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.
We'd like to help, but you have to help, too.
You want evidence? You're the cops.
Do we gotta get our own guns?
They're dealing crack,
they've been dealing, they gonna deal tomorrow.
You don't clean them out,
ain't gonna be nobody left to complain.
We had surveillance on the building, ma'am.
We can't go busting in to apartments without probable cause.
Where you get your drugs, sucker?
Ain't nobody home.
Yeah, inside you. Where?
1- D, in the front.
Is he probable cause?
Police!
How's your shoulder?
Dd
O'Brien!
Somebody heard that shot.
No, not in this building.
They get under the bed, hope nothing comes through the window.
Look, they don't want trouble.
Enough trouble to get rid of dealers.
Now, look, O'Brien, knock on every door.
Drug dealers have terrible manners.
Yeah, they're not big on charm school.
She get those bruises when she fell?
Not unless somebody threw her down and jumped on her.
I'd guess 36 hours.
First the foreplay,
smacked her in the face, couple of belts to the arm.
Then he shoots her in the chest.
From the looks of her,
I'd say she's done more drugs than food.
A.45. Confident guy. Only one shot.
Dried blood.
She must have moved around after she was hit.
Where'd you find the shell?
Bedroom.
Well, she's in there, there's no blood in between.
She stumble around and not lose a drop?
Oh, well, maybe this blood isn't hers.
You get two gold stars.
Drug deal gone bad.
How many drug addicts in this city?
Do I take the quiz after class?
Six hundred thousand, give or take a few.
How many of them are high school heroes?
The dead girl.
"Dawn Bryan.
Adam Clayton Powell High School, class of '83."
"Most likely to succeed."
The place was fine till she moved in.
Uh-huh. Park Avenue.
I wasrt stepping on needles.
She moved in,
she didn't look too good, but she had nice stuff.
That rug?
Said she went the whole way to Brooklyn, got it at Sears.
If she had nice stuff it's hard to see it now.
Sold it on the street couple of weeks ago.
Raising cash for her boyfriend.
She gets him five, six months ago,
lets him deal out of her apartment.
Scum was here yesterday, about 6:00.
Bet she owed him money.
You see him? You know his name?
Don't know I'd recognize him.
Me neither.
You call her family?
Not yet.
Uptown, 83rd.
Her mom used to bring her food.
She wouldn't eat.
Thanks.
We don't know about her friends.
We... we didn't see her much.
She liked people.
She trusted everybody.
She had a good heart.
Ma'am, your daughter's neighbors said you visited her.
She mention being involved with anybody?
I believe in Heaven.
I mean,
I try to.
I believe she's with God.
I want to believe it.
Ginna.
Come on, lie down.
To my mother, Dawn will always be queen of the prom.
Well, you don't sound quite so admiring.
I was there. Christmas.
Tried to get her into rehab.
Offered to pay for it.
Next day she hits on my mom. $500.
She stole my mom's wedding ring.
This boyfriend of hers.
Uh, it wasrt, uh, wasrt about romance?
She said he was clean.
Wouldrt introduce me.
And I was hopir that, you know, maybe he was married,
and she was just embarrassed.
That wasrt the reason.
I saw him comir out of Dawrs place.
Twice.
She called him Skate.
I never got his real name.
Skate?
That's all you got? Some guy's street name?
Listen, do I look like a magician?
I'll just pull his name out of my ear?
Excuse me, Mike, I didn't shoot the girl.
I don't know.
You know, you see these crackheads on the street,
you just tend to forget that they werert always...
This girl is...
Anyway, look, I called the 19, I called the 31.
They got Slinky, they got Silky, they got Sidewise, they got no Skate.
Our books, we got Slap, we got Slider, we got Snowball. No Skate.
Our luck, good thing we're not at the trotters.
We'd be losing our cojones.
There's no usable prints in the place other than hers.
Now, six outgoing phone calls in the last five days
before she was hit.
Four for pizza, two for movie times.
Okay, so you got a witness who says
Skate was there the night she was killed.
You got another one says he was her dealer.
Why don't you make a sign: "Skate," in big letters,
walk up and down First Avenue, see if anybody waves.
Guy in the red hat? Angel Suarez.
Used to be my pipeline.
Let's turn on the water, see what flows out.
He won't take money.
Wants his nose powdered.
You gonna hold the straw?
Crack house.
Come on, let's take a run.
Don't rattle your chain. We're just visiting.
Angel, my man.
Hey, man, you gonna fix me up?
Come here, we want to ask you something.
What's up? You gonna fix me up?
We're looking for my cousin.
His name is Skate.
He your cousin, brother?
Your people been sleeping in strange beds.
You got stuff? Maybe I heard of him.
No, no stuff.
No stuff, no cousin.
You gonna take me in?
Ain't gonna help you find him.
You're playing the wrong game, brother-man.
Lennie, line 'em up.
I'm gonna turn around.
Here's what I'm gonna say: Everybody goes in but you.
Every time you're around, we bust them.
Then you get your stuff from nobody.
My ass. You can't pull that.
What, are you joking? Your ass!
Tell me about Skate.
You don't believe me?
Everybody, call Legal Aid,
tell them to meet you down at Central Booking.
Everybody goes in.
Everybody but Angel.
He takes a walk to testify against you.
Hey, man. Easy.
Relax.
Name's Jonas Stark.
Skate took somebody down for a stash.
He owes plenty. He's scared.
He's wearir eyes on his shoes.
You won't find him at his place.
Try 1868 Lex.
Name on the mailbox: Keisha White.
It's the girlfriend's place.
I ain't seen the guy in a couple of days.
Maybe he's out of town on vacation.
Yeah, a weekend in the Bahamas.
So, what about the girlfriend?
Two, three days ago,
I seen her go in there with a six-pack.
There's no answer here.
I'm gonna have to call someone to smash it in.
Hey, you... you guys tell me it's okay, I open it up.
Yeah, it's called exigent circumstances.
A felon in flight. Go ahead, open it.
Dd
22.
What's happenir?
What's goir on?
You all cops or somethir?
No. We're here to tell you that you won the lottery.
Is that Skate?
Yeah, uh-huh.
Hello, Skate. Friend of yours sent us.
Lady named Dawn.
Only dawn I know is before sunrise.
You gotta have a warrant to be in here.
Warrant this!
Where's your appointment book for Tuesday night?
You ain't gonna find no drugs here.
Uh-huh. How about we pump your belly?
Tuesday, Skate.
Tell him, Keisha.
Uh, we been here since July.
I'll bet you lost the permit to this gun.
I bet you find it in my wallet.
Registered State of New York, target permit.
Oh, yeah?
How about a bigger caliber gun, Jonas?
Like a. 45?
I handle business, not guns.
That's a bad-lookir cut you got there.
Forgot to pray yesterday.
The good Lord, he made me slip,
hit the radiator.
I got to get to church more.
You hit Dawrs table while you were slappir her around,
and then you put a bullet in her chest.
I ain't seen Dawn for weeks.
You said you never even heard of her.
Jonas Stark,
you're under arrest for the murder of Dawn Bryan.
You have the right to remain silent.
What, you want to leave him at Central Booking?
I don't want him arraigned
till your witnesses shine headlights in his face.
Terrific, send it on over.
Here's a headlight.
A year ago, that liquor store robbery on Skate's yellow sheet.
Yeah, he did six months. Accessory.
They dug a slug out of the wall.
Same gun. He used it before.
The slug from the robbery
matches the slug from Dawn Bryars body.
One: You don't have the. 45.
Two: There was a woman involved in that robbery they never found.
Three: A lawyer with shoe polish for brains says
that woman was Dawn Bryan,
the gun was hers, not Skate's.
Ipso, ergo, and therefore, Skate takes a walk.
Where did he ditch that damn gun?
You wanna keep him?
Get your witnesses, march them past the glass.
Identify him as her dealer.
Put him there the day it happened.
I didn't see him that day. It was a couple of weeks ago.
That's okay.
Do you remember seeing any of these men
come out of Dawn Bryars apartment?
I think maybe Number 2.
Number 2, step forward.
There's no hurry, Miss Lee.
We have till Kingdom come.
Detective.
Yeah?
You are dangerously close to coaching her.
Once more and this line-up is dead.
Could be Number 3.
Number 3, step forward.
I saw him around in the hall.
He was the one. He sold her drugs.
Thank you, Miss Lee.
Here, let me show you out.
That doesn't even open up the store,
let alone give you a sale.
You can't put him there at the time of the murder.
Counselor, we have one more dance on our card. A waltz.
And your client's gonna be doir it in Dannemora.
Ain't none of them.
Miss Gomez, you barely even looked.
You wanna just take your time?
I don't see him. I got bad eyes.
I'm late for the dentist. Can I go now?
Yeah. Next time you wanna get rid of dealers,
call the Fire Department. Go ahead.
No weapon, no witness, no motive,
and my client has an alibi.
Yeah, a girl so stoned
she thinks the day is 240 hours long.
You know that waltz my client is gonna do?
It dances him out of here.
Now.
Jonas Stark.
That room needs a paint job.
You need a better suit.
And your coffee stinks, praise the Lord.
The son of a bitch knew he'd walk.
We'll stake him out. Round the clock.
Meantime, we have no witness.
Do we have a motive?
A crack dealer needs a motive?
Maybe he's so crazy behind the drugs,
he kills her just for the hell of it.
Yeah, maybe a jury would like something more specific.
Here. Skate's file from Attica.
Same blood type as on the table in the girl's apartment.
That at least gets us to first base.
Bottom of the ninth, two outs, full count.
The ME says she was beat up a couple of hours before she was killed.
Even if you put the kid in the room to toss her,
it doesn't prove he pulled the trigger.
Look, this girl backed away from her family, right?
She must have had some friends.
She was in her second life when time ran out.
See if somebody from the first one kept in touch.
Her old friends? Who cares?
This is the guy who did it.
Why isn't he in jail?
Lucian...
Or would it matter more if she was white?
Lucian, they're doing their job.
We don't have anything
linking Jonas Stark to your sister's murder.
Now, we're hoping maybe you know someone who can help us.
I read in the papers it was his gun that killed her.
I read in the papers people are abducted by extraterrestrials.
Look, your mother's right. We're doir our job.
It was the money. Had to be.
She always needed more.
It wasrt her stealir. The drugs made her do it.
Sure, Mom.
It was the cocaine that stole Janine's TV,
not Dawn.
There's a friend from high school.
I mean, most people around Dawn,
it was like rocks falling from the sky.
They ran.
Janine was the only one left who talked to her.
Dd
I worried about getting C's in Algebra.
Dawn studied on the subway, got A's.
How could anything bad happen?
Well, things look a lot different when you're in high school.
When you're 17, you don't know.
Well, you're not 17 anymore.
There's not too many friends who would stick by somebody
who stole their TV set.
Well, I had to believe she'd come out of it.
I even gave her a job.
She was late a couple of times.
Tape deck disappeared, petty cash.
Her brother said you kept in touch.
She stopped by two or three months ago.
Said she'd been robbed.
They cleaned her out.
She said she needed money for food.
Right. Food.
She stood in the corner, in the dark.
Wouldrt let me get a good look.
I went over, side of her face was bashed in.
I gave her $100,
didn't think I'd ever hear from her again.
Yeah, you give them money once, they tend to come back.
Last week, I got a call from the reception desk.
I didn't even recognize her.
She looked like a bag lady.
She said her boyfriend was in trouble.
Skate.
Said he owed somebody and they'd kill him
if he didn't come up with the cash.
And he'd kill her if she didn't?
I didn't think...
Maybe they just ought to legalize it.
Oh, yeah. Another half a million crackheads.
You don't know that. Would you take it?
Would I?
Listen, a junkie's gonna be a junkie whether it's legal or not.
So we should sell it in the drug stores?
Damn straight.
No one puts a knife in your gut to feed their habit.
Any junkies in your family?
Booze. And if you made it illegal,
they'd cook it up on the stove.
Okay, so write your congressman.
Hey, hey, what about this?
The first time we saw Skate, his head was cut, right?
Now, he was hidir from somebody.
He owed money.
How about if they beat him up in Dawn Bryars apartment?
And the Bryan girl, too.
So we find the guy that was after Skate,
maybe we get a witness.
Or at least someone who can put the two of them together.
Yeah, the girl Skate was with when we first picked him up.
Maybe she knows who he was runnir from.
Keisha White.
Works in a peepshow on 45th Street.
Dd
My girls don't get into trouble.
Yeah, they're all nuns.
Most of them, they got kids.
Talking dirty's just a way to eat.
Go on, pick a door, get excited.
It's on the house.
Which door is Keisha White?
I got a Sally Brown and a Mary Green.
Ain't got no White.
Hey, Mike, suppose we find out one of his girls
went out with one of the guys here.
Uh, what would he get?
Well, promoting prostitution three, that's a class "D" felony.
Uh, couple of months in the slammer,
and we take all your assets.
Okay, okay. Booth D.
Don't take up too much of her time.
Hey, your wife's outside with the kids,
you better drive her home.
You, outside!
Two lonely cops.
You always get your kicks together? Kinky.
Hey, you can talk to us now, or you can lose customers
for the rest of the day.
Skate was in trouble,
he needed money from the Bryan girl.
Who did he need it for?
Skate don't need no money.
He print it up in the basement.
Yeah? We can print your name on a warrant.
Accessory to murder.
I don't know, all right?
Skate say he needed some money,
but he ain't say who.
Yeah, well, they put a dent in his forehead.
That was that Bryan girl's fault.
Skate said the bitch was scared, all right?
They... they came looking for him at her house.
She gave him up, told them he was coming.
They beat them both.
But he still needed the money.
She said she'd square with him.
All right, maybe she never come through.
That would make him angry.
Angry enough to use a gun.
Mister, Skate, he gave me stuff
to spend time with him, all right?
I do not get personal.
What do you mean, useless?
You pick him up again, you let him go again.
Paul, you don't need a road map.
The Bryan dame set him up to get his brains beat in.
She didn't deliver on some money she promised him.
I call that a motive. What do you call it?
I call it a third-hand story from two secondary sources.
Not to mention it doesn't nail Jonas Stark.
I'd love to argue with him.
Even if a jury believes your junkie and a peepshow hostess,
they're still gonna think that whoever beat up
Skate and Dawn just finished the job up.
Lennie, you expecting a call from a plumber?
First Ave. And Third Street.
Dawn Bryan apartment. Says the place is flooded.
Some woman gave him your name,
he found something you might wanna see.
Look, it's not our fault.
We covered every inch of this place.
So why didn't you check the pipe?
Who the hell checks a sewer pipe?
Neighbors are gonna need air spray for a month.
Sewage is soft, gets around a lot of the junk in the pipe.
Put in something big, sooner or later it's gonna clog.
I guess that's a. 45.
Shouldrt have been left open.
Wouldrt have spilled over, just would have stopped.
You had three guys here.
What did they do after we left, take a nap?
I didn't notice the pipe was open.
Oh, you're telling me it wasrt open?
Maybe. I don't know.
You know what I know? There's a reason
you got plastic gloves in your budget.
You just didn't want to stick your hand in a sewer pipe.
So, Lennie, you think anybody's still in Forensics?
Four days in raw sewage,
if that gun has prints, I'll call Sister Maria and make a contribution.
Almost your lucky day.
No prints, the number's burned.
He said "almost."
He said "no prints."
On the gun.
In the stock market?
No, I keep my millions in a trunk in the attic.
I'd buy a company called Cosmoline.
They make a good product.
Sewage wiped the gun clean.
Well, not clean, but no prints.
The clip. New, covered in Cosmoline grease.
Partial thumb, full index,
matching the prints they sent me.
Jonas Stark, aka Skate.
You're beautiful.
Let's hope they didn't lose him.
Excuse me, can you tell me where the George Washington Bridge is?
It's in Connecticut.
Southwest corner, he's makir house calls.
I figure he took in $1,000 in the last hour.
Skate!
No drugs, no weapon.
All right, keep your hands away from your body.
Again? You got nothir!
Your prints, genius.
You left them on the gun clip.
All right, sing along with me, Skate.
You know the words.
You're under arrest.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do say can and will be...
We're ready.
Someone gonna read this charge?
Docket number...
No.
"Docket number 6864, People v. Jonas Stark. "
Charge is murder in the second degree.
Miss Bell, does your client have a plea?
Not guilty.
Back on night shift, Sally.
Legal Aid must be understaffed again.
Tell me about your client.
Mr. Stark was a dear friend of the victim.
He's not likely to flee.
Mr. Stark skipped bail last time, robbery.
This is homicide.
He might want to miss his trial.
You have any other objections to a substantial bail?
Well, if Your Honor has already decided...
The Court's mind is open. Mr. Robinette?
As Your Honor notes,
Mr. Stark's appearance record is not encouraging.
We ask $500,000.
People's request is granted. Next.
My client is obstinate.
Killers often are.
He won't plead.
This makes him a two-time loser.
Mandatory nine years.
But that's a lot better than a conviction and 25-to-life.
He knows. He says he didn't do it.
I'm tempted to believe him.
You have many faults, Sally. Gullible isn't one of them.
Motive. Weapon.
A witness who'll tell the truth on the stand.
I reminded him. He reminded me
she didn't identify him at the line-up.
Did you remind him his prints are on the gun clip?
He says it was Dawn Bryars gun.
He gave it to her to protect herself.
I guess it wasrt protection enough.
He has an alibi.
You can shake her till she's a martini,
she won't change her mind.
Who cares if he doesn't want to plead?
We got a case with balloons, bells, and whistles.
It makes no sense. He goes to trial,
we put a noose on his neck, 25-to-life.
Man one is nine years.
He knows it's a slam-dunk.
Why doesn't he offer to plead?
Because he's stupid, arrogant,
suffers brain damage from all those drugs.
He pled to Robbery Three a year ago.
We had one witness, no weapon.
A lousy case.
He didn't want to risk a jury.
And this time he wants to risk it?
Anyone else, they'd plead faster
than we can speed-dial Rikers.
Well, maybe this Skate character
thinks his alibi will save him.
Or maybe he didn't do it.
I only like surprises at parties.
Before we go to trial,
walk through this with the cops.
Hope comes in small packages.
Yeah? My parents never even had that much hope for me.
You save your stuff from high school, Paul?
My mother still has my report cards.
What's that?
Trunk? Jewelry box?
Square notches. Safe-deposit box.
She's hittir everybody for money.
Why would she need one?
"Broderick, Bronson, Broom, Bryson."
No Dawn Bryan?
I'm afraid not.
George,
Box C-503.
Oh, Mary Tillar, I know her.
Been banking here for years.
Lovely old woman.
George, it says here Mrs. Tillar was just in.
Couple or three weeks ago.
She had a lady with her,
she said it was her granddaughter.
The girl needed help.
From her grandmother? From a doctor.
That girl had been stomped on.
I ask what happened, Mrs. Tillar says car accident.
Car with two fists made out of brass.
Did you pay attention to everything, or just the lady?
Mrs. Tillar take anything with her?
A big envelope.
Not like she wanted to.
I think she wanted to be anyplace but here.
Oh, no. No, I didn't go for Dawn.
She just walked me to the bank.
You happened to be on the way to your safe-deposit box?
It's a habit. My late husband got me into it.
I sometimes just check my papers.
Assistant District Attorney.
Your mother must be very proud.
The people at the bank remember you took something with you.
My grandson Lucian,
he's thinkir he might be a lawyer.
You told the clerk at the bank Dawn had been in a car accident?
Yes, I...
I guess her problem caused it.
What happened to that girl?
Young people, so many temptations.
You can't keep 'em safe now.
Dawn wanted money from you.
My bonds. American Light and Power.
They're for my grandchildren.
I use them for the income.
My husband bought them.
Mrs. Tillar, what did Dawn tell you?
Why did you go to the bank?
She had a gun.
She aimed it at me.
I felt so bad for her.
You expect guns on the street now.
My own grandbaby.
Grandma, I'm sorry.
Why are you hassling my mother-in-law?
You didn't tell us your daughter was here the day she was killed.
What difference does it make?
We need to check everything.
You don't got to check anything.
You know who killed my Dawn.
You ought to be putting him away
for the rest of his life.
Now, you get out of here and leave this lady alone.
She aimed the gun at her grandmother.
Stark was telling the truth.
It was his gun, but he gave it to Dawn Bryan.
Okay, so she had a gun.
Anyone could have shot her with it.
Only someone who had access to it.
Paul, are you takir a walk or are you leadir somewhere?
Why was Fred Bryan so angry today?
The Post reported it was Stark's gun that killed Dawn Bryan.
When the cops talked to Lucian Bryan, he mentioned it.
He wanted to know why they couldn't put Stark away.
I guess you're about to tell me
how that gun got into a sewer pipe.
A theory. For what it's won'th.
CSU says maybe the pipe was capped the day of the murder.
Who'd have the tools to open a closed pipe?
And who'd know the pipe would overflow if you put a gun in it?
A plumber?
A maintenance man.
Fred Bryan has his own maintenance business.
He read in the papers it was Stark's gun.
Two days later, the pipe overflows.
Fred Bryan planted the gun so the cops would find it.
How did the gun get into his hands in the first place?
Let's hope you're wrong about this.
These people are being canonized for their suffering.
You're telling me this man killed his daughter.
I don't like the idea any more than you do, Adam.
Day of the murder, Grandma called Mother at 2:07.
After she went to the bank.
An hour later, Mother called the father at work.
His secretary said he left a few minutes later.
That's no mystery.
They rallied to get Grandma's bonds.
For good reason.
Turns out the old lady had bearer bonds.
Untraceable, negotiable instruments.
A drug addict and her dealer, Adam.
They wouldn't know a negotiable instrument from a piano.
How are they gonna sell those bonds?
That's right. Anything happens to those bonds,
they can't be replaced. No name, no record.
Grandma's money is gone forever.
How far would the Bryans go to get it back?
Before we even think of
charging anyone in this family,
we wrap this so tight no one can breathe.
Grandma calls Mother, Mother calls Father.
Who's the weak link?
My mother was worried about Dawn.
That's why she called me.
You called your husband.
Yes, to tell him what happened.
He left work. Where did he go?
Why, uh,
he had a business meeting.
Mrs. Bryan, where are your mother's bonds?
I wouldn't know about that.
That's hard to believe.
They were your mother's income.
If they're in her safe-deposit box,
we'll wonder how you got them back.
Mrs. Bryan?
I couldn't see her like that anymore.
It wasrt your husband.
You were in her apartment that day.
Virginia Bryan is not a criminal.
This is a homicide.
My wife didn't know what she was doing.
Mr. Bryan, Mrs. Bryan, we are not unsympathetic.
She didn't kill my sister.
Dawn wasrt there anymore.
Who put the gun in the sewer pipe, Mr. Bryan?
You wouldn't arrest him.
He's the one who killed her.
He's the one who deserves to die.
Enough.
Dawn called me.
She wanted...
She told me to bring $5,000.
I pleaded with her.
I told her, "No, you have to stop.
"Stop taking.
Stop stealing."
She screamed at me to get the money.
She'd burn my mother's bonds.
Everything,
everything my father left her.
I went down there.
She held them in front of my face
with a cigarette lighter.
She told me to get the money.
She had to have it.
I said, "Not this time."
"No more."
Dawn said,
it would never end.
She'd steal all we had
till there was nothing left.
All these years,
she wasrt going to change.
I looked at her.
It was so hard.
Those little lines of blood
in her eyes.
Her hands full of holes.
My baby
was so pitiful.
She gave me the gun.
She begged me.
"Mama,
"put me out of my misery.
"Do it for me.
Please."
I...
I gave up.
I did what she wanted.
I killed my baby.
Does charging my client with murder serve justice?
The Bronx D.A., Brooklyn, Queens...
If anybody wants this prosecuted,
they've got laryngitis.
Are we taking a poll?
No, we're answering the phone.
Come on, Paul. You really want to go to a grand jury with this?
Do we not go?
Because we're afraid of being labeled racist?
I like to think that I am not affected by the color of her skin.
I'm not sure that's possible.
Look,
it's tragic. I can't deny the womars pain.
I can't pretend the drug epidemic hits everyone the same.
Nothing hits black and white the same.
Does that mean the law should treat them differently?
Do I want to see the woman go to prison? No.
But I don't see how we can walk away from it.
Well, we got a two-choice world.
One or the other.
If we do nothing, what are we saying?
If no one's responsible for Dawn Bryars death,
a black victim doesn't matter.
Don't charge the mother, she's a victim of society
and deserves special treatment.
Which practically says all blacks are victims.
No, that is not the message we're sending.
Isn't it?
Do blacks have a special right to kill their children?
That's not sympathy, that's condescension.
Nobody said she had any such right.
Maybe Dawn Bryars life was finished.
Maybe she'd have died of an overdose.
We'll never know.
What I do know is she died of a gunshot.
All right. Man two, probation.
You're forgetting Jonas Stark.
The Bryans planted evidence. They tried to frame an innocent man.
I'm taking my phone off the hook.
Go to the grand jury.
We will hear testimony
that Fred Bryan tampered with physical evidence
and that Virginia Bryan acted with the requisite intent
for manslaughter in the first degree.
As legal advisor to the grand jury,
I instruct you to consider testimony
as it applies to those crimes,
and to return appropriate indictments.
The woman was standing when she was shot.
Can the Medical Examiner's office
determine how far she was from the gun?
Based on Mrs. Bryars confession,
using her height and the angle of the bullet,
I would say 3 to 4 feet.
A shot at that range,
could Dawn Bryan have survived?
Without medical attention, not very long, no.
Thank you.
I didn't see Dawrs parents much after she was fired.
Was there a reason for that?
They felt my giving her money was making it worse.
If I stopped, she'd be forced into rehab.
Maybe that was true.
I told them that every dollar I gave her
was one less she had to earn as a prostitute.
Did either Mr. Or Mrs. Bryan ever express the idea
that Dawn would be better off dead
than a drug addict?
Not Mrs. Bryan. She had faith.
Mr. Bryan, he... he just ran out of faith.
He blamed himself.
He said if she was dead
he wouldn't have to face it every day.
I'm allowed to make the request.
The law's very clear.
Mrs. Bryan has a legal right to testify.
Not her son.
She's beyond caring.
You want them to indict for man one,
I want them to think about intent.
Let Lucian make a statement.
Testimony has to be relevant.
Oh, where's Justice Douglas when we need him?
You want to debate relevance?
Relevance is what you decide it is.
Let him make a statement.
Uh, Beverly, excuse us a minute.
She has a point.
You mean she'll fry us for breakfast in the headlines.
You know what they'll say.
Rush to judgment, big question mark.
I don't wanna look overzealous.
She didn't talk about it.
Not since Dawn lost the scholarship,
didn't go to college.
She'd come back from seeir Dawn
and never say anythir,
like nothir was wrong.
I remember the time my grandfather died.
We didn't expect Dawn to come to the cemetery,
but she showed up
in a taxi.
We went to my grandmother's.
My mom was happy just to see Dawn eat.
She was so thin.
Wasrt until Dawn left we noticed things missing.
A stickpin. It was gold.
A silver dish my grandfather brought back from the Army.
From France. World War II.
She stole.
She hit my grandmother.
She hit my mom with a broom.
And she always said she was sorry later.
Mum wanted to turn herself in, Dad wouldn't let her.
He said Jonas Stark ought to suffer.
He caused it.
They decided if he went to jail,
people would be protected from him.
It wouldn't happen to somebody else like it happened to Dawn.
"The D.A.'s office has shown a belated
attitude of fairness. We congratulate them."
The editorials are back on our side.
The blindfolded lady has two scales,
and we should never look like we have a finger on one of them.
14 minutes.
I guess Lucian didn't affect them.
Was this voted on by a majority?
Yes, it was, Mr. Stone.
I have instructed you on the law for an indictment
for manslaughter in the first degree.
Uh, in the case of Virginia Bryan,
you've presented an indictment
for possession of a weapon in the fourth degree,
a misdemeanor.
Madam Forewoman, are you certain
a majority voted on this indictment?
I'm very certain, Mr. Stone.
Everyone that voted yes,
could you raise your hands, please?
Thank you.
Where'd they raise you, Mr. Robinette?
Scarsdale?
Harlem.
I never would have guessed.
What could the law do to my wife?
Put her in jail?
There's nothing left for her.
She won't even go to church.
You should have known.
You may not believe this, but I'm truly sorry
for what happened to your family.
But you want us to bend the law.
And we both know what it's like
to have one law for black and another for white.
It was no good 50 years ago, it's no good now.
You think the system's gonna change?
You think we're gonna be equal?
Call me when your kids grow up,
tell me how they're doing.
The system's been against us for a long time.
Maybe right now
it's gotta bend the other way.