporary thing.
You know how it is.
Up and downs, we'll work it out.
Your wrist.
Huh?
Your wrist is bleeding.
Oh, yeah. I don't know why that keeps doing that.
Did that happen at the wreck?
Yeah, yeah.
They should've taken you to the hospital, had it sewn up.
Yeah, they wanted to, but I...
But what? You refused medical aid?
I don't have insurance.
Uh-huh.
That looks pretty fresh.
Yeah, well, I had it butterflied.
Yeah, I guess it probably busted loose.
I want to take a look at that.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It's gonna need a fresh bandage.
Yeah, there's some gauze over there.
Nick? Yeah?
This is not right. This is not right at all.
What do you mean?
This wasn't caused by flying glass.
Yeah, it is. Sure it was.
No, it's too clean.
This was caused by a blade.
You cut yourself. You slashed your wrist.
L---
Nick?
That's a blade cut. No question.
Why would you do that?
I don't know.
Well, you're gonna need a doctor.
I don't know why...
Why would you do such a thing, David?
David?
I didn't mean to hurt anybody.
I didn't mean to kill anybody.
You killed 12 people.
(CRYING)
I'm sorry.
(sums)
I just meant to kill myself.
You wanna give us a statement now?
Sure. Why not?
You think he's for real?
Do I think he really meant to commit suicide
when he put that SUV in front of the train?
I don't know. What difference does it make?
It might influence how he's charged.
His DNA's in that vehicle, his prints are on the steering wheel,
his signature's on the confession.
Is it bullet proof?
Witnessed, videotaped.
Wish there'd been a lawyer there.
He didn't want one.
Look,lhope you're charging him with 12 counts of murder one,
two hundred and fifty counts of attempted murder,
and whatever else you can throw at him.
I was at the scene, Counselor.
And if this case doesn't help bring back the death penalty in New York State,
I don't know what will.
It's hard to know where to begin with Mr. Buckley.
I think we can hold the multitude of lesser counts in reserve.
So the question is, which theory of murder two?
Well, why wouldn't you hedge your bets and charge both?
Well, until recently, that's exactly what we'd do.
There was a red alert ruling last year People v. Payne.
I'm not familiar with it.
The defendant shot the victim in the stomach with a shotgun.
There was some question about why,
so we charged him with both theories of murder two.
Thejury acquitted on intentional, convicted on depraved indifference.
So the strategy worked, you got your fallback position.
The Court of Appeals overturned the depraved indifference conviction.
Insufficient evidence.
And since he'd already been acquitted of intentional...
JACK: He walked.
I think we go with depraved.
Take the classic law school example,
throwing open the lion's cage in a crowded zoo,
without regard for the consequences.
That's exactly what he did, isn't it?
I'll draw up the indictment.
JACK: Who's his lawyer? Legal aid?
Someone just agreed to represent him, pro bono, a Rodney Fallon.
You know him?
Let's arrange a meeting.
My intent to file an affirmative defense.
Not guilty by reason of insanity.
This is a textbook example of depraved indifference.
And given that less than one percent of insanity defenses succeed...
It's still on the books, it ought to have some validity.
The public doesn't believe in insanity defenses anymore. Look at Andrea Yates.
If a woman who drowns her four children isn't crazy, who is?
That's Texas, this is New York City.
I don't think there's a red statefblue state schism on this issue.
We have every confidence of prevailing in front of ajury.
The jury is gonna see a very sympathetic man, Miss Borgia, not a monster.
Someone who deserves treatment, not punishment.
What are you looking for?
Man two.
Are you joking?
Fifteen years, each count. To be served concurrently.
As if he'd killed one person and not 12?
That was his intent. One person: himself.
I share my colleague's distaste for your proposal.
Well, make me a counter.
You shouldn't mislead your client, Mr. Fallon.
He's going to prison for the rest of his life.
That's no incentive.
We understand he has a large extended family.
We'll recommend that he serve his sentence in a downstate penitentiary.
No sale.
We'll schedule a 730 exam.
I have no doubt heWlbejudged competent to stand trial.
No doubt.
As you say, Miss Borgia,
these days everyone's competent to stand trial,
no matter how crazy they are.
JACK: The defendant stole an SUV,
crashed it through a security gate,
and left it directly in the path of a high-speed commuter train
full of people on their way to work.
He killed 12,
injured more than a hundred and fifty others.
Some of them sustained injuries
that will cripple them for the rest of their lives.
He put every single person on that train at risk.
Why he did it
is irrelevant.
That he did it
is incontrovertible.
And ultimately, the only thing that matters.
The deed speaks for itself.
Davey Buckley was out of his mind.
He wasn't thinking about the consequences of his actions.
He couldn't.
He was focused solely
on the insane act of taking his own life.
Davey Buckley has atroubled history
of behaviors that point to an undiagnosed mental illness.
Depression.
Bipolar disorder.
He never had the resources
to get the help he needed.
He fell through the cracks.
Davey Buckley was an accident waiting to happen.
Now, you and I know that there is no safety net for the working poor.
If he was rich, or even middle class,
this never would have occurred.
Davey Buckley is not criminally responsible for that tragic accident.
He timed his arrival at the security gate with the shift change
at the monitoring station,
so there was minimal opportunity
to alert the crew and avert the collision.
How would you characterize his actions?
Objection.
The witness has no insight as to Mr. Buckley's state of mind.
Mr. McCoy?
Detective,
did you form an opinion
about the expertise and efficacy
of the defendant's criminal activities in relation to this incident?
Highly organized, well planned, well executed.
What about the defendant's actions after the crash?
He remained at the scene,
mingled in with the real passengers,
he used a pocket knife to inflict some superficial wounds to his hands and arms,
he was treated by medical personnel,
and released.
JACK: How do you interpret those actions?
He was trying to blend in, get away like any other hit and runner.
Objection!
Sustained.
You arrested Mr. Buckley?
Yes.
Interrogated him?
I interviewed him, yes. Me and my partner.
He confessed?
He voluntarily gave us a statement, yes.
And after he confessed?
We processed him through the system.
Did you make any special arrangements for Mr. Buckley?
Special arrangements?
Given the circumstances surrounding this incident.
Were any special precautions taken regarding his incarceration?
He was placed on 24 hour suicide watch.
How do you think it's going?
I think we put on a strong case.
You think Fallon scored any points?
The fact that the police put Davey Buckley on a suicide watch?
A reasonable precaution.
I was going over their witness list for tomorrow.
There's a neighborhood storefront clinic doctor, and an expert for hire.
Who probably spent all of an hour with Davey Buckley,
but will tell us that he had a troubled childhood and he's clinically insane.
And what about this neighborhood doctor? What is that about?
Fallon's not interested in rehabilitating the insanity defense.
He's using this as a soapbox.
Mental health benefits for the working poor.
That could resonate with the jury.
Middle class people are worried about losing their health insurance.
This isn't about that.
I'm not going to let Fallon distract them.
FALLON: Well, according to these records,
Davey Buckley came to your clinic three times.
If that's what it says.
In fact, he saw a different doctor each time.
Do you remember what his symptoms were?
I'd have to look at the file.
Depression.
Do you remember what you prescribed for him?
Again, without refreshing my memory...
Haldol.
If that's what it says.
That's exactly what it says.
How much Haldol did you prescribe for Mr. Buckley?
Do you remember?
A year's worth? A month's worth?
It would have been less than that.
Four or five day's worth, at the most.
Did you ever do any follow up with Mr. Buckley, to see how he was doing?
We don't do follow up. We don't have the resources.
Are you a psychiatrist?
No.
Have you ever had any training in psychiatry or psychology?
Just the standard six-week rotation.
Yet, you felt competent in diagnosing Mr. Buckley as depressed?
He diagnosed himself.
If a patient tells me he's depressed...
You give him Haldol.
Three or four day's worth.
Why do people come to your clinic?
It's in the neighborhood.
Inexpensive.
If people don't have insurance...
In other words, they come because they have no other choice.
We do the best we can, under the circumstances.
Did Davey Buckley have insurance?
No... He didn't.
Do you think he would have come to your clinic if he had?
Probably not.
Are there circumstances under which you would have sent Mr. Buckley
to another facility for further care?
Sure. If he exhibited severe symptoms, of course we would have.
Thank you.
Redirect, Your Honor?
Go ahead.
Isn't it true, Doctor, that there is an unspoken policy at your clinic?
Objection!
Well, if there was an understanding,
certainly the witness can speak to it.
Overruled.
Isn't it your understanding, Doctor,
that whenever possible you're to throw cheap drugs at a patient
and not send them to the hospital for further treatment?
That is a gross overstatement.
Really?
Well, if you say so.
JUDGE: Mr. Fallon?
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
Mr. Fallon, please call your next witness.
Yes, I'd like to call expert witness, Dr. Sheldon Farnes.
That's not. No. I don't agree with that, I don't want you to.
JUDGE: Mr. Buckley that is not appropriate.
I'm sorry, Your Honor.
Davey, please. I don't agree to this. Not at all.
Mr. Fallon, please remind your client this is a court of law...
He's not my lawyer anymore. Davey.
No, I'm firing him, YourHonoL Davey, please.
FALLON: Your Honor, can we recess for a few minutes, please?
I want to represent myself, Your Honor.
That is not wise, Mr. Buckley.
I want to change my plea, too.
You wish to plead guilty?
Not guilty.
I wish to plead not guilty.
I don't understand, what...
No insanity, uh...
You know, just not guilty.
What the hell happened between close of court yesterday and this morning?
Why Davey Buckley's sudden change of heart?
Ichecked the visitor's log at Rikers.
His brother Thomas paid him a visit last night.
So I called Thomas, I asked him what they talked about.
He said he just tried to cheer Davey up.
Told him how well things were going,
what a great job Fallon was doing,
how persuasive their expert witness would be.
More or less.
Maybe brother Thomas was too convincing.
Buckley's starting to believe that Fallon's strategy might actually work.
I don't follow you.
If Davey Buckley is acquitted by reason of insanity,
he goes to a mental institution.
For an indeterminate amount of time.
He'd rather go to prison?
I don't know.
Doesn't it work to our advantage if he represents himself?
It's a wild card.
I hate to give an appellate court
anything to hang a reversal on.
Hopefully Judge Bradley won't let it get that far.
Mr. Buckley, do you understand the pitfalls of representing yourself?
The need for adequate legal counsel in our adversarial system?
Yes, Your Honor.
I have to warn you, Mr. Buckley,
you will forfeit your right to self representation
if you engage in disruptive or obstreperous conduct,
calculated to undermine,
or delay the progress of this trial.
I understand, Your Honor.
All right, Mr. Buckley.
You may proceed.
Your Honor, with all due respect.
I know the People's position, Mr. McCoy.
Your Honor,
in light of this decision, I would like to be relieved of my duties.
Your application is denied.
I need you to be standby counsel for Mr. Buckley.
Your Honor...
I'll not take no for an answer, Mr. Fallon.
Mr. Buckley, when will you be ready to call your first witness?
I only have one witness, Your Honor. Myself.
How do you propose to testify and do direct examination?
I thought I could write out the questions, and, uh...
Mr. Fallon could ask them, so I could answer.
Your Honor...
This idea is just further evidence that
Mr. Buckley shouldn't represent himself.
I think it's a very practical idea, Mr. Fallon.
Court will reconvene tomorrow.
(BANGS GAVEL)
"Did you really intend to kill yourself?"
BUCKLEY: Yes.
"Didn't you think other people would be hurt?"
I feel terrible about that.
I honestly thought that the train would demolish the SUV,
and just keep going.
The train was so much bigger, it was so much heavier.
And, uh...
And I thought it would just smash the car,
or it would push it aside, like a bulldozer.
"What was your state of mind that morning?"
I just wanted to put myself out of my misery.
That's all I was thinking about.
"Then why didn't you?"
I saw the train coming. And, uh...
I saw my little girl's face.
And I just... I couldn't do it.
I tried to drive the car off the tracks.
I swear to God. And it, it was stuck.
I didn't mean to hurt anyone
I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt.
I'm concerned that he's coming across
as an effective, sympathetic defendant.
I was going over Fallon's witness list,
the ones he would've called if Buckley hadn't fired him?
His brothers and sisters are on the list.
More sibling testimony
about the trials and tribulations of Davey Buckley.
That's the thing. There's another brother, Jimmy.
He's the oldest, owns a construction company.
Davey used to work for him.
Jimmy Buckley wasn't on Fallon's witness list.
All the others were, but not him.
I'm due back for cross. See what he has to say
JACK: You didn't think anyone else would get hurt?
No.
And you didn't want to leave your daughter fatherless?
I couldn't.
Commendable.
What about all the other fatherless daughters and sons you created
through your reckless disregard for other people's lives?
Objection. If I'm allowed to object.
You are. Sustained.
If you really wanted to kill yourself,
why didn't you use a gun, Mr. Buckley? Or a knife?
Take sleeping pills, throw yourself out of the window?
I wanted to be sure.
I didn't want to survive, and become a burden on my family.
Then why didn't you just walk onto the tracks,
throw yourself in front of the train?
I don't know.
What was the real reason you decided to derail that train?
I didn't want to derail the train, I wanted to kill myself.
Wasn't it to get your estranged wife's attention?
No, that wasn't the reason.
She's been here for you every day, hasn't she?
Yes, she has.
You succeeded in getting her attention...
And all that cost was 12 lives and hundreds of injuries.
Objection!
JUDGE: Sustained.
Do you think you're the victim here, Mr. Buckley?
No.
Were you hoping to gain her sympathy?
No.
Are you hoping that she'll take you back, even if you're in jail?
Your Honor, Mr. McCoy is busily painting a picture that is entirely speculative.
Sustained.
JACK: Nothing further, Your Honor.
JUDGE: Mr. Buckley, you may step down.
Does the Defense wish to call any other witnesses, Mr. Fallon?
Your Honor, the Defense rests.
Mr. McCoy?
The People have a witness to call on rebuttal, Your Honor. James Buckley.
JUDGE: All right, we will recess until tomorrow morning.
(BANGS GAVEL)
Davey's prone to melancholy.
Always has been.
I mean, he's sweet.
Funny. People like him. When's he up.
When he's down, when he's drinking...
He's dark as dark could be.
He has a drinking problem?
Since he was a kid, yeah.
JACK: He was sober at the time of the train wreck.
JAMES: On and off the wagon, his whole life.
Growing up,
did you and your family think of your brother as being mentally unstable?
More like hard luck.
Davey's in trouble again. Davey's got himself in another scrape.
Davey can't catch a break, poor kid.
JACK: What kind of trouble?
Trouble in school, trouble at work.
Couldn't pay attention, couldn't hold a job.
You say he couldn't hold a job? But he worked for you.
He had a wife, a new baby.
I told him, "This is your last chance. You have to promise me."
And he did.
How long did he work for you?
Nine months, maybe.
He started drinking again. On the job.
He was a hazard,
to himself and others.
So you fired him.
Had to.
He made me a promise,
I had to let him know I was serious this time.
Did you give him any further assistance?
I paid for rehab. Again. 30,000 a pop.
Did you ever encourage him to get any other kind of counseling, beyond rehab?
Many times over the years.
Told him I'd foot the bill for that too, no matter what.
He always waved me off, said he didn't need it.
Did you know that he'd gone to a clinic, seeking help for depression?
No, I didn't know.
Why not?
Why wouldn't he want you to know about that?
Ashamed, maybe.
That's how it is where we come from, you know.
It's a shameful thing to need help with...
You know, your emotions.
Your other brothers and sisters were scheduled to testify for the Defense.
Yeah, well, they still got a soft spot for him.
But not you.
I told Mr. Fallon I couldn't...
I couldn't stand up and swear.
Not in good conscience.
Did you think I was crazy, Jimmy?
You heard me. I thought you had troubles.
We all did.
Did I ever, uh...
Hear voices?
Hallucinate?
Not that I know, no.
Did I ever try to commit suicide?
Again, not that I know.
Did I ever threaten to kill myself?
Not until your marriage went sour.
Exactly.
So,
when I made those threats,
I mean, didn't you think that was a sign that something was wrong?
I didn't take them seriously.
You didn't? Why not?
You're all talk, Davey.
You're a daydreamer.
Have been your whole life.
So you didn't think I would go through with it?
And you didn't, did you?
Did you wish that I had?
Ah, come on.
Did you?
No.
Iwouldn't.
Never.
Well, why not?
I mean, that would be it, right? That would be the end of it.
No more.
No more Davey to worry about.
You gave up on me, Jimmy.
That's right, I did. You're right.
You knew I needed help.
When Maureen threw me out, who did I call? I called you.
Yes, you did.
I called you first. And what did I say?
You said you were in desperate straits.
I needed help.
What did you say?
I said, "No, I'm done, enough's enough."
Enough's enough.
I have my own family to take care of.
I'm your family too, Jimmy!
No.
You're not.
Not anymore.
On the first count of the indictment, murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant
guilty.
On the second count of the indictment, murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
On the third count of the indictment, murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
On the fourth count of the indictment,
murder in the second degree...
You could still recommend that Judge Bradley sentence him concurrently.
Twelve life sentences is what he deserves.
I don't disagree.
You agree?
He's criminally responsible?
He did a terrible thing.
But in a way, he was right.
It could have been averted.
Billions for prisons, no health care.
I don't make social policy.
No.
You just have to clean up after those who do.