When Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt are questioning an arsonist on a different case he offers to give up the real perpetrator of an infamous rape from 30 years earlier. Back then Anita Gillette was raped in a stairwell with some 35 people looking on and no one calling the cops. Obviously the story is based on the infamous Kitty Genovese murder during the Sixties, but Gillette's character Cookie Costello survives.
And a man played by Edouard DeSoto was arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime. But now that might be in jeopardy. And the guy that the informant named turns out to be bogus although he has a connection with Gillette. That's enough to get eager attorney Talia Balsam working on a new trial which she gets.
After that it's Murphy's law. A combination of Balsam's skills and some truly imbecilic rulings by Judge Tom Stechschulte throw everything askew for Sam Waterston and Jill Hennessy.
Guilty or not I would want an attorney like Balsam representing me. Let's say that the victim goes on trial here and a whole lot of dirty linen is aired.
Makes you wonder what would have happened in real life to Kitty Genovese.
And a man played by Edouard DeSoto was arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime. But now that might be in jeopardy. And the guy that the informant named turns out to be bogus although he has a connection with Gillette. That's enough to get eager attorney Talia Balsam working on a new trial which she gets.
After that it's Murphy's law. A combination of Balsam's skills and some truly imbecilic rulings by Judge Tom Stechschulte throw everything askew for Sam Waterston and Jill Hennessy.
Guilty or not I would want an attorney like Balsam representing me. Let's say that the victim goes on trial here and a whole lot of dirty linen is aired.
Makes you wonder what would have happened in real life to Kitty Genovese.