Law & Order (1990) s26e05 Episode Script
Rage Bait
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.
- Whose house?
- ALL: Our house!
Whose house? all: Our house!
- Whose house?
- Our house!
You were eating tonight, bro.
[ALL CHEERING]
That paint belongs to you!
What the hell are you doing out there?
- Come on, Coach!
- You will not show disrespect like that!
No! No! Not here!
I should rip your head off!
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
- Man, you okay?
- Man, shut up.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Student ID was in his
pocket with some cash.
His name is Miles Booker.
20 years old, went to Piermont.
One GSW to the heart.
Call came in at 9:38 p.m.
Okay, got one casing, 9 mil.
Knuckles are bruised right hand.
Who called this in?
[SIREN CHIRPING]
That lady over there.
She works at that check-cashing store.
Only place on the block open this late.
All right. Thank you.
I heard two guys arguing.
Poked my head out, see what's going on.
I saw this guy and, um
a white guy.
Young? Old?
Couldn't see his face.
30, maybe?
They squared up.
Chest to chest, sort of.
Jawing at each other.
What were they saying?
One of them called the other a chump.
[SCOFFS]
Haven't heard that word
in a while. What is it, 1978?
Other than that, I
couldn't make out words.
Then this dude punched
the white dude in the face.
Bam white dude went down.
White dude pulls a
piece, shoots this guy,
gets up, runs off.
Could you make out any
distinguishing features?
Any little thing helps.
No, not in the dark.
Oh, wait, no, no. He
was wearing a backpack
with, like, um like,
like, shiny reflective stuff on it
in the shape of a triangle.
I saw it in the
streetlight when he ran off.
Once he was gone, I ran out.
This guy was already dead.
Two guys get into a fistfight.
One guy is losing, decides
fists aren't gonna cut it,
takes it to the next level.
If you can't beat 'em, shoot 'em.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Yeah, no, I don't think
that's the way it goes.
♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Unfortunately, our canvass
for cameras was a bust.
The CCTV at that check-cashing store
has been down for a month.
Thank you.
The camera down the block
picked up the two men arguing
right before the shooting,
but super grainy and far away.
I'm assuming facial
rec is a non-starter?
And it ends before things got violent.
It's more than nothing
but less than something.
I talked to Miles Booker's
parents on the phone.
They're on their way up from
Baltimore, where he grew up.
They said if he had anything
weird going on lately?
- Problems?
- No, nothing.
They said he wasn't just
a student at Piermont.
He was on the basketball team.
And they had a game
against Fenwick last night.
- Uh-huh. Huge rivalry.
- Uh-huh.
Well, Piermont won big last night,
and the game ended at 8:53 p.m.
Miles was dead 45 minutes later,
a quarter mile from the arena.
I can get access to the arena footage.
There's gonna be a ton of
it, so it might take a minute.
Meantime, that arena sound
like a good place to start?
I liked Miles, but we had
a tough relationship too.
How so? How tough?
Well, not that tough, if
that's what you're asking.
Miles was a star in high school.
But this is a big-time program.
I mean, all these kids
were stars in high school.
Here, Miles is a bench guy,
but he did not agree
with that assessment.
He wanted more playing time.
He was frustrated.
Sometimes he lashed out.
I mean, bonehead stuff.
What kind of stuff?
Well, last night, game's a blowout.
Next thing I know, one second left,
he throws up a three and makes it.
Can't imagine the Fenwick players
thought that was too cool.
Yeah, well, I didn't either.
So players get into it in the tunnel.
Miles takes some
punches, gets a few back.
- I broke it up.
- Right.
Think that other kid went and got a gun,
came back to finish what he started?
He did say, "This ain't over."
Nick Snyder.
NYPD.
Detective Walker, Detective Calvino.
We want to talk to
you about Miles Booker.
Yeah, I heard about it on the socials.
Sucks.
Yeah, we heard about the fight.
I did what I had to do.
You got a gun, Nick?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't think I had
anything to do with that?
Yeah, we just connect dots. That's all.
[SIGHS]
Look.
Yeah, maybe I was pissed after the game.
But if you thought I was
pissed about that stupid shot,
just check out what
they're saying on WiWager.
What's WiWager?
The prediction market?
Nick Snyder's alibi checks out.
He was right about WiWager.
So the betting line had
Piermont winning by 19,
but Piermont was winning by
18 as the clock wound down.
So Miles Booker throws up that prayer.
Piermont wins by 21.
He blows the line.
First place your mind goes
if he was caught up
in some gambling thing?
I hear you, but I don't know, man.
Box score said he played nine minutes.
Five points, two boards.
It's tough to throw a
game with those numbers.
Wait, guys.
Look at this WiWager pinboard.
You won't believe the flood
of hate that Booker got.
"Oh, that garbage shot
cost me my mortgage payment.
That scrub ruined my weekend."
All this for a 20-year-old kid?
- Damn.
- Well, even in this
sewer of humanity, one guy stands out.
This guy claims to have lost 40K.
"Gonna find Miles Booker on the street.
I'm gonna teach that punk
about a different kind of shot."
That guy posted that from the game.
He was there, saw the shot go in.
We know his handle on WiWager,
but who the hell is he in real life?
"Going to find Miles
Booker on the street.
"Gonna teach that punk about
a different kind of shot."
Outrageous, truly.
Yeah, we need a name.
We need to know who made that threat.
Can't help you there. Sorry.
So it doesn't bother you?
Athletes getting death
threats on your platform?
Moral decay is baked
into my business model
only because the demand exists.
That, we didn't create.
If someone predicts the
next 9/11 on WiWager,
makes a fortune
more power to him,
and the bigger my cut.
That math is contingent upon one thing:
Anonymity.
Thanks for stopping by, friends.
Well, just one problem.
We're talking about a person of interest
in a murder investigation,
so refusing to cooperate violates
Know Your Customer laws.
We'd have no choice but
to report it to the CFTC.
Yeah, see all that math
you were talking about?
I think that's contingent on
you still being in business friend.
Understand you own
a Smith & Wesson handgun, Mr. Barrett
CSX?
Yeah.
Registered, legal.
People use legal guns to
do illegal things, sir.
We got a shell casing,
and the bullet was fired from a gun
that was made by one
of two manufacturers.
Now, the first one's a Glock.
And I'm gonna let you guess
what the second one is.
Miles Booker's basket
at the end of the game
cost you 40 grand.
People have killed for a lot less.
Look, I was not happy
about that stupid shot.
Okay, that is true.
I went looking for
Booker after the game.
- That's true too.
- Okay.
Okay, you have a plan?
I don't know.
Raise hell.
Then what?
Change of heart?
[SIGHS] I saw him outside the arena.
He was with some kid.
- What kid?
- Some kid like,
doesn't even shave kind of dude.
They seemed tight, but
the kid looked scared
or or bummed out.
Miles was, like, talking to him,
taking him really serious.
- Then what'd you do?
- Nothing, bro.
I was like, what, I'm just gonna go
sucker punch this guy
while he's straightening out this kid?
I went to Bub O'Malley's instead,
had a heart-to-heart with
my friend Jack Daniels.
I swear.
Barrett's telling the truth.
He was at Bub's, drinking his feelings.
Well, we found the mystery kid.
Yeah, over here.
Look, Booker exits the arena at 9:25.
This kid's waiting outside.
Can you zoom in a little bit?
Right there, on the jacket?
Gowanus High, Brooklyn.
- Huh?
- They're diamondback terrapins.
They live in the Gowanus Canal.
I mean, they got, like, three eyes
'cause of that water, but
you know, they're cool.
And these are things that you know?
Want to go find the kid?
How do you know Miles Booker?
I met Miles two years ago
at summer basketball camp.
Piermont College?
He was like a mentor, I guess.
You know, he looked out for me.
What were you guys
talking about last night?
We heard you were upset.
That night, I was walking to the game,
and then this white
guy came out of nowhere,
yelling at me crazy stuff.
- Crazy how?
- Racist.
I mean, he had his phone
out, filming the whole thing.
He wouldn't leave me alone.
So I panicked.
Then I ran all the way to the arena.
That's what you told
Miles after the game?
Yeah.
And he told me he was proud
of me for walking away.
And he called me an Uber to go home.
Was that it?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Except, uh, he asked where it happened,
and he pulled up a picture
of the guy on his cell.
And I said, "Yeah, that's him."
What did he say?
That he was gonna take care of it.
♪
According to Booker's cell phone data,
after he sent Elijah home,
he pulled up RiotWire,
a crypto-based streaming platform
that hosts influencers, mostly the ones
that get kicked off other platforms.
Whose page did he visit?
- Stone Freedom.
- Who?
He's an internet celebrity.
His real name's Tyler Duncan.
He's a professional racist.
I'm sorry. He's a what?
[TENSE MUSIC]
- Right here.
- Where you going?
Where you going? Look what I found, huh?
Look, I found one, guys.
Look what I found. What's up?
Hey, get that camera
out of my face, man.
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ah-ah-ah!
Come on, say something.
- Move on! Move on!
- Or what?
What are you gonna do?
Hey, cornbread, I'm talking to you.
Come on, smile for the camera.
- Hey
- [CLICKS OFF]
♪
This mutt gets off on this?
Oh, this mutt makes money on this.
There's a few of these out there.
A guy named Chud the
Builder is another one,
says the most outrageous
stuff for views.
But our guy here, Stone Freedom,
his videos get, like,
200,000 what, 300,000 views?
His fans think he's a hero,
some sort of "anti-woke"
First Amendment warrior.
He got a sheet?
No, he's never been arrested.
But guess where he was doing his thing
the night of the murder
four blocks from the crime scene.
Open up! NYPD!
[KNOCKING]
- Tyler Duncan?
- That's me.
Can I help you fellas?
We have a warrant to
search the premises.
Do you?
Okay.
Come on in.
Hey, Tyler, you bump into this guy
in Sugar Hill last night?
Uh, I don't know, man.
You know, uh faces, you know?
- Right, we all look the same.
- No.
No, those are your words, man, not mine.
Jeez.
He always this sensitive, bro?
No.
And I'm not your bro.
Got it.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Turn around and put your
hands behind your back.
First, first, first,
say hello to the Freedom Fighters, boys.
Yeah, it's finally happening.
The WokeStapo is trying to silence me.
- Turn it off.
- Nah, man.
White guys can't be
too careful these days.
- Now!
- Hey, I got rights. I got rights.
All right? Hey, dude! Don't!
Hey!
[GRUNTING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Tyler Duncan, you're under arrest
for the murder of Miles Lee Booker.
You have the right to remain
silent. Do you understand?
You have the right to
consult an attorney.
Do you understand?
That's you, Tyler,
climbing into your car
two minutes after the murder,
three blocks from where it happened.
Our witness says the killer
was wearing this backpack,
which we found in your apartment.
Come on, man. We know you did this.
I don't know what you're talking about.
All right.
I want to hear your side.
Oh. Oh.
You think silence is your friend?
It's not.
If something happened that
might help explain this,
now's the time to talk.
[DOOR OPENS]
Got the ballistics
report back from the gun
we found in your apartment.
Dead match from the slug
we recovered from the body.
It's the murder weapon.
It's over, Tyler.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[CLEARS THROAT]
I want a lawyer.
♪
Good luck to you.
Your Honor, the defendant is charged
with murder in the second degree.
On the night of September the 2nd,
Mr. Duncan shot and killed Miles Booker,
an unarmed man a good young man.
An athlete, a beloved son, and a mentor.
He then fled the scene
and concealed the weapon.
We have an eyewitness.
We have physical and forensic evidence,
and we ask for remand.
The defendant has a public platform
with a large following,
fundraisers on his behalf.
He presents a flight risk.
Mr. Dressler.
Your Honor, the reason my client has
such passionate support
is that he is innocent.
We will show that the aggressor
in this incident was Miles Booker.
He hunted down my client,
struck him, advanced on him.
In that moment, Mr.
Duncan reasonably believed
his life was in imminent danger
and acted in self-defense.
Your Honor, bail is appropriate here.
Mr. Duncan is an entrepreneur
with no criminal record,
long-standing ties
Mr. Duncan is an entrepreneur
to the degree that he runs
a social media platform built
around confronting strangers
with hateful language.
Save your breath.
The defendant's remanded.
- [GAVEL BANGS]
- Next case.
This is a travesty of justice!
[CROWD CHANTING] USA! USA!
Bailiff, clear these people
out of this courtroom.
[CROWD CHANTING] USA! USA! USA!
Mr. and Mrs. Booker.
Don't let this turn into a circus.
Just get justice for our son.
Yeah.
If the races were reversed,
the DA would not have brought charges.
Anyone with eyes and
a brain can see that.
Do you have any other questions?
Tom Phillips is making a
cause out of Tyler Duncan,
a match made in hell.
Is this all hot air,
or is there substance to
the self-defense claim?
We don't know exactly what was said,
but we know from our eyewitness,
the two men argue.
After a few minutes,
Miles strikes Tyler Duncan in the face.
Duncan falls, pulls out a gun,
shoots Miles Booker dead.
We will hammer the proportionality gap.
Punch and a fatal gunshot
occupy very different tiers of violence.
Did Duncan have an
opportunity to retreat?
Yes, and a duty to retreat.
He showed consciousness of guilt.
He didn't call 911 and
fled the scene, went home,
hid the murder weapon by duct taping it
to the underside of his toilet lid.
This is murder.
You don't get to
incite violence and then
use it as a pretext to get
away with killing someone.
Duncan has a long history
of goading Black men
into verbal and physical
confrontations
all on video, which speaks to motive.
We will show that to the jury too.
Well, maybe.
Defense is challenging the videos.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
[HOOTING]
Come on. Isn't that how you talk?
[HOOTING] What are you gonna do, boy?
Come on, say something. Do it.
I get it.
How many of those are there?
We've counted 152 on
various streaming platforms,
so far.
Just so I'm clear, this Stone Freedom,
that's the alter ego of
your client, Tyler Duncan?
Yes, Judge.
And you're okay with all this?
God, no.
But if we truly believe in the law,
then my discomfort is not
a sign I'm doing something wrong.
It's a sign I'm doing something right.
That's the whole reason
we're here, in fact,
because our system of law doesn't ask
whether a defendant is a good person.
Molineux is clear.
Evidence of prior bad acts
is presumptively inadmissible,
even if this case was
about race, and it's not.
Yes, my client says
hurtful, terrible things.
But in this case, he was attacked
and believed he had to
resort to deadly force.
Your Honor, we're not
offering the videos
as prior bad acts.
They are direct evidence of motive
and the falsity of the
self-defense claim itself.
These confrontations
are not spontaneous.
They are a business plan,
relevant to whether this
encounter was an ambush
that left Tyler Duncan
genuinely afraid for his life
or part of a deliberate pattern.
I hear that.
But suggesting a defendant's
general disposition
as evidence is inherently prejudicial.
It runs the risk that we convict someone
for who they are.
It seems to me and I think this is
what you were getting at too
the vile nature of
Tyler Duncan's conduct
only makes the legal protection
more critical, not less.
Your Honor, we're not
That's the decision, Mr. Price.
The videos are out, all 152.
♪
If the judge won't allow the videos,
I'll do her one better.
How's that?
Let's supersede the indictment
by charging Tyler
Duncan with a hate crime.
That way, the defendant's bigotry
speaks to his state of mind.
It's no longer propensity evidence,
so Molineux can't touch it.
It's creative.
Obviously, Tyler Duncan is a bigot.
The jury should know
that, one way or another.
I'm sensing a "but" coming.
[CHUCKLES]
But
based only on the direct evidence
we have in hand right now,
do we know that race
was a motivating factor
in this murder?
Not really.
My gut says Miles Booker died
because he was Black.
I'll sleep just fine with a hate crime.
Do it.
Go back to the grand jury.
Add the hate crime.
Find Duncan's other victims.
Put them all on the stand.
Show this jury exactly who
this son of a bitch really is.
I was walking home from
the hospital in Bed-Stuy,
just minding my own business.
And what did you see?
It was more what did I hear.
I kept hearing these weird, like,
monkey sounds or something.
Next thing I know,
dude's shoving his phone in my face,
recording me.
So I told him, "Man,
man, get out of here!"
And he wouldn't listen.
He kept chasing me around.
"What are you gonna do, boy?
You chimping out?"
He flashes his gun.
- He says
- "What are you gonna do, boy?
I got 15 rounds for you, boy."
The words he says
♪
They're not words.
They're like a hand around
your throat, you know?
No, Elijah, I don't know.
I would do anything to make it stop.
You can't help but wonder
if fighting is the only way.
But, Elijah, you didn't fight.
You didn't punch my client in the face,
knock him to the ground, advance on him.
You walked away.
- Yeah, but I
- It didn't turn to violence
until you told Miles Booker about it.
And Miles told you he was
going to take care of it.
Now we know what he meant.
- No.
- Sure we do.
He was going to kill my client.
Not true!
He was only going to do
what I was too scared to do.
Tell that man, go to hell!
Nothing further, Your Honor.
It was dead that night,
and I poked my head out of the shop,
and I saw that man right there.
Mr. Duncan?
And a tall Black guy.
That's him.
Your Honor, let the record reflect that
the witness has identified Miles Booker
and the defendant, Tyler Duncan.
Done. Go ahead.
I heard Duncan call Miles a chimp.
- And then?
- It was on.
Miles punched Duncan in the face.
Duncan went down.
Miles took a step forward.
Duncan pulled a gun, shot him.
Did you witness Mr. Duncan
make an attempt to
retreat or call for help?
No, he just pulled a gun, shot.
Did you witness Mr. Duncan rendering aid
to Mr. Booker after shooting him?
Hell no.
He just ran.
Thank you. Nothing further.
You told the police you heard
the word chump, not chimp.
Yeah.
But now I know it was chimp.
Who the hell says chump these days?
You not only told the
police the word was chump
you told them you didn't
know which man said it.
I realized I was wrong.
And how'd you come to this
miraculous realization?
You must have viewed
my client's content.
Sure.
It's been all over the place
since the trial started.
And you're sure, "chimp"?
You remember it more clearly today
than you did 19 minutes
after the murder,
when the police interviewed you?
Sometimes things come back to you.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Or sometimes,
when the world is determined
to make things about race,
maybe a word starts
to sound like the word
everyone wants you to hear.
- Objection.
- Withdrawn.
♪
I've got nothing more, Judge.
Mr. Price.
People rest, Your Honor.
Hey, Alexis.
- What was that?
- What was what?
We told you in prep,
stick to what you told the detectives.
Maybe I ran with the
assignment a little bit,
but every word I said was
the God's honest truth.
Isn't that what you wanted?
- Yes, but it
- Once I saw that prick's videos,
once I heard him saying chimp,
I knew that's what I heard too.
That man, Stone Freedom
the only saving grace
of this whole thing
is that Miles Booker beat
his ass before he died.
Miles Booker just wouldn't
take no for an answer.
What do you mean?
Well, he found me in the streets.
I was walking to my car,
and he just started yelling at me.
"Yo, say that to me!
Say that stuff to me!"
And I told him, I was like,
"No, dude, I am off the clock, man."
And?
He goes, "You can't do
what you do and clock out,"
followed by some words
that I'm probably not
supposed to say here.
And he started following me.
We trash-talked each
other for a little while,
and then out of nowhere,
he hit me real, real hard.
And what were you
thinking in that moment?
Yeah, not really much of a game plan.
Um, on my back, I can't really see well.
My ears are ringing. I'm tasting blood.
And he goes, "Get up! Get up right now!
Get up right now! Let's finish this!"
So what was I thinking?
I was thinking that a man double my size
just hit me harder
than I've ever been hit,
and I was sure he was gonna kill me.
Did you consider retreating?
Where?
[CHUCKLES] It was dark.
My knee's a mess. Where am I going?
Look, I had a fraction
of a second to think,
and I just acted.
Did you call Miles
Booker a chimp that night?
No.
Did you want Miles Booker to die?
No, I just wanted to go home.
Why'd you have the gun?
I get death threats every day,
people saying they're
gonna hunt me down.
Nothing further, Judge.
Mr. Price.
Had Miles Booker ever
threatened your life?
- No.
- And you'd never met him?
Correct.
Why do people threaten your life?
Because of what I do and
the language that I use.
- The N word.
- Yeah.
- "Boy"?
- Yes.
So you use the most hateful words
in the English language
routinely for profit,
but the one time somebody finally
punches you in the face for it,
you want us to believe you
were all peaches and cream?
I get how that sounds,
and I wouldn't believe me either.
You heard the man.
But you have to understand that
Stone Freedom is just a
character that I made up.
- A character?
- Yeah.
I didn't have a lot of
opportunity growing up, okay?
My mother died when I was a kid.
I was in and out of foster care.
I didn't do too good at school,
so I always had to
hustle to make ends meet.
And I stumbled upon this weird
little lane in the internet.
But I'm an entertainer,
a provocateur whatever.
And there is a
there is a long
tradition of guys like me.
I'm sorry. You believe that
what you do is entertaining?
Call it whatever you would like,
but comedy, entertainment.
Take a guy like Andy Kaufman
or Andrew Dice Clay
even Howard Stern.
The character that
he plays on the radio,
that's just part of his gag.
Are you trying to tell this
jury you're not a racist?
Yes, that is exactly
what I'm trying to say.
Tyler Duncan is
I'm not a racist, okay?
But Stone Freedom is a racist.
But when Miles approached
me, I wasn't filming.
So he was talking to me, Tyler Duncan.
I see. So you
you switch your racism on and off?
Yeah, sort of.
Luckily for us, it doesn't matter
what character you
were playing that night.
What does matter is that you,
the person sitting
directly in front of me,
shot and killed an unarmed
young man named Miles Booker.
Yes, in self-defense,
because I was afraid
he was gonna kill me.
All Miles did was punch you.
He didn't even jump on you
when you were down on the ground.
He told you to get up
so you could finish your fist fight.
You weren't afraid.
You just wanted to kill a Black man.
- Objection!
- Sustained.
♪
Ms. Cook,
how long have you been
married to Tyler Duncan?
We went to Martin High
together in New Jersey,
got together after we graduated,
got married.
It'll be two years in the spring.
Like Mr. Duncan, you are a
social media influencer by trade?
Yeah. We both came from the dirt,
but we're online savvy.
We created our characters.
What's your character?
Her name is Ava Star, so
beautiful that life is hard.
If the conceit of your character is that
being beautiful is hard,
people must be upset.
That's the whole point. Get people mad.
Mr. Duncan uses the same model.
Of course.
He's not racist, if
that's what you mean.
I wouldn't tolerate that.
And neither would my family.
I have two little brothers,
and they're with us a lot.
And he's awesome with them.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
As a Black woman, you're
comfortable being with
someone who says hurtful, hateful things
about Black people for profit?
Are you telling me how to
live my life, Mr. Price?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Let me put it another way.
The mere fact that Mr.
Duncan is nice to your family
does not mean he's not a racist.
It's like saying, "I'm not a racist.
I have lots of Black friends."
♪
When my grandmother got sick last year,
Tyler figured out a way
how to ship turnip greens
on dry ice back from where
she grew up in Houston.
When she ate them, she cried.
Cried.
You do those sort of things
for your Black friends, Mr. Price?
♪
I didn't think it was possible,
but the defense made a
pretty compelling case
that Tyler Duncan is
not actually a bigot.
He just plays one on social media.
That's better?
Well, the average age of our jury is 28.
Young people understand
nothing you see online is true.
It's all an act.
This distinction the defense is making
is less surprising to those
jurors than it is to you.
But we can't ignore the fact
that we haven't documented
a single instance in
which Tyler Duncan has
said or done anything racist
when the cameras aren't rolling.
When the camera's on,
that's when he becomes Stone Freedom.
Right, so we might not be
doing ourselves any favors
by insisting that Stone
Freedom shot Miles Booker.
It was Tyler Duncan.
And to the jury, there
might be a difference.
- I feel like I'm going crazy.
- [PHONE BUZZING]
Pretending to be a racist
because it's profitable
is one of the few things more offensive
than being a racist in the first place.
That's odd.
The defense wants to call a new witness,
somebody we never heard about before.
- Now?
- Some guy named Barry Vaughan?
Supposedly, he heard Miles
threatening Tyler Duncan's life.
♪
My name is Barry Vaughan.
I work at a bar in Sugar Hill, Coogan's.
Two blocks from the location
of the incident that night.
I was bussing tables.
This was 9:30.
This Black guy walks up.
Yeah, that's him.
He had Stone Freedom's
stream pulled up on his phone.
He was looking for him,
asked a couple customers.
They said, "Yeah, you just missed him."
He went down the block that way.
And before Mr. Booker left
to hunt down Mr. Duncan,
what did he say?
He said, "I'm gonna put that
son of a bitch in the ground."
Nothing more.
Your witness, Mr. Price.
You tell anyone about
any of this before today?
A friend? A roommate?
- No.
- A lot of people
I mean, dare I say, most people,
if they hear someone
make a death threat,
they call the police.
I didn't think it was my business.
Then what made it your
business, Mr. Vaughan,
after all this time?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Tom Phillips has been talking
about this case for a while.
And I'm a fan.
He believes there's a real
injustice being committed here.
Holding a man accountable
for taking another man's life?
- Heaven forbid.
- Objection!
Sustained.
Phillips said the other night
this case is gonna
come down to the wire.
Anyone with information that
could help Stone Freedom
sorry, Tyler Duncan should stand up.
So you found the courage.
And there's no record of this memory,
so until Tom Phillips, a carnival barker
with a well-documented
aversion to the truth,
begged you to come to
Stone Freedom's rescue
Objection, Judge!
Sustained.
♪
You'd never met Miles
Booker before that night?
- Correct.
- So you have no sense of his
temperament, his way?
You can't tell us if
he was being hyperbolic
or venting, joking.
Didn't sound like a joke.
♪
Not that you would know.
♪
Nothing further.
♪
We knew from the
get-go not all the facts
were convenient here.
Well, we're past that.
Please tell me you're not asking me
to feel empathy for Tyler Duncan.
Hell no. No, it's not
it's not about empathy.
It's about the law, Nick.
It is possible that,
no matter how much we
might despise Duncan,
that strictly, by the letter of the law,
this was self-defense.
So what's the play?
We push to include manslaughter
as a lesser included offense.
That way, the jury
doesn't have to conclude
that Duncan wasn't afraid, just that
his fear didn't justify deadly force.
Hey, it's not perfect.
Hey, you need to see this.
So after Barry Vaughan's
surprise testimony,
I tracked down the
recording of Tom Phillips
asking his listeners for help.
Phillips mentioned that
he first bonded with Duncan
during a podcast appearance.
So I subpoenaed the raw recordings
from the podcast unaired stuff.
And?
- Thank you so much having me.
- Appreciate that.
No, I didn't think
we were gonna get you.
I mean, you do some outrageous stuff.
- The Big Apple is ripe.
- Oh, yeah.
You gotta admit, though,
killing one would be badass,
making the world safer
one brother at a time.
Of course. Are you kidding me?
That's the dream, right?
Make money and get a free kill?
♪
Seven weeks before the murder.
That's intent.
♪
He just said killing
a Black man is a bonus.
Tyler Duncan thought
he'd found a loophole,
thought he'd figured out a
way to get away with murder.
In a self-defense case,
this is the Holy Grail.
You're right.
But who knows if he
really meant it or not?
We know Tyler exaggerates
when he's pretending
to be Stone Freedom.
Does it matter?
♪
Making the world safer
one brother at a time.
Of course. Are you kidding me?
That's the dream, right?
Make money and get a free kill?
Your Honor, these words
discovered by the People
might sound shocking on their face,
but this was a moment
of dark humor, bravado.
It does not reflect Tyler
Duncan's state of mind
at the moment of the shooting,
which is the only
legally relevant moment
in a justification defense.
Wrong. Your Honor, this obliterates both
the subjective and objective
planks of the defense.
A man who planned and
hoped for the circumstances
that would allow him to
kill can't then claim that
he was an unwilling victim of necessity
when those circumstances occur.
This was the plan, the mission.
He was letting off
steam, trying to fit in.
Your Honor, we now
know that Tyler Duncan
was not a reasonable person
responding to a threat.
He was an armed man
executing a premeditated plan,
wearing the language of
self-defense as a disguise.
We know that.
And the jury must know that too.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Members of the jury,
I understand you've reached a verdict.
We have, Your Honor.
How do you find the
defendant, Tyler Duncan,
on the charge of murder
in the second degree?
Guilty or not guilty?
We find the defendant guilty.
As to whether the defendant
committed this offense
in whole or substantial
part because of a belief
or perception regarding
the race of the victim,
how do you find?
The People have also proven this
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant is also
guilty of a hate crime.
- This is an outrage!
- [CROWD SHOUTING]
- [GAVEL BANGING]
- Order! Order!
Order! Order!
We will not tolerate
outbursts in this courtroom.
♪
I love you.
I'm sorry.
Are you okay?
Thank you.
Thank you for giving
us some sense of peace.
Of course.
Let me walk you out.
Okay.
[SOLEMN MUSIC]
Nice work.
♪
Tyler Duncan got what he deserved
in the eyes of God and the law.
Damn right, he did.
Let's go get a drink.
♪
[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.
- Whose house?
- ALL: Our house!
Whose house? all: Our house!
- Whose house?
- Our house!
You were eating tonight, bro.
[ALL CHEERING]
That paint belongs to you!
What the hell are you doing out there?
- Come on, Coach!
- You will not show disrespect like that!
No! No! Not here!
I should rip your head off!
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
- Man, you okay?
- Man, shut up.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Student ID was in his
pocket with some cash.
His name is Miles Booker.
20 years old, went to Piermont.
One GSW to the heart.
Call came in at 9:38 p.m.
Okay, got one casing, 9 mil.
Knuckles are bruised right hand.
Who called this in?
[SIREN CHIRPING]
That lady over there.
She works at that check-cashing store.
Only place on the block open this late.
All right. Thank you.
I heard two guys arguing.
Poked my head out, see what's going on.
I saw this guy and, um
a white guy.
Young? Old?
Couldn't see his face.
30, maybe?
They squared up.
Chest to chest, sort of.
Jawing at each other.
What were they saying?
One of them called the other a chump.
[SCOFFS]
Haven't heard that word
in a while. What is it, 1978?
Other than that, I
couldn't make out words.
Then this dude punched
the white dude in the face.
Bam white dude went down.
White dude pulls a
piece, shoots this guy,
gets up, runs off.
Could you make out any
distinguishing features?
Any little thing helps.
No, not in the dark.
Oh, wait, no, no. He
was wearing a backpack
with, like, um like,
like, shiny reflective stuff on it
in the shape of a triangle.
I saw it in the
streetlight when he ran off.
Once he was gone, I ran out.
This guy was already dead.
Two guys get into a fistfight.
One guy is losing, decides
fists aren't gonna cut it,
takes it to the next level.
If you can't beat 'em, shoot 'em.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Yeah, no, I don't think
that's the way it goes.
♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Unfortunately, our canvass
for cameras was a bust.
The CCTV at that check-cashing store
has been down for a month.
Thank you.
The camera down the block
picked up the two men arguing
right before the shooting,
but super grainy and far away.
I'm assuming facial
rec is a non-starter?
And it ends before things got violent.
It's more than nothing
but less than something.
I talked to Miles Booker's
parents on the phone.
They're on their way up from
Baltimore, where he grew up.
They said if he had anything
weird going on lately?
- Problems?
- No, nothing.
They said he wasn't just
a student at Piermont.
He was on the basketball team.
And they had a game
against Fenwick last night.
- Uh-huh. Huge rivalry.
- Uh-huh.
Well, Piermont won big last night,
and the game ended at 8:53 p.m.
Miles was dead 45 minutes later,
a quarter mile from the arena.
I can get access to the arena footage.
There's gonna be a ton of
it, so it might take a minute.
Meantime, that arena sound
like a good place to start?
I liked Miles, but we had
a tough relationship too.
How so? How tough?
Well, not that tough, if
that's what you're asking.
Miles was a star in high school.
But this is a big-time program.
I mean, all these kids
were stars in high school.
Here, Miles is a bench guy,
but he did not agree
with that assessment.
He wanted more playing time.
He was frustrated.
Sometimes he lashed out.
I mean, bonehead stuff.
What kind of stuff?
Well, last night, game's a blowout.
Next thing I know, one second left,
he throws up a three and makes it.
Can't imagine the Fenwick players
thought that was too cool.
Yeah, well, I didn't either.
So players get into it in the tunnel.
Miles takes some
punches, gets a few back.
- I broke it up.
- Right.
Think that other kid went and got a gun,
came back to finish what he started?
He did say, "This ain't over."
Nick Snyder.
NYPD.
Detective Walker, Detective Calvino.
We want to talk to
you about Miles Booker.
Yeah, I heard about it on the socials.
Sucks.
Yeah, we heard about the fight.
I did what I had to do.
You got a gun, Nick?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't think I had
anything to do with that?
Yeah, we just connect dots. That's all.
[SIGHS]
Look.
Yeah, maybe I was pissed after the game.
But if you thought I was
pissed about that stupid shot,
just check out what
they're saying on WiWager.
What's WiWager?
The prediction market?
Nick Snyder's alibi checks out.
He was right about WiWager.
So the betting line had
Piermont winning by 19,
but Piermont was winning by
18 as the clock wound down.
So Miles Booker throws up that prayer.
Piermont wins by 21.
He blows the line.
First place your mind goes
if he was caught up
in some gambling thing?
I hear you, but I don't know, man.
Box score said he played nine minutes.
Five points, two boards.
It's tough to throw a
game with those numbers.
Wait, guys.
Look at this WiWager pinboard.
You won't believe the flood
of hate that Booker got.
"Oh, that garbage shot
cost me my mortgage payment.
That scrub ruined my weekend."
All this for a 20-year-old kid?
- Damn.
- Well, even in this
sewer of humanity, one guy stands out.
This guy claims to have lost 40K.
"Gonna find Miles Booker on the street.
I'm gonna teach that punk
about a different kind of shot."
That guy posted that from the game.
He was there, saw the shot go in.
We know his handle on WiWager,
but who the hell is he in real life?
"Going to find Miles
Booker on the street.
"Gonna teach that punk about
a different kind of shot."
Outrageous, truly.
Yeah, we need a name.
We need to know who made that threat.
Can't help you there. Sorry.
So it doesn't bother you?
Athletes getting death
threats on your platform?
Moral decay is baked
into my business model
only because the demand exists.
That, we didn't create.
If someone predicts the
next 9/11 on WiWager,
makes a fortune
more power to him,
and the bigger my cut.
That math is contingent upon one thing:
Anonymity.
Thanks for stopping by, friends.
Well, just one problem.
We're talking about a person of interest
in a murder investigation,
so refusing to cooperate violates
Know Your Customer laws.
We'd have no choice but
to report it to the CFTC.
Yeah, see all that math
you were talking about?
I think that's contingent on
you still being in business friend.
Understand you own
a Smith & Wesson handgun, Mr. Barrett
CSX?
Yeah.
Registered, legal.
People use legal guns to
do illegal things, sir.
We got a shell casing,
and the bullet was fired from a gun
that was made by one
of two manufacturers.
Now, the first one's a Glock.
And I'm gonna let you guess
what the second one is.
Miles Booker's basket
at the end of the game
cost you 40 grand.
People have killed for a lot less.
Look, I was not happy
about that stupid shot.
Okay, that is true.
I went looking for
Booker after the game.
- That's true too.
- Okay.
Okay, you have a plan?
I don't know.
Raise hell.
Then what?
Change of heart?
[SIGHS] I saw him outside the arena.
He was with some kid.
- What kid?
- Some kid like,
doesn't even shave kind of dude.
They seemed tight, but
the kid looked scared
or or bummed out.
Miles was, like, talking to him,
taking him really serious.
- Then what'd you do?
- Nothing, bro.
I was like, what, I'm just gonna go
sucker punch this guy
while he's straightening out this kid?
I went to Bub O'Malley's instead,
had a heart-to-heart with
my friend Jack Daniels.
I swear.
Barrett's telling the truth.
He was at Bub's, drinking his feelings.
Well, we found the mystery kid.
Yeah, over here.
Look, Booker exits the arena at 9:25.
This kid's waiting outside.
Can you zoom in a little bit?
Right there, on the jacket?
Gowanus High, Brooklyn.
- Huh?
- They're diamondback terrapins.
They live in the Gowanus Canal.
I mean, they got, like, three eyes
'cause of that water, but
you know, they're cool.
And these are things that you know?
Want to go find the kid?
How do you know Miles Booker?
I met Miles two years ago
at summer basketball camp.
Piermont College?
He was like a mentor, I guess.
You know, he looked out for me.
What were you guys
talking about last night?
We heard you were upset.
That night, I was walking to the game,
and then this white
guy came out of nowhere,
yelling at me crazy stuff.
- Crazy how?
- Racist.
I mean, he had his phone
out, filming the whole thing.
He wouldn't leave me alone.
So I panicked.
Then I ran all the way to the arena.
That's what you told
Miles after the game?
Yeah.
And he told me he was proud
of me for walking away.
And he called me an Uber to go home.
Was that it?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Except, uh, he asked where it happened,
and he pulled up a picture
of the guy on his cell.
And I said, "Yeah, that's him."
What did he say?
That he was gonna take care of it.
♪
According to Booker's cell phone data,
after he sent Elijah home,
he pulled up RiotWire,
a crypto-based streaming platform
that hosts influencers, mostly the ones
that get kicked off other platforms.
Whose page did he visit?
- Stone Freedom.
- Who?
He's an internet celebrity.
His real name's Tyler Duncan.
He's a professional racist.
I'm sorry. He's a what?
[TENSE MUSIC]
- Right here.
- Where you going?
Where you going? Look what I found, huh?
Look, I found one, guys.
Look what I found. What's up?
Hey, get that camera
out of my face, man.
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ah-ah-ah!
Come on, say something.
- Move on! Move on!
- Or what?
What are you gonna do?
Hey, cornbread, I'm talking to you.
Come on, smile for the camera.
- Hey
- [CLICKS OFF]
♪
This mutt gets off on this?
Oh, this mutt makes money on this.
There's a few of these out there.
A guy named Chud the
Builder is another one,
says the most outrageous
stuff for views.
But our guy here, Stone Freedom,
his videos get, like,
200,000 what, 300,000 views?
His fans think he's a hero,
some sort of "anti-woke"
First Amendment warrior.
He got a sheet?
No, he's never been arrested.
But guess where he was doing his thing
the night of the murder
four blocks from the crime scene.
Open up! NYPD!
[KNOCKING]
- Tyler Duncan?
- That's me.
Can I help you fellas?
We have a warrant to
search the premises.
Do you?
Okay.
Come on in.
Hey, Tyler, you bump into this guy
in Sugar Hill last night?
Uh, I don't know, man.
You know, uh faces, you know?
- Right, we all look the same.
- No.
No, those are your words, man, not mine.
Jeez.
He always this sensitive, bro?
No.
And I'm not your bro.
Got it.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Turn around and put your
hands behind your back.
First, first, first,
say hello to the Freedom Fighters, boys.
Yeah, it's finally happening.
The WokeStapo is trying to silence me.
- Turn it off.
- Nah, man.
White guys can't be
too careful these days.
- Now!
- Hey, I got rights. I got rights.
All right? Hey, dude! Don't!
Hey!
[GRUNTING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Tyler Duncan, you're under arrest
for the murder of Miles Lee Booker.
You have the right to remain
silent. Do you understand?
You have the right to
consult an attorney.
Do you understand?
That's you, Tyler,
climbing into your car
two minutes after the murder,
three blocks from where it happened.
Our witness says the killer
was wearing this backpack,
which we found in your apartment.
Come on, man. We know you did this.
I don't know what you're talking about.
All right.
I want to hear your side.
Oh. Oh.
You think silence is your friend?
It's not.
If something happened that
might help explain this,
now's the time to talk.
[DOOR OPENS]
Got the ballistics
report back from the gun
we found in your apartment.
Dead match from the slug
we recovered from the body.
It's the murder weapon.
It's over, Tyler.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[CLEARS THROAT]
I want a lawyer.
♪
Good luck to you.
Your Honor, the defendant is charged
with murder in the second degree.
On the night of September the 2nd,
Mr. Duncan shot and killed Miles Booker,
an unarmed man a good young man.
An athlete, a beloved son, and a mentor.
He then fled the scene
and concealed the weapon.
We have an eyewitness.
We have physical and forensic evidence,
and we ask for remand.
The defendant has a public platform
with a large following,
fundraisers on his behalf.
He presents a flight risk.
Mr. Dressler.
Your Honor, the reason my client has
such passionate support
is that he is innocent.
We will show that the aggressor
in this incident was Miles Booker.
He hunted down my client,
struck him, advanced on him.
In that moment, Mr.
Duncan reasonably believed
his life was in imminent danger
and acted in self-defense.
Your Honor, bail is appropriate here.
Mr. Duncan is an entrepreneur
with no criminal record,
long-standing ties
Mr. Duncan is an entrepreneur
to the degree that he runs
a social media platform built
around confronting strangers
with hateful language.
Save your breath.
The defendant's remanded.
- [GAVEL BANGS]
- Next case.
This is a travesty of justice!
[CROWD CHANTING] USA! USA!
Bailiff, clear these people
out of this courtroom.
[CROWD CHANTING] USA! USA! USA!
Mr. and Mrs. Booker.
Don't let this turn into a circus.
Just get justice for our son.
Yeah.
If the races were reversed,
the DA would not have brought charges.
Anyone with eyes and
a brain can see that.
Do you have any other questions?
Tom Phillips is making a
cause out of Tyler Duncan,
a match made in hell.
Is this all hot air,
or is there substance to
the self-defense claim?
We don't know exactly what was said,
but we know from our eyewitness,
the two men argue.
After a few minutes,
Miles strikes Tyler Duncan in the face.
Duncan falls, pulls out a gun,
shoots Miles Booker dead.
We will hammer the proportionality gap.
Punch and a fatal gunshot
occupy very different tiers of violence.
Did Duncan have an
opportunity to retreat?
Yes, and a duty to retreat.
He showed consciousness of guilt.
He didn't call 911 and
fled the scene, went home,
hid the murder weapon by duct taping it
to the underside of his toilet lid.
This is murder.
You don't get to
incite violence and then
use it as a pretext to get
away with killing someone.
Duncan has a long history
of goading Black men
into verbal and physical
confrontations
all on video, which speaks to motive.
We will show that to the jury too.
Well, maybe.
Defense is challenging the videos.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
[HOOTING]
Come on. Isn't that how you talk?
[HOOTING] What are you gonna do, boy?
Come on, say something. Do it.
I get it.
How many of those are there?
We've counted 152 on
various streaming platforms,
so far.
Just so I'm clear, this Stone Freedom,
that's the alter ego of
your client, Tyler Duncan?
Yes, Judge.
And you're okay with all this?
God, no.
But if we truly believe in the law,
then my discomfort is not
a sign I'm doing something wrong.
It's a sign I'm doing something right.
That's the whole reason
we're here, in fact,
because our system of law doesn't ask
whether a defendant is a good person.
Molineux is clear.
Evidence of prior bad acts
is presumptively inadmissible,
even if this case was
about race, and it's not.
Yes, my client says
hurtful, terrible things.
But in this case, he was attacked
and believed he had to
resort to deadly force.
Your Honor, we're not
offering the videos
as prior bad acts.
They are direct evidence of motive
and the falsity of the
self-defense claim itself.
These confrontations
are not spontaneous.
They are a business plan,
relevant to whether this
encounter was an ambush
that left Tyler Duncan
genuinely afraid for his life
or part of a deliberate pattern.
I hear that.
But suggesting a defendant's
general disposition
as evidence is inherently prejudicial.
It runs the risk that we convict someone
for who they are.
It seems to me and I think this is
what you were getting at too
the vile nature of
Tyler Duncan's conduct
only makes the legal protection
more critical, not less.
Your Honor, we're not
That's the decision, Mr. Price.
The videos are out, all 152.
♪
If the judge won't allow the videos,
I'll do her one better.
How's that?
Let's supersede the indictment
by charging Tyler
Duncan with a hate crime.
That way, the defendant's bigotry
speaks to his state of mind.
It's no longer propensity evidence,
so Molineux can't touch it.
It's creative.
Obviously, Tyler Duncan is a bigot.
The jury should know
that, one way or another.
I'm sensing a "but" coming.
[CHUCKLES]
But
based only on the direct evidence
we have in hand right now,
do we know that race
was a motivating factor
in this murder?
Not really.
My gut says Miles Booker died
because he was Black.
I'll sleep just fine with a hate crime.
Do it.
Go back to the grand jury.
Add the hate crime.
Find Duncan's other victims.
Put them all on the stand.
Show this jury exactly who
this son of a bitch really is.
I was walking home from
the hospital in Bed-Stuy,
just minding my own business.
And what did you see?
It was more what did I hear.
I kept hearing these weird, like,
monkey sounds or something.
Next thing I know,
dude's shoving his phone in my face,
recording me.
So I told him, "Man,
man, get out of here!"
And he wouldn't listen.
He kept chasing me around.
"What are you gonna do, boy?
You chimping out?"
He flashes his gun.
- He says
- "What are you gonna do, boy?
I got 15 rounds for you, boy."
The words he says
♪
They're not words.
They're like a hand around
your throat, you know?
No, Elijah, I don't know.
I would do anything to make it stop.
You can't help but wonder
if fighting is the only way.
But, Elijah, you didn't fight.
You didn't punch my client in the face,
knock him to the ground, advance on him.
You walked away.
- Yeah, but I
- It didn't turn to violence
until you told Miles Booker about it.
And Miles told you he was
going to take care of it.
Now we know what he meant.
- No.
- Sure we do.
He was going to kill my client.
Not true!
He was only going to do
what I was too scared to do.
Tell that man, go to hell!
Nothing further, Your Honor.
It was dead that night,
and I poked my head out of the shop,
and I saw that man right there.
Mr. Duncan?
And a tall Black guy.
That's him.
Your Honor, let the record reflect that
the witness has identified Miles Booker
and the defendant, Tyler Duncan.
Done. Go ahead.
I heard Duncan call Miles a chimp.
- And then?
- It was on.
Miles punched Duncan in the face.
Duncan went down.
Miles took a step forward.
Duncan pulled a gun, shot him.
Did you witness Mr. Duncan
make an attempt to
retreat or call for help?
No, he just pulled a gun, shot.
Did you witness Mr. Duncan rendering aid
to Mr. Booker after shooting him?
Hell no.
He just ran.
Thank you. Nothing further.
You told the police you heard
the word chump, not chimp.
Yeah.
But now I know it was chimp.
Who the hell says chump these days?
You not only told the
police the word was chump
you told them you didn't
know which man said it.
I realized I was wrong.
And how'd you come to this
miraculous realization?
You must have viewed
my client's content.
Sure.
It's been all over the place
since the trial started.
And you're sure, "chimp"?
You remember it more clearly today
than you did 19 minutes
after the murder,
when the police interviewed you?
Sometimes things come back to you.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Or sometimes,
when the world is determined
to make things about race,
maybe a word starts
to sound like the word
everyone wants you to hear.
- Objection.
- Withdrawn.
♪
I've got nothing more, Judge.
Mr. Price.
People rest, Your Honor.
Hey, Alexis.
- What was that?
- What was what?
We told you in prep,
stick to what you told the detectives.
Maybe I ran with the
assignment a little bit,
but every word I said was
the God's honest truth.
Isn't that what you wanted?
- Yes, but it
- Once I saw that prick's videos,
once I heard him saying chimp,
I knew that's what I heard too.
That man, Stone Freedom
the only saving grace
of this whole thing
is that Miles Booker beat
his ass before he died.
Miles Booker just wouldn't
take no for an answer.
What do you mean?
Well, he found me in the streets.
I was walking to my car,
and he just started yelling at me.
"Yo, say that to me!
Say that stuff to me!"
And I told him, I was like,
"No, dude, I am off the clock, man."
And?
He goes, "You can't do
what you do and clock out,"
followed by some words
that I'm probably not
supposed to say here.
And he started following me.
We trash-talked each
other for a little while,
and then out of nowhere,
he hit me real, real hard.
And what were you
thinking in that moment?
Yeah, not really much of a game plan.
Um, on my back, I can't really see well.
My ears are ringing. I'm tasting blood.
And he goes, "Get up! Get up right now!
Get up right now! Let's finish this!"
So what was I thinking?
I was thinking that a man double my size
just hit me harder
than I've ever been hit,
and I was sure he was gonna kill me.
Did you consider retreating?
Where?
[CHUCKLES] It was dark.
My knee's a mess. Where am I going?
Look, I had a fraction
of a second to think,
and I just acted.
Did you call Miles
Booker a chimp that night?
No.
Did you want Miles Booker to die?
No, I just wanted to go home.
Why'd you have the gun?
I get death threats every day,
people saying they're
gonna hunt me down.
Nothing further, Judge.
Mr. Price.
Had Miles Booker ever
threatened your life?
- No.
- And you'd never met him?
Correct.
Why do people threaten your life?
Because of what I do and
the language that I use.
- The N word.
- Yeah.
- "Boy"?
- Yes.
So you use the most hateful words
in the English language
routinely for profit,
but the one time somebody finally
punches you in the face for it,
you want us to believe you
were all peaches and cream?
I get how that sounds,
and I wouldn't believe me either.
You heard the man.
But you have to understand that
Stone Freedom is just a
character that I made up.
- A character?
- Yeah.
I didn't have a lot of
opportunity growing up, okay?
My mother died when I was a kid.
I was in and out of foster care.
I didn't do too good at school,
so I always had to
hustle to make ends meet.
And I stumbled upon this weird
little lane in the internet.
But I'm an entertainer,
a provocateur whatever.
And there is a
there is a long
tradition of guys like me.
I'm sorry. You believe that
what you do is entertaining?
Call it whatever you would like,
but comedy, entertainment.
Take a guy like Andy Kaufman
or Andrew Dice Clay
even Howard Stern.
The character that
he plays on the radio,
that's just part of his gag.
Are you trying to tell this
jury you're not a racist?
Yes, that is exactly
what I'm trying to say.
Tyler Duncan is
I'm not a racist, okay?
But Stone Freedom is a racist.
But when Miles approached
me, I wasn't filming.
So he was talking to me, Tyler Duncan.
I see. So you
you switch your racism on and off?
Yeah, sort of.
Luckily for us, it doesn't matter
what character you
were playing that night.
What does matter is that you,
the person sitting
directly in front of me,
shot and killed an unarmed
young man named Miles Booker.
Yes, in self-defense,
because I was afraid
he was gonna kill me.
All Miles did was punch you.
He didn't even jump on you
when you were down on the ground.
He told you to get up
so you could finish your fist fight.
You weren't afraid.
You just wanted to kill a Black man.
- Objection!
- Sustained.
♪
Ms. Cook,
how long have you been
married to Tyler Duncan?
We went to Martin High
together in New Jersey,
got together after we graduated,
got married.
It'll be two years in the spring.
Like Mr. Duncan, you are a
social media influencer by trade?
Yeah. We both came from the dirt,
but we're online savvy.
We created our characters.
What's your character?
Her name is Ava Star, so
beautiful that life is hard.
If the conceit of your character is that
being beautiful is hard,
people must be upset.
That's the whole point. Get people mad.
Mr. Duncan uses the same model.
Of course.
He's not racist, if
that's what you mean.
I wouldn't tolerate that.
And neither would my family.
I have two little brothers,
and they're with us a lot.
And he's awesome with them.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
As a Black woman, you're
comfortable being with
someone who says hurtful, hateful things
about Black people for profit?
Are you telling me how to
live my life, Mr. Price?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Let me put it another way.
The mere fact that Mr.
Duncan is nice to your family
does not mean he's not a racist.
It's like saying, "I'm not a racist.
I have lots of Black friends."
♪
When my grandmother got sick last year,
Tyler figured out a way
how to ship turnip greens
on dry ice back from where
she grew up in Houston.
When she ate them, she cried.
Cried.
You do those sort of things
for your Black friends, Mr. Price?
♪
I didn't think it was possible,
but the defense made a
pretty compelling case
that Tyler Duncan is
not actually a bigot.
He just plays one on social media.
That's better?
Well, the average age of our jury is 28.
Young people understand
nothing you see online is true.
It's all an act.
This distinction the defense is making
is less surprising to those
jurors than it is to you.
But we can't ignore the fact
that we haven't documented
a single instance in
which Tyler Duncan has
said or done anything racist
when the cameras aren't rolling.
When the camera's on,
that's when he becomes Stone Freedom.
Right, so we might not be
doing ourselves any favors
by insisting that Stone
Freedom shot Miles Booker.
It was Tyler Duncan.
And to the jury, there
might be a difference.
- I feel like I'm going crazy.
- [PHONE BUZZING]
Pretending to be a racist
because it's profitable
is one of the few things more offensive
than being a racist in the first place.
That's odd.
The defense wants to call a new witness,
somebody we never heard about before.
- Now?
- Some guy named Barry Vaughan?
Supposedly, he heard Miles
threatening Tyler Duncan's life.
♪
My name is Barry Vaughan.
I work at a bar in Sugar Hill, Coogan's.
Two blocks from the location
of the incident that night.
I was bussing tables.
This was 9:30.
This Black guy walks up.
Yeah, that's him.
He had Stone Freedom's
stream pulled up on his phone.
He was looking for him,
asked a couple customers.
They said, "Yeah, you just missed him."
He went down the block that way.
And before Mr. Booker left
to hunt down Mr. Duncan,
what did he say?
He said, "I'm gonna put that
son of a bitch in the ground."
Nothing more.
Your witness, Mr. Price.
You tell anyone about
any of this before today?
A friend? A roommate?
- No.
- A lot of people
I mean, dare I say, most people,
if they hear someone
make a death threat,
they call the police.
I didn't think it was my business.
Then what made it your
business, Mr. Vaughan,
after all this time?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Tom Phillips has been talking
about this case for a while.
And I'm a fan.
He believes there's a real
injustice being committed here.
Holding a man accountable
for taking another man's life?
- Heaven forbid.
- Objection!
Sustained.
Phillips said the other night
this case is gonna
come down to the wire.
Anyone with information that
could help Stone Freedom
sorry, Tyler Duncan should stand up.
So you found the courage.
And there's no record of this memory,
so until Tom Phillips, a carnival barker
with a well-documented
aversion to the truth,
begged you to come to
Stone Freedom's rescue
Objection, Judge!
Sustained.
♪
You'd never met Miles
Booker before that night?
- Correct.
- So you have no sense of his
temperament, his way?
You can't tell us if
he was being hyperbolic
or venting, joking.
Didn't sound like a joke.
♪
Not that you would know.
♪
Nothing further.
♪
We knew from the
get-go not all the facts
were convenient here.
Well, we're past that.
Please tell me you're not asking me
to feel empathy for Tyler Duncan.
Hell no. No, it's not
it's not about empathy.
It's about the law, Nick.
It is possible that,
no matter how much we
might despise Duncan,
that strictly, by the letter of the law,
this was self-defense.
So what's the play?
We push to include manslaughter
as a lesser included offense.
That way, the jury
doesn't have to conclude
that Duncan wasn't afraid, just that
his fear didn't justify deadly force.
Hey, it's not perfect.
Hey, you need to see this.
So after Barry Vaughan's
surprise testimony,
I tracked down the
recording of Tom Phillips
asking his listeners for help.
Phillips mentioned that
he first bonded with Duncan
during a podcast appearance.
So I subpoenaed the raw recordings
from the podcast unaired stuff.
And?
- Thank you so much having me.
- Appreciate that.
No, I didn't think
we were gonna get you.
I mean, you do some outrageous stuff.
- The Big Apple is ripe.
- Oh, yeah.
You gotta admit, though,
killing one would be badass,
making the world safer
one brother at a time.
Of course. Are you kidding me?
That's the dream, right?
Make money and get a free kill?
♪
Seven weeks before the murder.
That's intent.
♪
He just said killing
a Black man is a bonus.
Tyler Duncan thought
he'd found a loophole,
thought he'd figured out a
way to get away with murder.
In a self-defense case,
this is the Holy Grail.
You're right.
But who knows if he
really meant it or not?
We know Tyler exaggerates
when he's pretending
to be Stone Freedom.
Does it matter?
♪
Making the world safer
one brother at a time.
Of course. Are you kidding me?
That's the dream, right?
Make money and get a free kill?
Your Honor, these words
discovered by the People
might sound shocking on their face,
but this was a moment
of dark humor, bravado.
It does not reflect Tyler
Duncan's state of mind
at the moment of the shooting,
which is the only
legally relevant moment
in a justification defense.
Wrong. Your Honor, this obliterates both
the subjective and objective
planks of the defense.
A man who planned and
hoped for the circumstances
that would allow him to
kill can't then claim that
he was an unwilling victim of necessity
when those circumstances occur.
This was the plan, the mission.
He was letting off
steam, trying to fit in.
Your Honor, we now
know that Tyler Duncan
was not a reasonable person
responding to a threat.
He was an armed man
executing a premeditated plan,
wearing the language of
self-defense as a disguise.
We know that.
And the jury must know that too.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Members of the jury,
I understand you've reached a verdict.
We have, Your Honor.
How do you find the
defendant, Tyler Duncan,
on the charge of murder
in the second degree?
Guilty or not guilty?
We find the defendant guilty.
As to whether the defendant
committed this offense
in whole or substantial
part because of a belief
or perception regarding
the race of the victim,
how do you find?
The People have also proven this
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant is also
guilty of a hate crime.
- This is an outrage!
- [CROWD SHOUTING]
- [GAVEL BANGING]
- Order! Order!
Order! Order!
We will not tolerate
outbursts in this courtroom.
♪
I love you.
I'm sorry.
Are you okay?
Thank you.
Thank you for giving
us some sense of peace.
Of course.
Let me walk you out.
Okay.
[SOLEMN MUSIC]
Nice work.
♪
Tyler Duncan got what he deserved
in the eyes of God and the law.
Damn right, he did.
Let's go get a drink.
♪
[WOLF HOWLS]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪