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1-132 of 132
- In the conclusion of a two-part story, murder suspect Joey Tassili leaves intensive psychiatric evaluation and is placed on trial for the murder of a waitress. The Prestons seek to save Tassili from the electric chair by testing the McNaughton Rule of legal insanity and delivering an impassioned argument against capital punishment.
- A decade after being blacklisted in Hollywood for his political ties, former actor-turned-shoe-salesman Joe Larch receives an offer for a comeback in a new film. When Larch's plans are thwarted by a radical political group pressuring the town's mayor to stop the production, Larch hires the Prestons to file a libel suit against his enemies.
- In this comedic tale elderly, genteel Louisa Clarendon and her sisters have seen better financial days. With a lien due on their home and unable to pay the fee, Louisa decides to solve their problem by threatening to blow up a bank unless it hands over enough cash to cover their expenses. She then selects the Prestons at random to defend her.
- Lawrence and Kenneth Preston go to Blood County, Pennsylvania, to represent a hunter who has been coerced into confessing to a killing he didn't commit. They find that local law enforcement doesn't want any "outside agitators" in their community, and they soon become the objects of threats--and more.
- When a patient bleeds to death during a routine hernia operation, his widow wants answers, yet she finds few forthcoming, so she asks the Prestons help. The lawyer and his son work on the case, finding the doctors and staff of the hospital closing ranks, except for a young intern with a guilty conscience.
- The Prestons defend a policeman who killed the teenage boy that attacked his five-year-old daughter. The officer stubbornly insists he had a right to do it and most of his neighbors agree with him.
- A woman receiving psychiatric treatment is accused of murdering the woman her psychiatrist was about to marry.
- The Prestons defend a man charged with murdering a storekeeper during a robbery, but they strongly disagree over his guilt. The drug-addicted client was found unconscious at the scene with the murder weapon in his hand. Lawrence believes he definitely committed the act and only hopes to plead for a lesser sentence, but Kenneth believes the man may be completely innocent of the murder.
- The trial of Frank Thorpe, a businessman accused of engaging a hit man to murder a competitor, has ended. Twelve jurors are sequestered to decide upon a verdict. Although they're instructed to not discuss the case outside of official deliberations, jurors begin to expose their thoughts and prejudices in casual conversations and flashbacks to events during the trial.
- When mild-mannered Jim McLeery kills an abusive stranger, it seems a clear-cut case of self-defense. But the prosecution reveals that, in his army days, McCleery was trained to kill.
- A young black man walking his girlfriend home through New York City's Central Park is accosted by a group of intoxicated white men. Words are exchanged and a fight breaks out, during which one of the white men is hit and dies. The black man is charged with manslaughter, but tells the judge that he doesn't want lawyer and will defend himself. The judge allows it but assigns Larry and Ken Preston to give him legal advice, even though he doesn't want it and in fact mocks the lawyers assigned to him and antagonizes the court during the trial.
- An elderly one-time suffragette and feminist uses unusual methods to help a pregnant teenage girl.
- When a defense witness is caught out in a lie on the stand, he insists that Lawrence Preston told him to do it.
- Lawrence is called to a luncheon with six Korean War Air Force veterans, ostensibly for legal advice. But soon after he arrives he learns the real reason: they want him to act as defense counsel as they "try" one of the group for treason because they believe he gave secrets to the enemy under torture.
- The Prestons defend a disturbed young man accused of the murder of a girl he picked up and for which the state is demanding the death penalty. Although a court-appointed psychiatrist has evaluated him as sane, it's obvious that the man is, at the least, psychotic with some serious mother issues, but the Prestons discover that the state is in no mood to cut a deal and is determined to convict the man and put him to death.
- The Prestons defend a retired vaudevillian who is accused of murdering his son-in-law. The main witness is the accused man's nine-year-old granddaughter.
- Temporarily stranded on Fire Island with a group of other weekend visitors, Kenneth Preston finds himself investigating a murder.
- After agreeing to leave a large sum of money to her doctor, a wealthy woman dies. Did the doctor murder her to get the inheritance?
- The Prestons defend a doctor arrested by the police for performing illegal abortions.
- The problems the Prestons are having in defending young Peter Crewe are made considerably worse by the attempts of Crewe's father to bribe a juror.
- A man confesses to a murder for which someone else has already been executed---a man Lawrence defended. Lawrence tries to find out what went wrong.
- Martha Harrow has killed her husband - a sadistic alcoholic wife-beater.
- An impressionist is charged with killing his fiancee, but his inability to stop going into character impersonations, even in court, leads Lawrence to feel that he has lost his hold on reality, and that he killed in one of his impersonations.
- The emphasis is on a jury as it deliberates the fate of a woman accused of killing her husband's apparent mistress.
- A famous writer is accused of writing an obscene book.
- Luke Jackson is scheduled to be executed in days. He killed a policeman seven years earlier and was condemned to death. After numerous appeals and stays, he has seemingly reached the end of the road, yet the Prestons say there is hope.
- The Prestons defend a doctor accused of the "mercy-killing" of an infant with Down's Syndrome (then called "Mongolism").
- Earl Chafee has killed a man in a quarrel. But the man is a Cuban diplomat.
- A woman finagles a drunken college professor into leaving his entire estate to her daughter, a stripper whom the professor had fallen for. Shortly afterward the professor falls in front of a subway train. Lawrence and Kenneth both go to court to contest the new will, but as Ken comes to know the daughter better he decides he does not want to hurt her in the process.
- A simple court hearing develops into a debate on civil rights and issues of free speech.
- Vincent Kayle, an aeronautics employee, is arrested by the FBI and found to have in his possession film of stolen government documents. Accused of espionage, he faces trial as a spy and traitor to the country. The Prestons attempt to defend him but are thwarted by his steadfast refusal to cooperate.
- The Prestons defend a woman accused of the murder of her husband. The main witness against her is a close friend who seems sympathetic to her, yet claims the victim telephoned him after he was shot and named her as the one who shot him.
- Leo Rolf discovers his wife's affair with Arthur Raskin and murders his rival. Rolf confesses to the crime, adding that it was a premeditated act. However, citing the ancient "unwritten law" that allows a man to kill his wife's lover, Rolf argues that he should enjoy impunity. It's up to the Prestons to plead his case in court.
- Following the murder of his father Albert and brother Herbert, Jason Thomas is arrested for the crime and retains the Prestons to defend him. At first, they doubt their client's sanity; however, when he completely loses control in the courtroom provoking another attack, everyone begins to question if his flamboyant outbursts are simply an act to support an insanity plea.
- A single mother stands accused of murdering her two and a half year old son.
- As a favor to an old friend, a disbarred alcoholic attorney trying to get a new start, Lawrence agrees, after some hesitancy, to defend his client---a racketeer charged with the murder of a rival.
- Assistant district attorney Charles Terranova is tasked with the prosecution of Mike Flinn, a small-time bookmaker. Terranova seeks to have the case dismissed as it's Flinn's first offense. Concurrently, shady hood Patrick Birch convinces Flinn's daughter that Terranova will drop the charges against her father for a $2000 payoff. When the fee is paid and Flinn released, bribery charges are leveled against an astonished Terranova, who engages the Prestons to clear his name and save his legal career.
- A college law professor asks the Prestons to defend a campus fascist leader accused of ordering the beating of a student who took issue with his speech. The professor and both Prestons despise the defendant's beliefs, but feel he must be represented in court.
- The Prestons defend a sports star accused of fixing a game.
- Inmates riot at a prison cell block, taking four hostages and threatening to kill them unless their demands are met. At the request of one of the riot's leaders, the warden asks Lawrence Preston to negotiate for the prisoners.
- The Prestons defend Pete Shannon, who is accused of burglary and grand larceny against the trucking firm employing him for years. Despite his protestations of innocence, the jury convicts him. However, the Prestons are convinced of his innocence and after they receive an anonymous letter suggesting that the guilty verdict was rendered without following protocol, they set about questioning the jurors in hopes of obtaining a new trial.
- Lawrence Preston finds himself trying to save a man from the "justice" of a kangaroo court.
- A comedian who is terminally ill fights for his right to commit suicide after his incarceration in a mental hospital.
- A young inmate at a reform school is found beaten, and his cottage "duke" orders him to say it was his cottage supervisor who beat him. The boy dies, and the Prestons defend the supervisor, but find resistance from others at the school and in the neighboring town.
- Kenneth decides to defend a dying man who strangled his business partner after the partner refused to provide for the man's family after his death.
- Ken Preston defends his girlfriend, social worker Joan Miller, after protests against the actions of an autocratic urban planner have led to a man being injured.
- Assistant district attorney Charles Parker considers accepting a position in the Preston and Preston law firm. However, the Prestons are set to defend Richard Holmes on a charge of murdering the man who raped his wife and caused a breakdown that institutionalized her. When Parker is assigned to prosecute the Holmes case, a conflict of interest charge arises.
- An army sergeant is charged with murdering a fellow officer by cutting the lines in his parachute, thus causing it not to open when he jumped. He requests the Prestons to assist in his defense even though they are civilians.
- Dwight Harkavy has killed a prowler on his property - the ex-husband of his young wife.
- The Prestons take the case of Steve Lucas, a hood indicted in a manslaughter case. When the trial ends with a hung jury and a new trial is ordered, one of the jurors, cabbie Louis Brandt, is offered $5000 to ensure a "not guilty" vote. However, the bribe is later exposed, and Brandt falsely identifies Ken Preston as making the offer. Lawrence must then defend his son against the charge.
- Convinced the original trial was rushed, Kenneth decides to reopen the case of a man who has just been denied parole after serving 12 years in prison for rape.
- The Prestons are hired by a stage actress who wants full custody of her son, and does not even want to grant visitation rights to the boy's father. But she refuses to tell them the full reason why, although Kenneth suspects that the father may be suicidal.
- Lawrence Preston finds himself opposed in court by his old law teacher, the famous Professor Hopkins.
- A man who has spent 25 years as a patient in a mental home is released - only to be arrested on a charge of murder dating from before his confinement, and scheduled to be executed.
- When a boy is hit by a car and thus becomes in dire need of surgery, his parents refuse to allow it for religious reasons. The Prestons, who are representing the young woman who hit the boy, work desperately to find a judge who will overrule the parents and allow surgery.
- A teenage boy is charged with abandoning his baby whom he left on a doctor's doorstep. He claims he thought the baby was dead, but it was actually alive and died after its discovery. To make matters worse, he refuses to identify the baby's mother, even though he claims he is married to her.
- Loose-living party girl Norma Burgess fends off the drunken advances of David Fry. When the altercation turns violent, Norma shoots him in self-defense. The Prestons take Norma's case after the district attorney decides to indict her for attempted murder.
- Gary Degan blames Lawrence Preston for his prison term - and now he holds him hostage.
- After planting evidence to incriminate her husband, Beatrice Hillyer coolly arranges her own death at the hands of an assassin.
- Rich Mr. Gideon has recently married for the sixth time, and has invited all his slightly flaky ex-wives to meet his new spouse. Then he gets murdered. Police charge the new Mrs. Gideon, and the Prestons defend her---in an unusual way.
- While walking his do in the park, Peter Dowling is confronted by three young men who threaten him. Dowling kills one of the young men and is indicted for manslaughter. Although the Prestons argue that he killed in self-defense based on the idea of self-preservation, the prosecution disagrees as the boy was unarmed.
- The subject of euthanasia is at the crux of this mystery when Rita Bernard's terminally-ill husband dies suddenly from an overdose of morphine. Although she declares her innocence, Rita is charged with the crime after her embittered mother-in-law Helen insists that she murdered her son. The ensuing trial proves tough for both sides as each woman offers compelling and very convincing testimony.
- The Prestons accept the case of three defendants involved in a bizarre murder case. The seamen are charged with killing a fourth man with whom they were stranded on a small lifeboat in the ocean following a shipboard explosion. The twist in the case: the murder was committed with the victim's full consent in order to increase the odds of survival for the other men.
- A strange young woman claims she has been told "by voices" to kill someone.
- Dr. Tasso is a fervent advocate of birth control - which gets her into trouble.
- In a change from their usual work, the Prestons undertake to look after the legal business involved in getting a play through a tour and onto Broadway.
- Arnold Foster is jailed for a crime of which he is innocent. Can he survive the American prison system?
- Lawrence Preston defends a once-famous actress on a drunk-driving charge.
- The Prestons defend a drama critic in a libel case.
- Howard March is desperate to prevent his daughter from going to Vermont with her boyfriend.
- Harried businessman Bob Garrison storms off following a fight with his wife, runs a red light, and strikes a pedestrian. The Prestons encourage him to accept a plea of temporary insanity, arguing that severe emotional conflicts made him act without reason.
- Sheila Phelps is an alcoholic. Can the Prestons used this information to defend her in court?
- Whilst representing Mrs. Potter in her divorce, widower Lawrence Preston finds himself falling in love with her.
- Young hoodlums Erik Davis and Arnold Campbell violently beat an elderly man to death on a city street for seemingly no reason. Although 27 eyewitnesses are spectators to the crime, none make any attempt to help the victim. Lawrence agrees to defend the accused, and their motives, as well as the eyewitnesses', are revealed on the witness stand.
- Dr. Byron Saul's controversial use of LSD in treating his patients is called into question after a patient dies whilst under the drug's influence.
- When a sixteen-year-old boy is accused of shoplifting, the Prestons find his divorced parents are uncaring.
- Candidate Matthew Ritter's young son vanishes during his party's sprawling convention ceremonies. After receiving a kidnapper's demand for $200,000 in exchange for his boy's safety, Ritter seeks help from Lawrence Preston instead of the police. Preston agrees to act as a go-between as public and private pressures mount for the Ritter family.
- A lonely nonentity confesses (untruthfully) to the killing of a drug dealer in the hope of finding some transitory celebrity.
- A successful business man is framed for murder by a woman who claims to have been his mistress.
- After his political party attempts to have him impeached from office on a charge of malfeasance, Governor William Defoe seeks legal assistance from Lawrence, who is an old college buddy. Defoe claims he's being ousted because of radical changes he wants to make his party; however, as testimony begins before a judiciary committee, accusations arise that Defoe bought his way into governor's mansion with a sizable, anonymous donation.
- An unjustly-convicted man breaks out of jail just as evidence comes through that can clear him - but, in the escape, he's killed a man.
- Historically, Beijing Opera had been a masculine art form and female roles were played by males, but after 1949, women began to emerge as performers. Qi Shu Fang was central in that movement. This new film by Alan Govenar explores the life and work of the preeminent master of Chinese Opera now living in the United States.
- While in pursuit of a suspected thief, police sergeant Henry Olson violates departmental procedure by firing a shot into a public crowd. When he discovers that an innocent bystander has been wounded by his bullet, Olson attempts to cover up his culpability by framing fellow officer Don Franks.
- The outspokenly patriotic Admiral Kiley finds himself with big legal problems.
- Does the mysterious Mr. Lowen have genuine powers of extra-sensory perception? And if he does, can they justify his killing a man?
- Willie Drucker, a numbers racket middleman, shoots and kills Sturdivant, a police detective who enters his apartment unannounced through a window using New York state's controversial "no-knock warrant" law. When the district attorney's office indicts Drucker for first-degree murder, the Prestons take his case and argue that the killing was self-defense.
- Reporter Maria Edwards disregards advice to cover a police story, but finds herself in danger when an apprehension becomes violent. She flees to the safety of her car, but shoots and kills a man who is hiding in the backseat. The Prestons are prepared to defend on her on a manslaughter charge, until it surfaces that Maria knew the man she shot and the manslaughter plea is no longer available.
- In their final televised case, the Prestons tackle a New York state law limiting the amount of compensation for wrongful death cases. After Bill Andrews' young son dies in a car accident, he sues, but finds that the fees he's set to collect aren't even sufficient to cover the psychiatric care his devastated wife needs to recover from the loss. He seeks help from the Prestons, who argue for changes to the law.
- The Prestons defend a young illegal immigrant who faces deportation.
- During a military training maneuver, Private Collier is killed in accidental fall. Jerry Hegen, a tough, brutal Marine drill sergeant faces court marital following the death of Collier, a recruit Hegen had bullied. The Prestons are called upon to defend Hegen.
- A street preacher, Peter Brinks, is accused of robbery.
- When a famous doctor is murdered, a suspicion arises that he may have been an escaped Nazi war criminal.
- The Prestons are retained by Raul and Suzy Martinez in what appears to be a routine eviction case. However, unbeknownst to them, Peter Cole, a local political bagman, has been ordered to ensure the eviction. Cole seeks help from Judge Phillip Benning, whose loose ethics allow him to fix small court cases.
- Steve Janos has left his alcoholic wife and re-married - but he neglected to get divorced first.
- During the final fraternity initiation at a local college, black pledge Harley Dean is killed in a fall during a hazing stunt gone wrong. Fraternity brothers Gary Foster, Cliff Wakeman, and Deke Wilson are all charged with manslaughter and could face up to fifteen years in prison. The Prestons agree to defend the trio.
- Preston and Preston are at odds over potential client Charlie Barry, a homeless man accused of killing another bum. Lawrence turns down the case, which he thinks isn't a winning prospect, but Ken, sympathetic to the plight of the derelicts, wants to defend him.
- Joanne Rawlins seeks legal assistance from the Prestons to arrange a release for her husband Frank, a businessman who has been detained and arrested in Moscow on suspicion of spying. The Russian government agrees to exchange Frank for Vorchek, one of their own citizens jailed in the United States for espionage. The Prestons agree but then find themselves in a quandary when they learn that Vorchek will likely be executed upon his return to Russia.
- On the verge of discovering a cure for cancer, Dr. Chaney is accused of murder.
- A boxer is accused of manslaughter.
- Assistant district attorney Cliff Sellers finds himself on the end of a very cruel hook when he's assigned to prosecute the case of Walter Wyatt, a man accused of murdering his spouse. Sellers secretly knows that the defendant is innocent: his brother Tim was having an affair with Mrs. Wyatt and impulsively strangled her when she threatened to expose their relationship. As the trial begins, Sellers is torn between loyalty to his brother and the horrifying possibility that Wyatt could face death in the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit.
- Unhappily married to a wealthy older woman, Jerry Thomas finds himself the chief suspect when his wife is discovered murdered in her bed. The police discount Jerry's statements and arrest him for homicide. The Prestons face a tough case in court when the strong circumstantial evidence against Jerry proves formidable.
- Crooked lawyer Bernard Maxwell faces trial, and calls on the Prestons to defend him.
- A teacher seems likely to lose his job after being accused of promoting atheism.
- Composer Joshua Ryder is accused of the stabbing death of his girlfriend Shirley and brought to trial. With overwhelming circumstantial evidence against his client, including a history of aberrant behavior, Lawrence Preston resorts to a courtroom trick in order to save Ryder from conviction. However, following Ryder's acquittal, another murder occurs, leading Preston into an ethical crisis and subsequent determination to expose the true killer.
- The Prestons defend a journalist in a libel suit brought by a self-styled "prophet".
- An American Nazi is accused of murdering the caretaker of a synagogue.
- Floyd Cooper will be executed in twelve hours unless the Prestons can persuade the Governor to show leniency.
- After a famous illusionist dies during a complex trick, murder is suspected.
- Lawrence Preston is persuaded to go into politics - and regrets it.
- Young Christopher Yager is badly affected by his parents' divorce, but the well-intentioned efforts of his governess to help him lead to difficulties.
- Arriving for a trial in a small Southern town, the Prestons find their client has been lynched.
- The Prestons accept the case of Roger Bailey, a college-aged pacifist attempting to stop his induction into the armed forces. A professed agnostic, Bailey can't use the loophole of being a conscientious objector on religious grounds and potentially faces prison time as draft dodger.
- The Prestons take the case of respected pharmacist Ed Clark, who is arrested after being caught selling narcotics without a prescription to young addict Tom Grafton. During the case, the Prestons learn that Clark has been selling to other addicts too out of symphony for his wife Anne, who harbors a secret addiction of her own.
- Should evidence obtained by wire-tapping be valid in a courtroom?
- Fifteen year old Felipe Santander is arrested for slashing a cleaning lady. The Prestons, who once unsuccessfully defended Felipe's late father on a murder charge, intercede to help the boy, but they find him stubbornly unwilling to accept their assistance, particularly since his father was executed.
- Fr. Phelps hears the confession of a murderer. But another man is arrested for the crime.
- Acting out of conscience, nuclear scientist Dr. Daniel Orren destroys the results of his own research - and is charged with destroying classified documents.
- Preston becomes involved in the prior case of Simon Gray whom he successfully acquitted of a manslaughter charge four years earlier. Gray, who was driving a school bus that crashed and killed seven children, continues to be tormented by guilt over the incident. Gray's own granddaughter was one of the fatalities, and the situation is exacerbated by the unrelenting grief of his daughter. Preston seeks to find closure for Gray and his family by further investigation of the accident.
- An elderly man is accused of making bootleg wine - and he turns out not to be the only senior citizen involved.
- The DA feels his political future will be shattered if he prosecutes the elderly and illegal winemaker, so he implores Preston to ask for a postponement of the trial.
- While boating on Long Island Sound, Marian Gerard vanishes. After witnesses implicate him in her presumed death, husband Mark is indicted for first degree murder. With the death penalty on the table, the Prestons argue against conviction without a body, while in upstate New York, Marian is secretly alive and in hiding.
- A college student sets fire to a factory owned by his father - why?
- Young but impoverished lovers John Strafaci and Theresa Sullivan want to marry but can't afford it. They impulsively decide to rob a liquor store to finance their marriage, but are caught, arrested, and face up to 30 years in prison each if convicted. The court appoints the Prestons to represent the couple, and the attorneys mount a rather unorthodox defense to save them.
- Catherine Collins has been accused of shoplifting. Is she just a thief, or does she have the serious psychological affliction of kleptomania?
- Corrupt labor union leader Peter Chakris resorts to conspiracy when he fears losing control to Fred Solasky, the son of a beloved former union leader. When a colleague is murdered, Chakris frames Solasky for the crime. The Prestons must defend Solasky and expose Chakris's conspiracy.
- The Prestons represent Gil Rawson in a particularly acrimonious divorce.
- Dr. Silberman and his wife have raised young Emily as if she were their own child, but now her real mother wants her back.
- Convinced that his late client Joey Americus was executed for a crime that he didn't commit, an obsessed Ken seeks answers to the crime on his own. His investigation leads him into dangerous territory where he is beaten, falsely accused of felonious assault, and arrested.
- City councilman Juan "Spanish John" Espejo has been indicted for extorting money from a contractor. Espejo claims the accusation is a maneuver designed to discredit Puerto Ricans in political life.
- Drug addicted poet Gregor Martin confesses to a murder he didn't commit to protect a cafe owner who befriended him.
- After an unauthorized visit to Communist China, an outspoken journalist has his passport taken away from him.
- Bertha Schlock, an aspiring, but eccentric young actress from the Bronx, seeks help from the Prestons after being arrested on an assault charge. With predictably humorous results, Lawrence decides to play Pygmalion by making a presentable lady for the jury out of the odd, flamboyant girl.