ELLENOR: Even assuming that to be true, felony murder still doesn't apply. That law was designed for robberies or kidnappings, rapes… Felonies for which it is foreseeable that a murder could result.

HELEN: You charge a man with a gun it's foreseeable it could go off.

ELLENOR: I would also remind the court of the Merger Doctrine. The felony act has to be independent of the killing for a felony murder to apply. Here it was the alleged felony itself that caused the death -

HELEN: Massachusetts has never recognized the Merger Doctrine.

ELLENOR: Can I finish?

Hollings: Actually, you have. I'm denying the motion to dismiss. The charges stand. The defendant will be held without bail, we can conference Wednesday to set a trial date.

ELLENOR: This is a railroad!

Hollings: Excuse me?

ELLENOR: This boy is being charged with a crime we all know he didn't commit.

Hollings: Well, next time he should think better of confessing. Next case.

WALTON: You answered the question, sir. Are you being paid for today's testimony?

BOBBY: Objection.

Judge: Overruled.

WALTON: Are you being paid, sir?

Reynolds: Yes.

WALTON: How much?

Reynolds: Seventy-five hundred dollars

WALTON: How many court cases do you testify in per year?

BOBBY: Objection, this is completely irrelevant.

Judge: I'll allow it.

WALTON: How many, sir?

Reynolds: I have no idea.

WALTON: More than 50?

Reynolds: Probably.

WALTON: In fact, that's what you do, isn't it? You're a hired gun who goes from courthouse to courthouse. You're on every plaintiff attorney's list, aren't you?

SWACKHEIM: You've got yourself a problem, young lady.

REBECCA: Yes, your honour. And for the record, I don't think you handled that too deftly.

SWACKHEIM: What should I have done? Asked him about his childhood? His mother, hmm? Okay, here's your problem. In addition to his general scumhood, his yelling in court, in my mind, is the equivalent of testimony. The DA is now free to cross-examine it.

REBECCA: Just hold on a second -

SWACKHEIM: He yelled that he was not on the balcony and that the officer was lying. That's testimony, mmm-hmm.

REBECCA: But he wasn't under oath!

SWACKHEIM: The jury heard him!

REBECCA: If you force him to take the stand all his priors can be admitted.

SWACKHEIM: Well, isn't that tragic.

THOMPSON: Your honour, at this point I don't want to cross-examine. This case is pretty straight for us. The last thing I want to do is give them grounds for appeal. Are you forcing him to take the stand?

SWACKHEIM: Well…. That's your call. But for the rest of the trial his hands are cuffed to the chair and his mouth is taped.

REBECCA: Your honour, that would be so prejudicial.

SWACKHEIM: It's not up for debate!

HELEN: Don't start.

LINDSAY: I'm gonna start.

HELEN: Lindsay…

LINDSAY: Just listen first, okay? Then I'll shut up. You don't believe that kid had anything to do with the murder. You're punishing him because he screwed up the prosecution of the father, and in part you're punishing Ellenor for not convincing him to stick to the truth. You come from anger.

HELEN: Don't tell me -

LINDSAY: I will tell you, because I saw it. I know what happened to you when you lost that nun killer. And I could see what was happening when this case started to go south, and I see you now. And I know how this thing will play out. If you try him on felony murder he's going to stand up and tell the real truth, which will be consistent with his statement to the cops and his testimony at the prelim. You will never get past reasonable doubt and you'll be stuck going after him for perjury six months from now. Drop the felony murder. Let him cop to the perjury now. Then go to the gym and hit the heavy bag. It's the only thing you can really do.

GARY: What would I get? For perjury?

ELLENOR: It's discretionary, but I think I can make a pretty decent argument to the judge.

GARY: Do we have to decide today?

ELLENOR: There is really no decision, Gary. If we don't plead to the perjury then the felony murder charge doesn't get dropped, and we can't risk that. They've got you dead to right on perjury anyway, so there's no real reason not to jump on this.

GARY: Then why do the sentencing today?

ELLENOR: The DA wants to put this behind her and so do you. Now, there is a chance we can get you out of here, so let's just do it.

GARY: Okay.

THOMPSON: Rebecca. We may have a little bump here.

REBECCA: What do you mean bump?

THOMPSON: There was an internal police investigation regarding the shooting. I just found out about it, I promise you. Here's the report.

REBECCA: The shooting surrounding this arrest?

THOMPSON: Yes, Officer Helms evidently once claimed he wounded the suspect on the balcony. Now, he's since backed off it, but blood was found on the balcony. The sample was lost

REBECCA: Excuse me, lost?

THOMPSON: I don't know what to say. If you want to move for a mistrial, I won't oppose.

SWACKHEIM: We're not having any mistrial.

REBECCA: What?!

SWACKHEIM: We're late into it, I don't -

REBECCA: If the man on the balcony was wounded then that clears Byron Little.

SWACKHEIM: The officer said he was wrong about wounding him.

REBECCA: Oh, come on.

SWACKHEIM: You expect me to throw out an entire trial because -

REBECCA: First of all the state has a duty to turn over all exculpatory evidence, I'm just getting this report now.

SWACKHEIM: He just got it.

REBECCA: Second, this is material. This completely affects how I would have cross-examined Officer Helms.

SWACKHEIM: You can recall him.

REBECCA: And they say they lost the blood sample. I need time to investigate.

SWACKHEIM: Look, counsel, they caught your man running down the stairway.

REBECCA: But he's been saying he wasn't the man on the balcony and that blood may prove it.

SWACKHEIM: How? The officer claims he did not wound the suspect. That means the blood is irrelevant. I'm not throwing out this trial.

REBECCA: You can't be serious.

SWACKHEIM: Look, young lady, you might be used to your clients being freed on stunts and technicalities, but not in my court.

REBECCA: They withheld material evidence.

SWACKHEIM: The trial goes on. You can recall the officer and re-cross him. That's all.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.