Law & Order (1990) s26e04 Episode Script
Property
1
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.
I'm telling you, you have it all wrong.
I'm not responsible.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Please, I have to go.
Do I hear 400,000?
Do I hear 410,000?
Do I hear 410?
410, right down in front.
All good, boss? You're
missing the auction.
Do I hear 415,000?
Do I hear 415?
Do I hear 420?
420 in the back from Wendy.
Do I hear 430?
Do I hear 430?
Hammer's up.
Damn, Andy. What a find.
Hammer's up.
- [BANGS GAVEL]
- Sold at 420,000.
[APPLAUSE]
You are my hero.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Who's our vic?
Andrew Carson, age 41.
Super says he lives alone.
- Who found him?
- Cleaning lady.
She'd been working for him two years.
Always comes at 10:00
once he's out the door.
Didn't know much about
him. We took a statement.
Blunt force trauma?
Yep, with this.
Made of stone.
Guy's got a bunch of statues
and stuff like this around.
- Any prints on it?
- Nope.
But we did find a
brown hair on his shirt.
Okay, let's run DNA. Time of death?
MLI said, based on temp and rigidity,
somewhere between 9:00
and 11:00 last night.
This building got any surveillance?
Cameras at the entrance by the keypad.
Don't look like there was a struggle.
And no sign of forced entry.
No glasses out. Lights are bright.
Doesn't look like he was entertaining.
He wasn't robbed.
Wallet's here on the table.
That's a Tag Heuer smartwatch.
I'm not watch guy.
3K on a good day.
All right, let's check
his biometric data,
see if we can fix the
exact time of death.
Meridien Auction House,
A Night of Magnificent Discoveries,
August 26, 6:00 p.m.
Well, we know where he was last night.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Andy wasn't just at the auction.
He organized the auction.
He was our head of antiquities,
one of the best in the business.
He was great with sellers,
the fanciest buyers,
super knowledgeable, discreet.
He scored unbelievable items.
We heard he lived alone.
Anyone we should notify?
Not that I know of.
His parents had passed.
He divorced a few years ago. No kids.
Ex-wife lives in the Hamptons.
I don't think they speak.
He dating anyone?
More like, who wasn't he dating?
But no one special, I think.
What time did he leave here last night?
Auction ended around 7:45.
He was gone by 8:00.
- He leave alone?
- Yeah.
I offered to go celebrate with him.
The auction was a major success.
But he said he was
headed home to recharge.
He was exhausted.
Anything else?
The only weird thing is that
Andy was late to the auction.
He'd been planning the
night for five months,
but he was stuck on
some call in his office,
- so it must have been important.
- Okay.
Do you know who he was talking to?
Not a clue.
Afterwards, he didn't
wanna talk about it.
Well, if you think of anything else
[PHONES RINGING]
- Calvino.
- Yo.
Video came in from Carson's building.
All right, he punches in at 8:27.
Seems he went straight
home from the auction.
Who came in after him?
A few tenants used their access code
and entered before 10:00 p.m.
But at the bottom right of
the panel is Carson's button,
and you can see someone hit it at 9:22.
Spent some time shouting
into the intercom.
Then finally he slips in
behind the delivery guy.
- We catch him on the way out?
- Yep.
Six minutes later.
You run that through facial rec?
Nothing.
All we have to go on is this.
Oh, NYU. That's great.
Narrows it down. Only
half the city went there.
Carson's work phone records just landed.
Guess what?
That call that kept him in
his office before the auction?
Came from the Manhattan DA's office.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
I got a credible complaint that day
about a 6th century Buddha that
was about to go up for auction.
Complaint saying what?
That the Buddha had been
looted from Afghanistan
25 years ago by the Taliban.
How'd Carson take that?
I'd say disturbingly nonchalant
for someone that just stumbled into
a thousand-year Afghani power battle.
I chase these white-collar
guys all day long.
They are uniformly ill-equipped
for the mess they get themselves into.
A lot of this stuff is stolen?
Stolen, forged,
tax havens for power players
you do not want on your contact list
or money laundering vehicles
for the organized crime.
Frankly, I'm surprised more of
these guys don't end up dead.
Any idea who might have
been pissed at Carson
for orchestrating that
particular auction last night?
Complaint came in a day ago.
A man named Abdul-Ahad Farhadi.
I spoke to him on the
phone. He was very angry.
Said anyone selling this statue
was conspiring with the Taliban
and should be held accountable.
Farhadi? He got a record?
All I know is the
guy's an art conservator
and a professor.
Let me guess, NYU.
We know you called in
to Andy Carson's office
in the days before his murder.
- Murder?
- And we know he was blowing off your calls.
So you paid him a visit
at his home last night.
I did not
See? That's you at his building.
Killing a man over a Buddha statue?
- You seeing the irony?
- I did not kill him.
I just needed to speak with him.
That's a whole lot of
urgency over, what, old art?
You don't understand.
The Buddha was stolen from the
Mes Aynak archaeological site.
I was the conservator there
before the Taliban invasion.
You make it sound like you think
you had a right to kill him.
I had every right to confront him.
In his home, 9:30 at night?
Come on, man.
I only heard it was up
for sale a few days ago.
I tried the proper channels.
No one was responding.
Then I watched the
auction on livestream,
and I got very agitated.
So you tracked down Carson's address,
you slipped into his
building, and you got revenge.
No.
He wasn't responding
to me on the intercom,
and I needed to get the
name of the seller
the thief who put it up for auction,
so I could initiate
a claim with Interpol.
When I got inside, Carson wasn't home.
I knocked and knocked,
so I finally left.
Look, I am not a murderer.
My country has been pilfered.
♪
He's got no alibi to speak of,
but plenty of means,
motive, and opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, but honestly,
do you see Carson
opening up his door
at that time of night
for some art conservator?
Um, what time did your guy
Farhadi get to Carson's?
Entered at 9:22, exited 9:31.
Well, we just got the data
from the vic's smartwatch.
Heart rate spiked at 9:06,
and by 9:14, no heartbeat.
Farhadi hadn't even got
to the victim's building
- by that time.
- Yeah. Let him go.
Also, I just had a listen
to Carson's last voicemails.
Big Switty called him.
- Big Switty? The rapper?
- Mm-hmm.
Called him an hour before the murder.
- Listen to this.
- Hey, Carson,
you wanna make this thing ugly?
I'll break your face ugly.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Carson's dead?
For real?
Serves his dumb ass right.
You sound broken up.
How do you know him?
Through the art scene.
My wife and I like African art.
Andy was our broker.
Liked him, too, until I found out
this Egyptian mask that
I bought for 300 grand
- was a fake.
- You blame Andy?
Damn straight.
Told him I wanted my money back.
- May I?
- Please.
- He pony up?
- No.
- You get pissed?
- Hell, yeah.
But my wife had a soft spot for the guy.
Told me we should
resolve this like adults.
So we invited him and his girlfriend
over for dinner a month ago.
Then I let him know I wanted my money.
Gave him 30 days.
Let me guess.
He didn't pay.
Deadline was yesterday.
That's why I left that message.
Let me ask you this question.
Where were you last night at 9:30?
At dinner with my manager and my lawyer.
This girlfriend of his, got a name?
Lucy.
Butler.
They weren't getting along
so good, that's for sure.
What makes you say that?
She just kept rolling her eyes
at everything he said, like
she knew he was full of it.
Okay.
Thank you for your time.
- No worries.
- [PHONE BUZZES]
Hey, the hair we found
at the crime scene
belonged to a woman.
Let's go see how bad things
were with Lucy Butler.
I heard this morning.
I still can't believe he's dead.
When was the last time you saw him?
Maybe three, four weeks ago.
Things didn't work out?
[SCOFFS]
No.
I mean, I tried, but
look, I knew Andy had
a reputation for dating
a lot of women, but he swore
to me he was a changed man,
and he wanted to settle down, all that.
So he cheated on you?
With his ex-wife.
Seriously.
We heard they didn't speak.
Oh, yeah, he told me that too.
Said he hated her.
Then one day, he tells
me he's going to the gym,
but he's actually meeting up with his ex
- at some swank hotel.
- Ooh.
How'd that make you feel?
Like an idiot.
Yeah. Yeah. I bet.
You were pretty upset?
Yeah, I was.
[SCOFFS]
I didn't kill him, for God's sake.
I just broke up with him.
Because he was cheating
with his ex-wife?
Yes.
He denied it, of course.
Claimed that they were
just discussing some
kind of stressful legal matter.
So where were you last night?
On a date.
Can we get his name?
Lucy Butler's date
confirmed, they met at 7:30
and parted ways at 10:00 p.m.
Any word on whether the
ex-wife was back in the picture?
He had almost no communication with her.
But from the divorce
filings, I can see why.
Carson tried to squeeze her out
of as much money as possible.
- She's rich?
- Oh, she's rich,
like family started an actual bank rich.
You know, luckily for
her, his rampant infidelity
was frowned upon by the court.
So I'm thinking reconciliation
was off the table for her?
Well, after that lunch,
she sent him a single text
about a week before the murder.
"Are you ever going to respond?"
- And let me guess, he did not.
- Nada.
Okay, maybe there was
some pressing legal matter
they had to discuss,
and he blew her off, and she got pissed.
Well, she's coming back from
the Hamptons tomorrow morning,
and she was gracious enough to give us
a place where we can meet her.
Nice.
Yeah, please.
There was nothing secretive
or salacious about our meeting.
We had lunch about a
month ago, at my request.
I wanted to let Andy know
about my upcoming memoir.
Memoir?
"Jilted."
It's about our marriage.
Did that create a legal dispute?
Some tension?
Well, it could have.
And I was expecting pushback,
but I was honest with Andy.
I told him I wrote about
how he spent my money,
how he cheated on me
cheated during my
battle with breast cancer
while I was undergoing chemotherapy.
Sounds like you're not
sending flowers to his wake.
No. I will not.
So you really had an ax to grind, huh?
Yes, I did at first.
I thought I was gonna
spend my life with that man
and start a family,
and then suddenly my
future was shattered.
And then I saw that it was all actually
part of God's plan for me.
Why didn't you just call
him and give him a heads up?
You could have had a
lawyer send over a copy.
Have you ever been
unceremoniously dumped,
Detective, and dragged through the mud
and humiliated in divorce court?
In fact, yes, I have,
just a few months ago.
The last time Andy saw me,
I was a weak, begging wreck.
And I invited Andy to
lunch because I wanted him
to see me like this.
And how did you two leave things?
At the lunch, I told him that
I had left our divorce a happier person
and that I forgave him,
thanks to God.
Okay. Where were you two nights ago?
Um, I was at my house in
the Hamptons watching TV.
Thank you for your time.
If you think of anything else,
let us know?
Of course. Oh, thank you.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Sorry to hear about the breakup, man.
No, no, no, it's all
good. I was just playing.
The ex-wife's Hamptons
story checks out.
Her phone pinged from her residence
the night in question,
and I ran her plate.
So she hasn't driven back to the city
since she had lunch with Carson.
That was a month ago.
But we know from the
DNA that it was a woman,
so the only lead we have
on that front right now
is the ex-girlfriend,
whose story seems to be
checking out, correct?
I got that video of the
ex-girlfriend you wanted.
- Yeah?
- So it starts with her leaving the restaurant
and parting ways with her date at 8:53.
Then she started to walk
in Carson's direction.
And two blocks later, she peels west.
Any chance she doubled back anyplace?
I thought the same thing,
so I started pulling video
between there and Carson's apartment.
No sign of the ex-girlfriend,
but take a look at this.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
This is two blocks from Carson's crib.
♪
Ooh, I'm sorry. I'm really nervous.
[CHUCKLES] This is my first press.
Relax. You'll do great.
And the book was wonderful.
I really loved it.
Okay, get ready and just
watch for the green light.
- Five, four, three
- [DOOR OPENS]
- NYPD.
- Excuse me, we're about to record.
Caroline Sanders, you're under
arrest for the murder of Andrew Carson.
Can I get you to turn around and
put your hands behind your back?
Real easy. Thank you.
Hey, don't worry,
it's gonna make a hell of a sequel.
The evidence against Caroline Sanders
is seemingly rock solid.
Yeah.
Looks like police
found clear video of her
near the crime scene that
night and video of her
at his building eight
minutes before he was killed,
hiding her face with a scarf,
using a passcode to punch in.
Seems like she knew the entry code
from when they shared the
apartment during the marriage.
The warrant for her DNA gave us a sample
that proves she's a
match for the hair found
- on the victim.
- Yeah.
But what's the motive?
The divorce was a legal bloodbath,
but that was two years ago.
And Caroline made off well.
Her life was on the total upswing.
Why kill him now?
Let's start with any and
all phone calls, emails,
texts after this mystery lunch.
We received your subpoena.
- Take a seat.
- Thanks.
So Andy Carson called these offices
five times on July 24th.
Can you tell me why?
He called incessantly,
and they ended up having to page me.
He was in quite a state.
So Andy and Caroline were patients.
Yes.
When Caroline was diagnosed with cancer,
IVF became their only option.
Because of the chemo, her
eggs were no longer viable,
and so they made sure they had embryos
frozen for after her recovery.
So Andy called about the embryos?
He called to ask about
their signed paperwork
who had rights to their embryos.
I assured him two-party consent
was required for implantation.
That seemed to calm him.
Can I see that paperwork?
I can send you a digital copy.
The originals were transferred
to our Pennsylvania storage
facility with the embryos.
Why were they moved?
Because of the chemo,
they knew they'd need
long-term storage.
Caroline was anxious about
blackouts in the city,
events that could
compromise the power supply,
put the embryos at risk.
She knew this would be her last
shot at biological motherhood.
Okay, thank you.
Of course.
Um, one last thing.
Did Caroline ever reach
out about the embryos
after they were frozen?
She came to see me the
same afternoon Andy called.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
Caroline Sanders wanted to move forward,
implant the embryos they had frozen.
Andy Carson didn't.
Yeah, and they'd signed
paperwork that said
they both had to consent,
so she felt stuck.
And the courts generally
side in favor of the spouse
- who doesn't wanna be a parent.
- Right.
So she knew she'd lose before a judge.
And I wouldn't worry about her
getting sympathy from a jury.
This is a state where we don't believe
in compelling people into parenthood.
Well, unless the embryos are
made the old-fashioned way.
But Caroline lost her say
because she needed IVF.
And you may find a
couple jurors sympathetic
to that legal contradiction.
Contradiction or not, we can
show that she killed her ex
to prevent him from saying no.
Evidence clearly linking
Caroline Sanders to this crime.
Her hair was found on
the victim's clothing.
Video shows her entering his building
eight minutes before the murder,
attempting to disguise herself.
In addition, she went to great efforts
that night to cover her tracks.
She took the train into the city
to avoid her license plate
showing her movements.
She even left her cell phone
at home to avoid being traced
to the vicinity of the crime.
This murder was calculated
and vicious.
And why did she kill him?
Because the only way for her
to gain control of the embryos
they created together
was to eliminate him
from the equation entirely.
Your Honor,
members of the jury.
We don't contest the evidence
or the facts of this murder.
Mr. Price is absolutely right.
My client, Caroline Sanders
killed her ex-husband,
but only because Andy Carson
was going to destroy those unborn lives,
her unborn children.
She was entirely justified.
In fact, Caroline Sanders had no choice.
This was defense of others.
Your Honor, may we approach?
Members of the jury, this is
a good time for a short recess.
Counselors, I'll see
you in my chambers, now.
[GAVEL BANGS]
For this murder to be justified
as a defense of others, she had
to be defending other people.
New York State is crystal
clear on this matter.
Embryos are not people.
There were no others to defend.
And even if, by some wild stretch,
they had been deemed
lives in this state,
there was no imminent threat.
The law requires my
client reasonably believed
these were her children
as of conception.
Not only did she believe it
as a long-time practicing Catholic,
but her belief is objectively reasonable
as it's a belief shared by 1.4 billion
Catholics on this planet.
Your Honor, allowing this defense
would not only contradict
New York case law,
but it would be setting
a dangerous precedent
that could be used to
impede abortion rights
and compromise IVF access.
By their own logic,
this would allow a man
to use force legally against a woman
trying to get an abortion.
These issues can and should
be entirely separated.
You can't forbid my
client a proper defense
because someone else has
personal or political concerns
about its implications.
Like it or not, Alabama
has granted embryos
legal personhood, and 38
states have fetal homicide laws.
Not New York.
No, but Pennsylvania,
where my client's embryos
were stored at the time
this crime occurred, does.
In that state, killing
a fetus at any stage
of gestation in a non-abortion
act can be deemed homicide.
Your Honor, the crime
occurred in New York.
This is a totally irrelevant citation
of out-of-state statutes.
♪
But the legal status of a person
does depend entirely
on where said person is.
I'm gonna have to play Solomon here.
New York law governs the
crime, but Pennsylvania law
necessitates that I allow
her justification defense.
- Your Honor
- It's up to the prosecution to disprove it.
♪
And why did the defendant
initially come under your care?
Caroline was diagnosed
with breast cancer.
And Andy and Caroline
were eager to make sure
they could have children after
her chemotherapy was over.
Prior to embarking on the medical steps
for this fertility plan, did
the defendant and her husband
sign any paperwork pertaining to who had
decision-making rights over
the embryos, once created?
Yes.
They signed our standard
forms that indicate the embryos
are, in effect, shared property,
that no implantation is
allowed without dual consent.
Did you ever discuss with the defendant
the prospect of destroying the embryos?
Yes. Couples don't always
want unused embryos
stored in perpetuity,
so we advise them they
have the option to destroy
the embryos at any time.
Did the defendant exhibit
any distress at the prospect
of destroying the embryos?
Not that I recall.
Well, did she say that's
out of the question?
She did not.
Did she say, "That would be murder"?
- No.
- Did she say anything or ask anything
that indicated that she
considered the embryos
to be actual lives?
No.
Thank you. Nothing further.
Dr. Stanton, you said
that she didn't appear
to think of the embryos as actual lives.
Correct.
As a matter of scientific
fact, is a sperm a cell?
- Yes.
- A woman's egg a cell?
- Yes.
- Is either one of those a living organism?
No.
Now, how about when the sperm
and egg meet to form a zygote?
Is that biologically different?
[TENSE MUSIC]
- Yes.
- In fact,
the zygote created is a living
single-celled organism, correct,
with its own unique human DNA?
Your Honor, relevance.
Mr. Price focuses direct on the matter
of these embryos being lives.
These questions are needed to
clarify the matter for the jury
so they can ascertain the reasonableness
of my client's defense.
I'll allow it.
Saying life begins at conception
isn't at all scientifically
inaccurate, is it?
In fact, it's biologically
quite reasonable.
Well, it's a semantic way of say
Of stating fact.
Nothing further.
- Your Honor, redirect.
- Go ahead.
Doctor,
is an amoeba a single-celled
living organism?
- Yes.
- What about E. coli or algae?
Yes and yes.
The yeast we use in bread?
All single-celled living organisms.
Thank you.
Your Honor, the people rest.
♪
So how'd our doctor do?
[SIGHS]
Lots of talk about zygotes and amoebas.
We just have to keep hammering
them with the science, and then
no matter what the defense puts on,
I'm confident the jury
will see through the attempt
to use faux religion to
stampede over the law.
Yeah, but Catholic or not,
lots of hopeful moms
do see their frozen cells
as more than just cells.
And I can think of at
least three female jurors
who might be swayed by
Caroline Sanders' situation.
Most women her age do
have something on ice.
Do you? Have something on ice?
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, no, no.
- No, it's fine.
- You don't have to answer that.
- It's okay.
Look, Nolan,
I love my job.
But do you think I wanna
come home every night
to an empty apartment at 11:00 p.m.
for the rest of my life?
No.
It's the ultimate insurance policy
for your most important life dreams.
It makes you feel like
like the option of a
brand-new life of motherhood
is always there.
If someone destroyed that or threatened
to destroy that chance,
I'd be a total wreck.
- You wouldn't kill.
- No, wouldn't kill.
I think the key here is
showing that Caroline Sanders
was selfishly defending her
own hopes, her own future.
I mean, she killed her
ex-husband to protect the life
that she wanted for herself.
This had nothing to do
with defending others.
My breast cancer
diagnosis was terrifying.
But what was more terrifying
was what that meant
for my dream of becoming a mother.
That had always been the plan.
We just put it off because
you think you have forever.
And you know, Andy and
I thought that we would
get to it when we were ready.
But then suddenly we just
you have to make big decisions.
And so we started IVF
immediately to freeze embryos.
But you and Andy
divorced before you could
complete your fertility plan.
Yes.
A year into my chemo treatment,
we were driving home
from dinner with friends,
and Andy told me that he no longer
wanted to be married to me.
And at first, he didn't
offer an explanation,
but eventually, I found out he was
having an affair,
one of many.
That must have been really tough.
It was horrible.
I was a wreck, from chemo and radiation.
I felt so ashamed.
And that's why I ended up
writing the book, you see.
I wanted to put that truth into words.
And what happened when
you finished the memoir?
Around the time that I sold
the book to a publisher,
I was declared cancer-free.
And I felt God's protection at last.
And so I thought, I'm
ready to become a mother.
And I invited Andy to lunch.
And I told him about the book
and about being cancer-free.
And I said I wanted his
blessing to move forward
with our embryos.
And what did he say?
He said that his life was changing
and that it didn't feel right,
and that he needed to think about it
and he would get back to me.
What happened next?
He never called.
I sent a follow-up text. Nothing.
Eventually eventually,
I got tired of waiting,
and I knew I needed his
signature on the consent form.
So I brought that paperwork
to his apartment that night,
and I told him that,
after everything he put me through,
after every betrayal, refusing
to let me use our embryos
would be an unforgivable cruelty.
What did he say?
He said that sharing frozen embryos
was an untenable entanglement
♪
A drama that he wanted to be free of,
like my cancer was a drama
he wanted to be free of.
And he just he was yelling at me,
and he was saying that he was
just sick of dealing with me,
that he'd just have our
embryos destroyed immediately.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
Destroyed.
This is my babies.
I couldn't let that happen.
Thank you, Caroline.
Nothing further.
Sounds like a very
upsetting conversation.
Yes, it was.
And to clarify for the jury,
at the end of that conversation,
you lifted a 14-pound marble statue
and you smashed his face in?
I had no choice.
Uh, Ms. Sanders, by
law, defense of others
requires that the others in
question be in imminent danger.
You bludgeoned Andy Carson
to death at 9:14 p.m.
- Yes?
- Yeah.
But the facility in Pennsylvania,
where your embryos were
stored, closed at 5:00 p.m.
Your fertility clinic closed at 5:30.
How could Andy have
possibly done anything
to the embryos that night?
He told me that all he had
to do was send an email.
I don't know what he set up legally.
I don't know what that
means, how that works.
Ms. Sanders, in your testimony,
you just referred to the
embryos as your babies.
To clarify, they were frozen cells
over which you had freely granted
legal decision-making
rights to your husband.
No, when I signed the paperwork,
it was just a formality.
Like, I didn't even read the fine print.
You also mentioned, in your
testimony, your lifelong dream.
Don't those embryos merely represent
your own deep hope for motherhood?
It's a dream that, in effect,
you were willing to kill for.
Objection. Argumentative.
- Sustained.
- They are not a dream, Mr. Price.
They are real. They are my babies.
I am pregnant.
I am pregnant,
right now, with twins.
Um, Your Honor, move to strike.
I'll see everyone in my chambers.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Your Honor, this is a calculated stunt
designed to elicit
sympathy from the jury.
It's a clear ploy for
jury nullification.
No, this is my client's life.
And implanting those embryos
while she was out on bail
was her full legal right.
They belonged entirely to
her once Andy Carson died.
You mean, once she murdered him.
Mr. Price, we're far from a verdict.
Request this be struck from the record.
Her factual statement about
her present medical condition?
We're silencing women from
speaking about pregnancy now?
And request the jury be
charged they cannot consider
sympathy for the defendant,
that they are only permitted
to apply facts to the law.
I'm not gonna strike the testimony,
but I will instruct the
jury not to factor sympathy
into their deliberations.
And Ms. Roland,
I caution you against any
further stunts like this.
Understood.
After you.
Jury instructions aside, you
have a pregnant defendant,
and I don't see anyone being
very eager to send her away
for 15 to life and dooming those babies
to the foster system.
- I say we offer a deal.
- Mm.
- For various reasons.
- Meaning what?
Well, if we lose, we'd be setting
a pretty dangerous precedent.
Well, I'm not convinced
they'd even consider a deal.
They could have argued
EED for a reduced sentence.
Probably would have
gotten it, but they didn't.
It's all or nothing.
Her whole defense hinges
on her sacred belief
of seeing these embryos as lives, right?
Yeah, she's Catholic.
Said she thought he was
going to kill her babies.
It's a sham.
If it's a sham, good.
You just have to find
something to discredit
her made-up faith narrative.
What are we looking for here, Nolan?
A picture of her burning
a cross, shredding a Bible?
She played Abigail in
"The Crucible" at college.
At least we're getting warmer.
Wait.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
What is this?
Allies for Women's Rights?
A reproductive rights club.
It doesn't sound like a young Catholic's
most likely extracurricular activity.
♪
I'll check it out.
I've only seen her a couple
of times since grad school.
But, yeah, we lived
together for two years.
We were both studying anthropology.
And Caroline was into
a ton of liberal causes,
including clinic defense.
We did a lot together.
She wasn't a Catholic back then?
I think her family was
bank money, Sunday churchgoers.
But Caroline didn't take
any of that seriously,
not until the summer after graduation.
Then what, she just
started going to church?
Then she got super into church,
went to mass every Sunday,
gold cross on her neck,
refused to do clinic defense.
Any idea why?
I would never say this, except
I read about her case,
and I know how this could affect
the pro-choice movement.
♪
You okay?
I'm pretty sure Caroline
Sanders had an abortion
right after grad school.
What?
So much for being a devout Catholic.
But it doesn't speak to
motive or to the case itself.
We would never be able to get
access to her medical records.
Do we really need her records?
- What do you mean?
- I mean, we can just go in and ask her.
She made religion an
issue, not us, Nolan.
So attack a woman in court
for getting an abortion?
Hmm.
Caroline Sanders got to
lead the life she wanted to
because the law granted
her the right to terminate
an unwanted pregnancy.
Maybe it traumatized her.
Maybe it made her
change her point of view.
Maybe it led her to the church.
She got to make that choice.
She does not have the right
to potentially jeopardize
other women's choices just so she can
get a free walk on murder.
One case on the New York
books granting fetuses
de facto personhood,
the floodgates open,
and there goes the right to an abortion.
No argument here, but you really think
that's gonna play with
the jury coming from a man?
Then let me do it.
♪
You created the embryos
with your husband
before you started
chemotherapy and radiation.
Yes.
Because, as you said, being a
mother was your lifelong dream.
It was. It was everything.
And you believed those embryos
frozen in liquid nitrogen
in your doctor's office,
six days into their
Petri dish development,
were akin to full human lives.
You're using jargon to try
to diminish their importance.
Every human life is irreplaceable,
and embryos are the
beginning of human life.
We're all God's unique creation.
And my embryos were and
are just waiting to fulfill
their full human potential.
And you couldn't allow someone
to kill your unborn children.
No, I could not.
Because, in your eyes, anyone
who would destroy a fetus
is essentially a murderer.
- Yes.
- So you had to eliminate Andy Carson
because he was going
to kill your babies.
I wish it hadn't come to that, but yes.
Caroline, you admit
to killing Andy Carson.
- I do.
- Prior to that,
have you ever committed murder?
Objection, Your Honor.
Counsel's question is
wildly inflammatory.
My client has never been
charged with so much as
a speeding ticket before this case.
Any suggestion of a prior bad
act requires a Sandoval motion.
Your Honor, my question
is relevant to showing
the defendant may be committing perjury.
It's essential the jury hears
her answer, and I'll rephrase.
I'll allow it, but this
better get relevant soon.
♪
Caroline, I'm gonna ask you about murder
in your own terms.
♪
Have you ever had an abortion?
♪
Please answer the question.
♪
Yes.
I did.
And it was murder.
- Nothing further, Your Honor.
- Please stop.
It was the worst thing I ever did.
It was that's why I had to
protect them, and I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry.
♪
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
How does the jury find?
On the charge of murder
in the second degree,
we find the defendant guilty.
♪
[INDISTINCT MUTTERING]
Nice work.
Thanks.
Wanna get some lunch?
Um, sorry, I can't.
I have plans.
♪
- Samantha.
- Hi.
Come on back.
So what brings you in?
I think I'm finally
ready to get started.
I just realized I don't have forever.
You will make an excellent mother.
Thank you.
♪
[WOLF HOWLS]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
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.
I'm telling you, you have it all wrong.
I'm not responsible.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Please, I have to go.
Do I hear 400,000?
Do I hear 410,000?
Do I hear 410?
410, right down in front.
All good, boss? You're
missing the auction.
Do I hear 415,000?
Do I hear 415?
Do I hear 420?
420 in the back from Wendy.
Do I hear 430?
Do I hear 430?
Hammer's up.
Damn, Andy. What a find.
Hammer's up.
- [BANGS GAVEL]
- Sold at 420,000.
[APPLAUSE]
You are my hero.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Who's our vic?
Andrew Carson, age 41.
Super says he lives alone.
- Who found him?
- Cleaning lady.
She'd been working for him two years.
Always comes at 10:00
once he's out the door.
Didn't know much about
him. We took a statement.
Blunt force trauma?
Yep, with this.
Made of stone.
Guy's got a bunch of statues
and stuff like this around.
- Any prints on it?
- Nope.
But we did find a
brown hair on his shirt.
Okay, let's run DNA. Time of death?
MLI said, based on temp and rigidity,
somewhere between 9:00
and 11:00 last night.
This building got any surveillance?
Cameras at the entrance by the keypad.
Don't look like there was a struggle.
And no sign of forced entry.
No glasses out. Lights are bright.
Doesn't look like he was entertaining.
He wasn't robbed.
Wallet's here on the table.
That's a Tag Heuer smartwatch.
I'm not watch guy.
3K on a good day.
All right, let's check
his biometric data,
see if we can fix the
exact time of death.
Meridien Auction House,
A Night of Magnificent Discoveries,
August 26, 6:00 p.m.
Well, we know where he was last night.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Andy wasn't just at the auction.
He organized the auction.
He was our head of antiquities,
one of the best in the business.
He was great with sellers,
the fanciest buyers,
super knowledgeable, discreet.
He scored unbelievable items.
We heard he lived alone.
Anyone we should notify?
Not that I know of.
His parents had passed.
He divorced a few years ago. No kids.
Ex-wife lives in the Hamptons.
I don't think they speak.
He dating anyone?
More like, who wasn't he dating?
But no one special, I think.
What time did he leave here last night?
Auction ended around 7:45.
He was gone by 8:00.
- He leave alone?
- Yeah.
I offered to go celebrate with him.
The auction was a major success.
But he said he was
headed home to recharge.
He was exhausted.
Anything else?
The only weird thing is that
Andy was late to the auction.
He'd been planning the
night for five months,
but he was stuck on
some call in his office,
- so it must have been important.
- Okay.
Do you know who he was talking to?
Not a clue.
Afterwards, he didn't
wanna talk about it.
Well, if you think of anything else
[PHONES RINGING]
- Calvino.
- Yo.
Video came in from Carson's building.
All right, he punches in at 8:27.
Seems he went straight
home from the auction.
Who came in after him?
A few tenants used their access code
and entered before 10:00 p.m.
But at the bottom right of
the panel is Carson's button,
and you can see someone hit it at 9:22.
Spent some time shouting
into the intercom.
Then finally he slips in
behind the delivery guy.
- We catch him on the way out?
- Yep.
Six minutes later.
You run that through facial rec?
Nothing.
All we have to go on is this.
Oh, NYU. That's great.
Narrows it down. Only
half the city went there.
Carson's work phone records just landed.
Guess what?
That call that kept him in
his office before the auction?
Came from the Manhattan DA's office.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
I got a credible complaint that day
about a 6th century Buddha that
was about to go up for auction.
Complaint saying what?
That the Buddha had been
looted from Afghanistan
25 years ago by the Taliban.
How'd Carson take that?
I'd say disturbingly nonchalant
for someone that just stumbled into
a thousand-year Afghani power battle.
I chase these white-collar
guys all day long.
They are uniformly ill-equipped
for the mess they get themselves into.
A lot of this stuff is stolen?
Stolen, forged,
tax havens for power players
you do not want on your contact list
or money laundering vehicles
for the organized crime.
Frankly, I'm surprised more of
these guys don't end up dead.
Any idea who might have
been pissed at Carson
for orchestrating that
particular auction last night?
Complaint came in a day ago.
A man named Abdul-Ahad Farhadi.
I spoke to him on the
phone. He was very angry.
Said anyone selling this statue
was conspiring with the Taliban
and should be held accountable.
Farhadi? He got a record?
All I know is the
guy's an art conservator
and a professor.
Let me guess, NYU.
We know you called in
to Andy Carson's office
in the days before his murder.
- Murder?
- And we know he was blowing off your calls.
So you paid him a visit
at his home last night.
I did not
See? That's you at his building.
Killing a man over a Buddha statue?
- You seeing the irony?
- I did not kill him.
I just needed to speak with him.
That's a whole lot of
urgency over, what, old art?
You don't understand.
The Buddha was stolen from the
Mes Aynak archaeological site.
I was the conservator there
before the Taliban invasion.
You make it sound like you think
you had a right to kill him.
I had every right to confront him.
In his home, 9:30 at night?
Come on, man.
I only heard it was up
for sale a few days ago.
I tried the proper channels.
No one was responding.
Then I watched the
auction on livestream,
and I got very agitated.
So you tracked down Carson's address,
you slipped into his
building, and you got revenge.
No.
He wasn't responding
to me on the intercom,
and I needed to get the
name of the seller
the thief who put it up for auction,
so I could initiate
a claim with Interpol.
When I got inside, Carson wasn't home.
I knocked and knocked,
so I finally left.
Look, I am not a murderer.
My country has been pilfered.
♪
He's got no alibi to speak of,
but plenty of means,
motive, and opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, but honestly,
do you see Carson
opening up his door
at that time of night
for some art conservator?
Um, what time did your guy
Farhadi get to Carson's?
Entered at 9:22, exited 9:31.
Well, we just got the data
from the vic's smartwatch.
Heart rate spiked at 9:06,
and by 9:14, no heartbeat.
Farhadi hadn't even got
to the victim's building
- by that time.
- Yeah. Let him go.
Also, I just had a listen
to Carson's last voicemails.
Big Switty called him.
- Big Switty? The rapper?
- Mm-hmm.
Called him an hour before the murder.
- Listen to this.
- Hey, Carson,
you wanna make this thing ugly?
I'll break your face ugly.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Carson's dead?
For real?
Serves his dumb ass right.
You sound broken up.
How do you know him?
Through the art scene.
My wife and I like African art.
Andy was our broker.
Liked him, too, until I found out
this Egyptian mask that
I bought for 300 grand
- was a fake.
- You blame Andy?
Damn straight.
Told him I wanted my money back.
- May I?
- Please.
- He pony up?
- No.
- You get pissed?
- Hell, yeah.
But my wife had a soft spot for the guy.
Told me we should
resolve this like adults.
So we invited him and his girlfriend
over for dinner a month ago.
Then I let him know I wanted my money.
Gave him 30 days.
Let me guess.
He didn't pay.
Deadline was yesterday.
That's why I left that message.
Let me ask you this question.
Where were you last night at 9:30?
At dinner with my manager and my lawyer.
This girlfriend of his, got a name?
Lucy.
Butler.
They weren't getting along
so good, that's for sure.
What makes you say that?
She just kept rolling her eyes
at everything he said, like
she knew he was full of it.
Okay.
Thank you for your time.
- No worries.
- [PHONE BUZZES]
Hey, the hair we found
at the crime scene
belonged to a woman.
Let's go see how bad things
were with Lucy Butler.
I heard this morning.
I still can't believe he's dead.
When was the last time you saw him?
Maybe three, four weeks ago.
Things didn't work out?
[SCOFFS]
No.
I mean, I tried, but
look, I knew Andy had
a reputation for dating
a lot of women, but he swore
to me he was a changed man,
and he wanted to settle down, all that.
So he cheated on you?
With his ex-wife.
Seriously.
We heard they didn't speak.
Oh, yeah, he told me that too.
Said he hated her.
Then one day, he tells
me he's going to the gym,
but he's actually meeting up with his ex
- at some swank hotel.
- Ooh.
How'd that make you feel?
Like an idiot.
Yeah. Yeah. I bet.
You were pretty upset?
Yeah, I was.
[SCOFFS]
I didn't kill him, for God's sake.
I just broke up with him.
Because he was cheating
with his ex-wife?
Yes.
He denied it, of course.
Claimed that they were
just discussing some
kind of stressful legal matter.
So where were you last night?
On a date.
Can we get his name?
Lucy Butler's date
confirmed, they met at 7:30
and parted ways at 10:00 p.m.
Any word on whether the
ex-wife was back in the picture?
He had almost no communication with her.
But from the divorce
filings, I can see why.
Carson tried to squeeze her out
of as much money as possible.
- She's rich?
- Oh, she's rich,
like family started an actual bank rich.
You know, luckily for
her, his rampant infidelity
was frowned upon by the court.
So I'm thinking reconciliation
was off the table for her?
Well, after that lunch,
she sent him a single text
about a week before the murder.
"Are you ever going to respond?"
- And let me guess, he did not.
- Nada.
Okay, maybe there was
some pressing legal matter
they had to discuss,
and he blew her off, and she got pissed.
Well, she's coming back from
the Hamptons tomorrow morning,
and she was gracious enough to give us
a place where we can meet her.
Nice.
Yeah, please.
There was nothing secretive
or salacious about our meeting.
We had lunch about a
month ago, at my request.
I wanted to let Andy know
about my upcoming memoir.
Memoir?
"Jilted."
It's about our marriage.
Did that create a legal dispute?
Some tension?
Well, it could have.
And I was expecting pushback,
but I was honest with Andy.
I told him I wrote about
how he spent my money,
how he cheated on me
cheated during my
battle with breast cancer
while I was undergoing chemotherapy.
Sounds like you're not
sending flowers to his wake.
No. I will not.
So you really had an ax to grind, huh?
Yes, I did at first.
I thought I was gonna
spend my life with that man
and start a family,
and then suddenly my
future was shattered.
And then I saw that it was all actually
part of God's plan for me.
Why didn't you just call
him and give him a heads up?
You could have had a
lawyer send over a copy.
Have you ever been
unceremoniously dumped,
Detective, and dragged through the mud
and humiliated in divorce court?
In fact, yes, I have,
just a few months ago.
The last time Andy saw me,
I was a weak, begging wreck.
And I invited Andy to
lunch because I wanted him
to see me like this.
And how did you two leave things?
At the lunch, I told him that
I had left our divorce a happier person
and that I forgave him,
thanks to God.
Okay. Where were you two nights ago?
Um, I was at my house in
the Hamptons watching TV.
Thank you for your time.
If you think of anything else,
let us know?
Of course. Oh, thank you.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Sorry to hear about the breakup, man.
No, no, no, it's all
good. I was just playing.
The ex-wife's Hamptons
story checks out.
Her phone pinged from her residence
the night in question,
and I ran her plate.
So she hasn't driven back to the city
since she had lunch with Carson.
That was a month ago.
But we know from the
DNA that it was a woman,
so the only lead we have
on that front right now
is the ex-girlfriend,
whose story seems to be
checking out, correct?
I got that video of the
ex-girlfriend you wanted.
- Yeah?
- So it starts with her leaving the restaurant
and parting ways with her date at 8:53.
Then she started to walk
in Carson's direction.
And two blocks later, she peels west.
Any chance she doubled back anyplace?
I thought the same thing,
so I started pulling video
between there and Carson's apartment.
No sign of the ex-girlfriend,
but take a look at this.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
This is two blocks from Carson's crib.
♪
Ooh, I'm sorry. I'm really nervous.
[CHUCKLES] This is my first press.
Relax. You'll do great.
And the book was wonderful.
I really loved it.
Okay, get ready and just
watch for the green light.
- Five, four, three
- [DOOR OPENS]
- NYPD.
- Excuse me, we're about to record.
Caroline Sanders, you're under
arrest for the murder of Andrew Carson.
Can I get you to turn around and
put your hands behind your back?
Real easy. Thank you.
Hey, don't worry,
it's gonna make a hell of a sequel.
The evidence against Caroline Sanders
is seemingly rock solid.
Yeah.
Looks like police
found clear video of her
near the crime scene that
night and video of her
at his building eight
minutes before he was killed,
hiding her face with a scarf,
using a passcode to punch in.
Seems like she knew the entry code
from when they shared the
apartment during the marriage.
The warrant for her DNA gave us a sample
that proves she's a
match for the hair found
- on the victim.
- Yeah.
But what's the motive?
The divorce was a legal bloodbath,
but that was two years ago.
And Caroline made off well.
Her life was on the total upswing.
Why kill him now?
Let's start with any and
all phone calls, emails,
texts after this mystery lunch.
We received your subpoena.
- Take a seat.
- Thanks.
So Andy Carson called these offices
five times on July 24th.
Can you tell me why?
He called incessantly,
and they ended up having to page me.
He was in quite a state.
So Andy and Caroline were patients.
Yes.
When Caroline was diagnosed with cancer,
IVF became their only option.
Because of the chemo, her
eggs were no longer viable,
and so they made sure they had embryos
frozen for after her recovery.
So Andy called about the embryos?
He called to ask about
their signed paperwork
who had rights to their embryos.
I assured him two-party consent
was required for implantation.
That seemed to calm him.
Can I see that paperwork?
I can send you a digital copy.
The originals were transferred
to our Pennsylvania storage
facility with the embryos.
Why were they moved?
Because of the chemo,
they knew they'd need
long-term storage.
Caroline was anxious about
blackouts in the city,
events that could
compromise the power supply,
put the embryos at risk.
She knew this would be her last
shot at biological motherhood.
Okay, thank you.
Of course.
Um, one last thing.
Did Caroline ever reach
out about the embryos
after they were frozen?
She came to see me the
same afternoon Andy called.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
Caroline Sanders wanted to move forward,
implant the embryos they had frozen.
Andy Carson didn't.
Yeah, and they'd signed
paperwork that said
they both had to consent,
so she felt stuck.
And the courts generally
side in favor of the spouse
- who doesn't wanna be a parent.
- Right.
So she knew she'd lose before a judge.
And I wouldn't worry about her
getting sympathy from a jury.
This is a state where we don't believe
in compelling people into parenthood.
Well, unless the embryos are
made the old-fashioned way.
But Caroline lost her say
because she needed IVF.
And you may find a
couple jurors sympathetic
to that legal contradiction.
Contradiction or not, we can
show that she killed her ex
to prevent him from saying no.
Evidence clearly linking
Caroline Sanders to this crime.
Her hair was found on
the victim's clothing.
Video shows her entering his building
eight minutes before the murder,
attempting to disguise herself.
In addition, she went to great efforts
that night to cover her tracks.
She took the train into the city
to avoid her license plate
showing her movements.
She even left her cell phone
at home to avoid being traced
to the vicinity of the crime.
This murder was calculated
and vicious.
And why did she kill him?
Because the only way for her
to gain control of the embryos
they created together
was to eliminate him
from the equation entirely.
Your Honor,
members of the jury.
We don't contest the evidence
or the facts of this murder.
Mr. Price is absolutely right.
My client, Caroline Sanders
killed her ex-husband,
but only because Andy Carson
was going to destroy those unborn lives,
her unborn children.
She was entirely justified.
In fact, Caroline Sanders had no choice.
This was defense of others.
Your Honor, may we approach?
Members of the jury, this is
a good time for a short recess.
Counselors, I'll see
you in my chambers, now.
[GAVEL BANGS]
For this murder to be justified
as a defense of others, she had
to be defending other people.
New York State is crystal
clear on this matter.
Embryos are not people.
There were no others to defend.
And even if, by some wild stretch,
they had been deemed
lives in this state,
there was no imminent threat.
The law requires my
client reasonably believed
these were her children
as of conception.
Not only did she believe it
as a long-time practicing Catholic,
but her belief is objectively reasonable
as it's a belief shared by 1.4 billion
Catholics on this planet.
Your Honor, allowing this defense
would not only contradict
New York case law,
but it would be setting
a dangerous precedent
that could be used to
impede abortion rights
and compromise IVF access.
By their own logic,
this would allow a man
to use force legally against a woman
trying to get an abortion.
These issues can and should
be entirely separated.
You can't forbid my
client a proper defense
because someone else has
personal or political concerns
about its implications.
Like it or not, Alabama
has granted embryos
legal personhood, and 38
states have fetal homicide laws.
Not New York.
No, but Pennsylvania,
where my client's embryos
were stored at the time
this crime occurred, does.
In that state, killing
a fetus at any stage
of gestation in a non-abortion
act can be deemed homicide.
Your Honor, the crime
occurred in New York.
This is a totally irrelevant citation
of out-of-state statutes.
♪
But the legal status of a person
does depend entirely
on where said person is.
I'm gonna have to play Solomon here.
New York law governs the
crime, but Pennsylvania law
necessitates that I allow
her justification defense.
- Your Honor
- It's up to the prosecution to disprove it.
♪
And why did the defendant
initially come under your care?
Caroline was diagnosed
with breast cancer.
And Andy and Caroline
were eager to make sure
they could have children after
her chemotherapy was over.
Prior to embarking on the medical steps
for this fertility plan, did
the defendant and her husband
sign any paperwork pertaining to who had
decision-making rights over
the embryos, once created?
Yes.
They signed our standard
forms that indicate the embryos
are, in effect, shared property,
that no implantation is
allowed without dual consent.
Did you ever discuss with the defendant
the prospect of destroying the embryos?
Yes. Couples don't always
want unused embryos
stored in perpetuity,
so we advise them they
have the option to destroy
the embryos at any time.
Did the defendant exhibit
any distress at the prospect
of destroying the embryos?
Not that I recall.
Well, did she say that's
out of the question?
She did not.
Did she say, "That would be murder"?
- No.
- Did she say anything or ask anything
that indicated that she
considered the embryos
to be actual lives?
No.
Thank you. Nothing further.
Dr. Stanton, you said
that she didn't appear
to think of the embryos as actual lives.
Correct.
As a matter of scientific
fact, is a sperm a cell?
- Yes.
- A woman's egg a cell?
- Yes.
- Is either one of those a living organism?
No.
Now, how about when the sperm
and egg meet to form a zygote?
Is that biologically different?
[TENSE MUSIC]
- Yes.
- In fact,
the zygote created is a living
single-celled organism, correct,
with its own unique human DNA?
Your Honor, relevance.
Mr. Price focuses direct on the matter
of these embryos being lives.
These questions are needed to
clarify the matter for the jury
so they can ascertain the reasonableness
of my client's defense.
I'll allow it.
Saying life begins at conception
isn't at all scientifically
inaccurate, is it?
In fact, it's biologically
quite reasonable.
Well, it's a semantic way of say
Of stating fact.
Nothing further.
- Your Honor, redirect.
- Go ahead.
Doctor,
is an amoeba a single-celled
living organism?
- Yes.
- What about E. coli or algae?
Yes and yes.
The yeast we use in bread?
All single-celled living organisms.
Thank you.
Your Honor, the people rest.
♪
So how'd our doctor do?
[SIGHS]
Lots of talk about zygotes and amoebas.
We just have to keep hammering
them with the science, and then
no matter what the defense puts on,
I'm confident the jury
will see through the attempt
to use faux religion to
stampede over the law.
Yeah, but Catholic or not,
lots of hopeful moms
do see their frozen cells
as more than just cells.
And I can think of at
least three female jurors
who might be swayed by
Caroline Sanders' situation.
Most women her age do
have something on ice.
Do you? Have something on ice?
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, no, no.
- No, it's fine.
- You don't have to answer that.
- It's okay.
Look, Nolan,
I love my job.
But do you think I wanna
come home every night
to an empty apartment at 11:00 p.m.
for the rest of my life?
No.
It's the ultimate insurance policy
for your most important life dreams.
It makes you feel like
like the option of a
brand-new life of motherhood
is always there.
If someone destroyed that or threatened
to destroy that chance,
I'd be a total wreck.
- You wouldn't kill.
- No, wouldn't kill.
I think the key here is
showing that Caroline Sanders
was selfishly defending her
own hopes, her own future.
I mean, she killed her
ex-husband to protect the life
that she wanted for herself.
This had nothing to do
with defending others.
My breast cancer
diagnosis was terrifying.
But what was more terrifying
was what that meant
for my dream of becoming a mother.
That had always been the plan.
We just put it off because
you think you have forever.
And you know, Andy and
I thought that we would
get to it when we were ready.
But then suddenly we just
you have to make big decisions.
And so we started IVF
immediately to freeze embryos.
But you and Andy
divorced before you could
complete your fertility plan.
Yes.
A year into my chemo treatment,
we were driving home
from dinner with friends,
and Andy told me that he no longer
wanted to be married to me.
And at first, he didn't
offer an explanation,
but eventually, I found out he was
having an affair,
one of many.
That must have been really tough.
It was horrible.
I was a wreck, from chemo and radiation.
I felt so ashamed.
And that's why I ended up
writing the book, you see.
I wanted to put that truth into words.
And what happened when
you finished the memoir?
Around the time that I sold
the book to a publisher,
I was declared cancer-free.
And I felt God's protection at last.
And so I thought, I'm
ready to become a mother.
And I invited Andy to lunch.
And I told him about the book
and about being cancer-free.
And I said I wanted his
blessing to move forward
with our embryos.
And what did he say?
He said that his life was changing
and that it didn't feel right,
and that he needed to think about it
and he would get back to me.
What happened next?
He never called.
I sent a follow-up text. Nothing.
Eventually eventually,
I got tired of waiting,
and I knew I needed his
signature on the consent form.
So I brought that paperwork
to his apartment that night,
and I told him that,
after everything he put me through,
after every betrayal, refusing
to let me use our embryos
would be an unforgivable cruelty.
What did he say?
He said that sharing frozen embryos
was an untenable entanglement
♪
A drama that he wanted to be free of,
like my cancer was a drama
he wanted to be free of.
And he just he was yelling at me,
and he was saying that he was
just sick of dealing with me,
that he'd just have our
embryos destroyed immediately.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
Destroyed.
This is my babies.
I couldn't let that happen.
Thank you, Caroline.
Nothing further.
Sounds like a very
upsetting conversation.
Yes, it was.
And to clarify for the jury,
at the end of that conversation,
you lifted a 14-pound marble statue
and you smashed his face in?
I had no choice.
Uh, Ms. Sanders, by
law, defense of others
requires that the others in
question be in imminent danger.
You bludgeoned Andy Carson
to death at 9:14 p.m.
- Yes?
- Yeah.
But the facility in Pennsylvania,
where your embryos were
stored, closed at 5:00 p.m.
Your fertility clinic closed at 5:30.
How could Andy have
possibly done anything
to the embryos that night?
He told me that all he had
to do was send an email.
I don't know what he set up legally.
I don't know what that
means, how that works.
Ms. Sanders, in your testimony,
you just referred to the
embryos as your babies.
To clarify, they were frozen cells
over which you had freely granted
legal decision-making
rights to your husband.
No, when I signed the paperwork,
it was just a formality.
Like, I didn't even read the fine print.
You also mentioned, in your
testimony, your lifelong dream.
Don't those embryos merely represent
your own deep hope for motherhood?
It's a dream that, in effect,
you were willing to kill for.
Objection. Argumentative.
- Sustained.
- They are not a dream, Mr. Price.
They are real. They are my babies.
I am pregnant.
I am pregnant,
right now, with twins.
Um, Your Honor, move to strike.
I'll see everyone in my chambers.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Your Honor, this is a calculated stunt
designed to elicit
sympathy from the jury.
It's a clear ploy for
jury nullification.
No, this is my client's life.
And implanting those embryos
while she was out on bail
was her full legal right.
They belonged entirely to
her once Andy Carson died.
You mean, once she murdered him.
Mr. Price, we're far from a verdict.
Request this be struck from the record.
Her factual statement about
her present medical condition?
We're silencing women from
speaking about pregnancy now?
And request the jury be
charged they cannot consider
sympathy for the defendant,
that they are only permitted
to apply facts to the law.
I'm not gonna strike the testimony,
but I will instruct the
jury not to factor sympathy
into their deliberations.
And Ms. Roland,
I caution you against any
further stunts like this.
Understood.
After you.
Jury instructions aside, you
have a pregnant defendant,
and I don't see anyone being
very eager to send her away
for 15 to life and dooming those babies
to the foster system.
- I say we offer a deal.
- Mm.
- For various reasons.
- Meaning what?
Well, if we lose, we'd be setting
a pretty dangerous precedent.
Well, I'm not convinced
they'd even consider a deal.
They could have argued
EED for a reduced sentence.
Probably would have
gotten it, but they didn't.
It's all or nothing.
Her whole defense hinges
on her sacred belief
of seeing these embryos as lives, right?
Yeah, she's Catholic.
Said she thought he was
going to kill her babies.
It's a sham.
If it's a sham, good.
You just have to find
something to discredit
her made-up faith narrative.
What are we looking for here, Nolan?
A picture of her burning
a cross, shredding a Bible?
She played Abigail in
"The Crucible" at college.
At least we're getting warmer.
Wait.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
What is this?
Allies for Women's Rights?
A reproductive rights club.
It doesn't sound like a young Catholic's
most likely extracurricular activity.
♪
I'll check it out.
I've only seen her a couple
of times since grad school.
But, yeah, we lived
together for two years.
We were both studying anthropology.
And Caroline was into
a ton of liberal causes,
including clinic defense.
We did a lot together.
She wasn't a Catholic back then?
I think her family was
bank money, Sunday churchgoers.
But Caroline didn't take
any of that seriously,
not until the summer after graduation.
Then what, she just
started going to church?
Then she got super into church,
went to mass every Sunday,
gold cross on her neck,
refused to do clinic defense.
Any idea why?
I would never say this, except
I read about her case,
and I know how this could affect
the pro-choice movement.
♪
You okay?
I'm pretty sure Caroline
Sanders had an abortion
right after grad school.
What?
So much for being a devout Catholic.
But it doesn't speak to
motive or to the case itself.
We would never be able to get
access to her medical records.
Do we really need her records?
- What do you mean?
- I mean, we can just go in and ask her.
She made religion an
issue, not us, Nolan.
So attack a woman in court
for getting an abortion?
Hmm.
Caroline Sanders got to
lead the life she wanted to
because the law granted
her the right to terminate
an unwanted pregnancy.
Maybe it traumatized her.
Maybe it made her
change her point of view.
Maybe it led her to the church.
She got to make that choice.
She does not have the right
to potentially jeopardize
other women's choices just so she can
get a free walk on murder.
One case on the New York
books granting fetuses
de facto personhood,
the floodgates open,
and there goes the right to an abortion.
No argument here, but you really think
that's gonna play with
the jury coming from a man?
Then let me do it.
♪
You created the embryos
with your husband
before you started
chemotherapy and radiation.
Yes.
Because, as you said, being a
mother was your lifelong dream.
It was. It was everything.
And you believed those embryos
frozen in liquid nitrogen
in your doctor's office,
six days into their
Petri dish development,
were akin to full human lives.
You're using jargon to try
to diminish their importance.
Every human life is irreplaceable,
and embryos are the
beginning of human life.
We're all God's unique creation.
And my embryos were and
are just waiting to fulfill
their full human potential.
And you couldn't allow someone
to kill your unborn children.
No, I could not.
Because, in your eyes, anyone
who would destroy a fetus
is essentially a murderer.
- Yes.
- So you had to eliminate Andy Carson
because he was going
to kill your babies.
I wish it hadn't come to that, but yes.
Caroline, you admit
to killing Andy Carson.
- I do.
- Prior to that,
have you ever committed murder?
Objection, Your Honor.
Counsel's question is
wildly inflammatory.
My client has never been
charged with so much as
a speeding ticket before this case.
Any suggestion of a prior bad
act requires a Sandoval motion.
Your Honor, my question
is relevant to showing
the defendant may be committing perjury.
It's essential the jury hears
her answer, and I'll rephrase.
I'll allow it, but this
better get relevant soon.
♪
Caroline, I'm gonna ask you about murder
in your own terms.
♪
Have you ever had an abortion?
♪
Please answer the question.
♪
Yes.
I did.
And it was murder.
- Nothing further, Your Honor.
- Please stop.
It was the worst thing I ever did.
It was that's why I had to
protect them, and I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry.
♪
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
How does the jury find?
On the charge of murder
in the second degree,
we find the defendant guilty.
♪
[INDISTINCT MUTTERING]
Nice work.
Thanks.
Wanna get some lunch?
Um, sorry, I can't.
I have plans.
♪
- Samantha.
- Hi.
Come on back.
So what brings you in?
I think I'm finally
ready to get started.
I just realized I don't have forever.
You will make an excellent mother.
Thank you.
♪
[WOLF HOWLS]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪