Law & Order (1990) s26e06 Episode Script
Do No Harm
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.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
No, I'm not nervous.
It's hard to explain.
Exactly, and I just
OK.
Thank you.
Bye.
Hate that I made you love me ♪
'Cause I barely tried ♪
Yeah, I, I, I hate that I ♪
- Miss.
- Oh, my God.
- You scared me.
- Sorry.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Would you like an escort?
It's not safe to be walking
alone here at night.
I'm fine. I'm not going far.
Are you sure?
It's no trouble.
Thank you, but I'm good.
In fact, I've never been better.
'Cause I barely tried ♪
Yeah, I, I, I ♪
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Hey, man.
Hey.
Not a morning person, huh?
Right. Who's the vic?
Grace Zhou, 24 years old.
Roommate found the body.
She called 911.
- Any signs of a break-in?
- Nope.
Jewelry, purse, fancy headphones
all accounted for.
We're missing the phone, though.
We got a trace on it.
We got a cause of death?
Looks like asphyxiation via pillow.
But she looks peaceful,
like she was asleep.
Yeah, but the body was posed
postmortem.
And based on body temperature
and lividity,
I'm estimating time of death
between 2:00 and 4:00 this morning.
Find any signs of sexual assault?
Marvel at the light, gentlemen.
It reveals all.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Looks like our guy's a dribbler.
Let's bag that for testing.
She was a med student?
Primum non nocere.
Hippocratic oath.
First, do no harm.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
I got home around 7:00 this morning.
Grace's bedroom door was open.
That's why I knew something was wrong.
Grace never left her door open.
And how long did you two
live together?
A little more than a year.
She answered my roommate ad
on the med school housing board.
I didn't want a roommate,
but even a fifth floor walk-up
costs a fortune in the city.
And was she in the habit
of having, you know,
- like, late-night visitors?
- No.
Honestly, I kind of got
loner vibes from her.
She was always shut up
in her room by herself.
The walls are paper-thin.
If she had anybody over,
I would've heard.
So no friends?
Boyfriend? Girlfriend?
Can you think of anybody
who might want to hurt her?
I really I couldn't say.
What?
You lived with her for a year,
and yet you know nothing about her.
Look, med school's intense, OK?
The less time you waste
on small talk, the better.
You know, most people
would be pretty shook up.
You come home,
you find your roommate dead.
Well, I just finished
my surgery rotation,
so I've seen my share of dead bodies.
Where were you last night?
At St. Vincent's.
I'm in my ER rotation now.
Do you need some names?
Yeah, actually.
And numbers.
Hold on. Hold on. One last thing.
Have you noticed anything
unusual about Grace recently?
- Anything?
- Lately, she just
she seemed to be in a good mood.
And she left the apartment
a lot more too.
You know where she was going?
Not really.
I mean, at least some of the time,
I know she was visiting her parents
out in Flushing.
Grace never hurt anyone.
She never caused any problems.
I don't understand
how this could happen to her.
Could you tell us more
about your daughter's life
the people she knew,
her friends, social groups?
Grace was shy.
Like, making friends was
never easy for her.
She was smart.
She worked so hard
to get into med school.
We were so proud.
When was the last time
you saw your daughter?
A few days ago.
She came home for dinner.
We hadn't seen much of her
because of school,
but she was visiting
a lot more recently.
Grace struggled
with med school at first.
But then she learned to adjust,
like we knew she would.
Did she seem upset or scared
when you saw her?
Mention anything unusual?
No, she was she was really happy,
like everything was going well.
I'm sorry to have to ask
this question,
but do you know of anyone who
might have wanted to hurt her?
[TENSE MUSIC]
[SOBS]
Her parents said she'd been dating
fellow grad student Curtis Foster.
She ended it last month.
OK, let me guess.
He didn't take it so well.
Excellent guess.
They said he'd been hounding her,
calling her day and night,
begging her to take him back.
OK, bad breakup, ex-boyfriend.
Unfortunately, this one's a classic.
Where are we with her missing phone?
Yeah, we tried pinging it.
Nothing so far.
The killer must've turned it off.
You get any text messages
from the cloud?
Still waiting for the carrier
to get back to us,
but we did get the call log
back, though.
Guess who her last phone call was to.
The ex-boyfriend.
Oh, you're good at this, huh?
Occam's razor.
It's always the ex-boyfriend.
Mm-hmm.
Vic made the call
a few hours before the murder.
Lasted two minutes.
I can't believe Grace is dead.
Grace was considering a psych rotation
in her third year.
Came in with some questions.
How long were you together?
It depends on what
you consider a first date.
Grace was really shy.
She was, um
an introvert.
Do you mind if we
No, not at all.
Thanks.
So you had to make the first move?
[SIGHS] And second, third, and fourth.
Wow, you sound persistent.
I really liked her.
She was smart, sensitive.
And we were together for about
six months after that.
What led to the breakup?
She said she didn't see
a future for us.
That's it? No explanation?
Once Grace made up her mind
about something,
- there was no debate.
- OK.
That would have made me pretty upset.
I wallowed in self-pity for a week.
We heard you remained, uh
what's the word you said?
- Uh
- Persistent.
Very persistent.
I still cared about her.
- That's all.
- Mm-hmm.
But I eventually got the memo.
I left her alone.
She called you last night.
Yeah, I was surprised
to hear from her.
We hadn't really spoken
since the breakup.
She suggested we meet up,
um, but I couldn't.
Why not?
I was at a concert.
Gooseberry at the Sonic Room.
Hey, Curtis Foster's alibi checks out.
Picked up his ticket at
will call, had to show ID.
OK, so much for Occam's razor.
Forensics came back.
They managed to extract DNA
from the stain on the mattress.
Male, not in the system.
But get this it's not semen.
What was it?
Sodium and potassium chloride
with other significant
protein indicators
human tears.
That's extra creepy.
Wouldn't be the first time
someone cried
after committing murder. [KNOCKING]
ME just called.
Something she wants us to see.
Cause of death was asphyxiation.
I found cotton fibers
in her nasal passageway,
mouth, and lungs.
Traces of her saliva
on the pillow confirm
- it was the murder weapon.
- Right.
We got all this from the crime scene.
Well, I haven't gotten
to the weird part yet.
Look here.
Two small puncture wounds
on her left arm.
[TENSE MUSIC]
One on her right.
Was that needle drugs?
Yes, but not the fun ones.
The tox report shows
significant quantities
of sodium thiopental,
pancuronium bromide,
and potassium chloride in her system.
They're the drugs that prisons
use for lethal injections.
♪
Wasn't just a murder.
It was an execution.
♪
Seems like overkill to
smother someone with a pillow
after you've shot them up
with lethal injection drugs.
These drugs don't always work
the way they're supposed to.
Wrong dosage, interacts poorly
with something
already in the system
a lot of things can go wrong.
That's why they botch
executions all the time.
Look what happened
to that woman in Tennessee.
So our murderer subdues the victim,
injects the drugs.
Something goes sideways,
so he smothers her instead?
I think it's possible.
Well, in any case,
we're dealing with
a very disturbed human being
who has access to these drugs
and knows how to use them.
So the vic's messages
from the phone company finally landed.
She received a threatening text
a couple of days before she died
from a fellow med student
named Todd Long.
"Keep your mouth shut.
If you tell anyone,
we'll both be in huge trouble."
Go talk to him.
[TRAIN RUMBLING, HORN HONKING]
It wasn't a threat.
I was trying to protect Grace.
"Keep your mouth shut"?
OK, I probably could've
said that better,
but it wasn't like that.
Enlighten us then.
Our professor assigned
a take-home exam.
Grace saw I was a mess
and offered to do it for me.
The problem was,
the professor could tell
- I didn't write the answers.
- OK.
So why were you texting her
to keep her mouth shut?
Because Grace still wanted
to come clean.
She thought that
if she took the fall for it,
that it would get me reinstated.
I I tried to tell her
it wouldn't work,
but it's like she didn't care
if she got kicked out.
[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]
All right.
Where were you two nights ago?
At urgent care.
I had food poisoning.
Do you know of anyone
who had any kind of issue with Grace?
I um, Dr. Reddy.
Yeah, he's a faculty advisor.
A few days ago,
I saw the two of them arguing.
Lieu, Long's alibi checks out.
He was in the infirmary all night,
hooked up to a banana bag.
His DNA was clear.
OK, what about this faculty advisor?
Dr. Aekansh Reddy
we tracked down
the security cam footage
of the fight that Long witnessed.
Looks like they're really going at it.
OK, not your average
student-teacher conference.
Do we know what they're arguing about?
Turns out,
Reddy's a controversial figure,
and our vic actually led
a student protest against him.
Tried to get his tenure revoked.
Our quiet med student tried
to get her advisor fired?
Why?
She went crazy when she found out that
he was a consultant
for federal penitentiaries.
He advised on lethal injections.
So you're a doctor who
specializes in killing people.
That's a gross oversimplification
of my work, Detective.
Seems pretty simple.
You help people die.
Die humanely.
Grace Zhou didn't see it that way.
Sometimes med students have
a very naive understanding
of how the real world works.
My job is to help execute people
society has already
condemned to death.
I'm just ensuring that medical
protocols are up to date
in order to minimize
their pain and suffering.
And Grace eventually began
to see it that way.
She saw the value in what I'm doing.
This look like
a kumbaya moment to you?
You've got it wrong.
I that wasn't about the petition.
Like I said, she and I had
patched things up.
Didn't look very patched up to me.
I was yelling about something else.
She had just informed me
that she was dropping out.
Grace was quitting medical school?
Yes.
And I thought that was a mistake.
I didn't want her
to throw her life away.
Obviously, I I got worked up,
but out of frustration, not anger.
Where were you
the night of her murder?
In Florida,
consulting on an execution.
I flew back yesterday.
Would you submit to a DNA test?
- Of course.
- OK.
Did Grace tell you
why she was dropping out?
No
but I have my suspicions.
She was interning at a research lab.
Lead researcher is a man
named Anton Visser.
She really admired him,
but something happened recently.
I mentioned his name last week,
and she said she didn't want
anything to do with him.
And then out of nowhere,
she decides to drop out?
She was sleeping with him,
and he dumped her?
Is that what you're saying?
What was your relationship
with Grace Zhou?
She worked here at the lab.
Were you two romantically involved?
- Excuse me?
- No, don't get offended, Doc.
We heard you guys were spending
a lot of late nights together.
Our relationship was
completely professional.
Grace was helping me review
some recent clinical data
for a new drug.
You don't have more qualified
staff for that?
She asked to be part of the review.
She was very invested
in this particular project.
Do you keep a stock
of sodium thiopental
here in the lab?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Yes. Why?
What about pancuronium bromide?
You got that?
Potassium chloride?
♪
Yeah, we're gonna need to see
an inventory list.
♪
I want a lawyer.
♪
That was quick.
Looks like you got another
late night ahead of you.
So
we searched your lab, Mr. Visser.
Dr. Visser.
Sure, whatever.
And do you know what we found?
Missing vials of sodium thiopental,
pancuronium bromide,
and potassium chloride,
all in the exact amounts
that were found
in the body of Grace Zhou
at the time of the murder.
My client had nothing to do with that.
Well, I think he did.
I think you had
an inappropriate relationship
with her, and she threatened
to expose you.
There was nothing sexual
or romantic between us.
I've done nothing wrong.
Then why is he here?
- I'm just being careful.
- Why?
Because I didn't report
the drugs missing.
Why is that?
I was hoping they were
just mislabeled or misplaced.
I was trying to track them down
before anyone noticed.
I was trying to avoid a scandal.
Grant money's hard to come by
these days.
But you and Grace did have
a falling out recently, correct?
We did, but it wasn't personal.
It was about the clinical trial
we were working on.
Can you be more specific?
We were developing a drug
to treat medication-resistant
depression.
We were trying to access
a different neural pathway
than other drugs
currently on the market.
But it failed.
And Grace blamed you for that?
No.
I decided to declare the trial
inconclusive
rather than publish the results.
OK, well, that sounds pretty shady.
Yeah, well, like I said,
grants are hard to come by these days.
To be clear, he did nothing illegal.
But this decision upset Grace.
It did, yeah.
I appreciated how invested
she was, but
listen, I didn't kill Grace.
Well, do you have an alibi
for 2:00 a.m. on the night
she was murdered?
I was at home, asleep.
Alone?
Yeah, well, that's not
a great alibi, Dr. Visser.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Visser's DNA doesn't match.
Yeah, CCTV footage
from the apartment lobby
shows him arriving
at 10:30 p.m. that night
and not leaving again
till the next morning.
I don't think he's our guy.
But the drugs found in Zhou's system
were from that lab,
so whoever murdered her
had to have access to it.
OK.
The lab requires all employees
to sign in and out.
I pulled the log.
OK, so
this is the day that Visser says
- he noticed the drugs missing
- Mm-hmm.
And that's the date
of the last inventory
prior to that.
So whoever our murderer is
had to have stolen them
in that window.
All right. Let me narrow the search.
This is everyone who came
and went in that time period.
Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.
Go back right there.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
See that?
Curtis Foster.
♪
Um, just [DOOR OPENS]
Hey. Sorry could this wait?
- I'm about to see a student.
- This won't take long.
We just need to clear up
a couple things,
- if you don't mind.
- About what?
You lied to us.
You told us you hadn't seen
Grace since you guys broke up,
but that's not exactly true,
now, is it?
You visited Grace
in her lab last week,
right around the time
the drugs that were found
in her system went missing.
You're gonna want to watch this.
♪
After you hung up with Grace,
you never went back in to the concert,
'cause you headed uptown,
same direction as her apartment.
I didn't do anything wrong.
OK. You want to prove it?
Submit to a DNA test.
Please, I
Look at this, Theo.
He's crying,
just like he did
the night he killed Grace.
Hey.
Curtis Foster's DNA was a match
to the fluid found at the crime scene.
Tears?
A killer with remorse is
better than one without.
Marginal, but still.
Pregnancy is making you soft already.
- Huh.
- What else do we have?
Oh, a few threatening emails
after the breakup.
"If you don't reconsider,
you're gonna end up dead,
and I will have blood on my hands."
Well, he really spelled it out,
didn't he?
Yeah. We can also prove that
he had opportunity to steal drugs
from the lab where Grace worked.
He lied to police about his alibi,
left the concert right after
she called him,
and headed in the direction
of her apartment.
Do you know why she called him?
No.
The evidence against him is strong.
Curtis Foster's just lucky
that New York State doesn't
have the death penalty.
Otherwise, there's a decent chance
we would be injecting him
with the same damn drugs
he used to help kill Grace.
The combination of drugs found
in Grace Zhou's body
is very specifically used
for one thing
executions.
On the night of September 12th,
the defendant showed up
to her apartment,
subdued her,
and injected her
with sodium thiopental,
knocking her unconscious.
He then injected her
with pancuronium bromide,
a paralytic agent,
rendering her immobile,
so completely helpless
to defend herself,
even if she had
regained consciousness.
Finally, he placed
a third needle into her vein,
and he shot her full
of potassium chloride,
a powerful drug that is meant
to cause cardiac arrest,
but as you may know,
when a lethal injection isn't
administered properly,
it fails to lead to death,
and instead,
the victim suffers immense
and unrelenting pain.
When she didn't die,
the defendant picked up a pillow
and smothered her to death
all of this to punish her
for breaking up with him.
Grace Zhou was 24 years old.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
And Curtis Foster stole it from her.
No, no. Let's leave the photo.
[TENSE MUSIC]
A lot of what the prosecution
just said is true.
Curtis Foster was in Ms. Zhou's
apartment that night,
and he ultimately did end her life.
But there was nothing cold
or calculated about it.
In fact, it was an act of love,
because Grace Zhou had asked him
to help her end her life.
This was an assisted suicide.
Objection, Your Honor.
[GAVEL BANGS]
Sustained.
Counselors, in my chambers.
♪
This is my suicide note or video.
Whatever.
I've decided to end my life.
[CLICKS]
It is clear
the defense intentionally
sat on this information.
They had plenty of opportunity
to raise it prior to now,
and it should be precluded
as a textbook example
of unfair surprise.
We have no obligation
to present information
that's readily available
to the prosecution
through other means.
The police did
a thorough investigation,
including reviewing
all of Grace's communications
by phone, by her computer,
by the cloud.
There was no trace of this video.
That's because Curtis stopped it
from uploading to the cloud.
But plenty of other evidence
of Grace Zhou's condition existed.
She had suffered severe
depression for years.
And that's why
she wanted to end her life.
She was in chronic, excruciating pain
with no available cure.
She begged for my client's help.
He reluctantly agreed.
She recorded the video on her phone
with the intent of leaving it
for authorities to find.
But when things went south
and he ended up using the pillow,
he took her phone with him
when he left the apartment.
No, no, no.
He didn't
he didn't leave the apartment.
He fled the crime scene,
because he committed murder.
New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act
went into effect
in August of this year,
making assisted suicide legal
for people with incurable diseases.
Depression doesn't qualify
under that law.
There's no language specifically
excluding mental illness.
The law requires that
the diagnosis be terminal with
a reasonable life expectancy
of six months or less.
We have a medical expert
who will testify that
her condition meets this definition.
Under what theory?
Doesn't the law also
require the patient
to be of sound mind?
Exactly. Thank you, Your Honor.
A mental health diagnosis is
de facto disqualified
because depression, by definition,
impacts capacity in this situation.
Your Honor, all we're asking is that
we be allowed to present our case.
[SIGHING]
- You OK?
- Yeah.
Just a little heartburn.
Nobody warned me,
but that's apparently
a thing that happens a lot
when you're pregnant.
How'd it go in there?
The judge is allowing them to present
an assisted suicide defense.
Well, did Zhou have
a terminal disease?
No, but she apparently suffered
- from severe depression.
- [LAUGHS]
No. What? That's not allowed.
I know, but the judge
doesn't seem to care.
So what are they gonna claim?
That her mental illness was so severe,
it was tantamount
to a terminal diagnosis?
Yeah, it sounds like it.
The good news is,
we have the law on our side.
Well, bad news is,
they got emotions on theirs.
They're gonna argue that
Grace was in severe pain,
that she wanted to die.
Therefore, Curtis is a saint,
not a killer.
So we need to provide
some emotion of our own.
We knew that Grace had
struggled at times, but
Um, what kind of struggles, exactly?
She could be sad.
She had very negative thoughts.
She would say terrible things.
That was just teenager stuff.
You know how they are at that age.
What age is that?
It started when she was 13 or 14.
It wasn't anything serious.
Nothing bad happened to her.
She was just moody.
It was hormones.
And she got through it.
It had passed.
So you didn't know
that your daughter was suicidal?
No.
We saw her a few days before,
and she was very happy.
Do you think there's a chance
the depression came back?
Maybe.
But if she told that boy
that she wanted to do that,
he should've told someone.
He should've told us,
not help her do it.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Does this mean
he's going to get away with
killing our daughter?
♪
We're gonna do everything in our power
to make sure that doesn't happen.
We will make it clear to the jury
he didn't have the right
to do what he did.
♪
Dr. Murano,
on top of limiting its scope
to terminal illnesses
with a life expectancy
of six months or less,
the new assisted suicide law
only allows for
self-administered
life-ending medication,
but that is not
what Grace Zhou died of,
- is it?
- No.
How long does it take
to suffocate someone with a pillow?
Because of the porous nature
of fabrics and cushions,
it can take as much
as 10 minutes, sometimes 15.
And what happens during that time?
The brain is deprived of oxygen.
The lungs fill with fluids.
Organs slowly shut down.
That sounds excruciating.
In this case,
she still would've been
paralyzed from the drugs
awake enough to know it was happening,
but unable to stop him.
I imagine it was very painful.
And what would have happened if, uh,
instead of suffocating her
when the drugs didn't work,
the defendant had called 911?
Objection. Calls for speculation.
There's no way for the witness
to know the answer to that.
Sustained.
But you can tell us
that Grace Zhou died
a long and agonizing death?
Almost certainly, yes.
By his hand.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
Dr. Murano, to say that
the drugs in Grace Zhou's
system didn't work
isn't entirely accurate, is it?
They may not have caused her death,
but they still would have had
an effect.
Yes. Uh, we've seen it before
when state executions have failed.
As her body fought off the drugs,
her nervous system would've
gone into overdrive.
She likely went into
uncontrollable seizures.
So it would have been
painful and excruciating
in its own right,
just not enough to kill her.
Yes.
Is it fair to say, then,
that my client was easing her pain
when he did what he did?
Mm, there are other ways to do that.
Well, speaking of pain, Dr. Murano,
are you aware of the pain
experienced by people
with chronic, severe,
drug-resistant depression?
I am aware of the clinical
diagnosis and its symptoms.
So you know excruciating pain was
Grace Zhou's constant
state of being, then?
Objection. Counsel is testifying.
Sustained.
No further questions.
♪
My wife and I, we loved our daughter,
and when her
difficulties started,
we were so confused.
And then we figured it out,
and we got help.
Professional help?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
It worked. She got better.
So were you surprised to learn
that she wanted to kill herself?
Of course.
The
She came to our house a lot
in the weeks before she died,
and she seemed
I I thought
it was finally behind us.
So she seemed happy?
Yes.
And if she had fallen
into one of her darker moods,
it was very recent.
And it would have passed.
The defense is claiming that
her depression was so severe
- that suicide was inevitable.
- No.
If we had known about it,
we could've saved her.
But he took away that chance.
Thank you. No further questions.
Mr. Zhou, let me start
by saying how sorry I am
for your loss.
Just ask your questions.
Fair enough.
[TENSE MUSIC]
You stated that
you were surprised to learn
your daughter wanted to end her life.
Yes.
Well, forgive me,
but that's a bit surprising,
given that she had attempted
suicide twice before
once five years ago,
then again two years ago.
Your Honor,
the defense would like this
marked as exhibit D.
♪
Mr. Zhou, do you recognize
these documents?
Yes.
These are hospital admission forms.
Objection.
Defense should've shared these
as part of pre-trial
reciprocal discovery.
These records were readily available
for the prosecution to find.
They had equal access.
Well, we didn't know
to look for them, Your Honor.
[SIGHS]
Overruled.
Continue, Ms. Fuller.
Mr. Zhou,
these forms were signed by you.
Both times your daughter tried
to end her life,
you were the one to take her in.
She accidentally took too many pills.
It it was a mistake.
Both times?
She had wanted this for years,
hadn't she?
She'd gotten better.
Obviously, that's not true, is it?
No further questions.
Mr. Price.
The prosecution rests, Your Honor.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Hey.
Why didn't you tell us
she had tried before?
It's a family matter private.
[SCOFFS] Well, it's very public now.
We were trying to protect
our daughter.
And we are trying
to get justice for her.
Lying to us only makes that harder.
Come on.
♪
Nolan, they're parents
grieving the loss of their only child.
Yeah, I know, I know.
But if we lose
and mental illness becomes
a basis for legal suicide,
there will be a lot of other parents
in this exact same situation.
♪
I'm the Kagan chair of neurological
and psychiatric science
at Princeton University.
I've spent my career studying
chronic severe depression,
and for the past year,
I was also Grace Zhou's psychiatrist.
What made Grace's situation unique?
Grace suffered from
treatment-resistant
chronic depression.
She had tried every pharmaceutical
and psychotherapeutical
treatment currently available
SSRIs, SNRIs,
tricyclic antidepressants,
ketamine therapy.
None of it had an effect.
So, essentially,
Grace's disease was incurable.
And debilitating.
What Grace experienced was
just as severe and unrelenting
as any terminal physical illness.
Dr. Woll, in your medical opinion,
was Grace Zhou's depression
a terminal disease?
Yes.
She had already attempted
suicide twice.
And you were her doctor.
Do you believe she was of sound mind
to make the decision to end her life?
In my professional estimation,
she was fully capable of making
the decision she made.
Thank you, Doctor.
No further questions.
Dr. Woll, isn't it true that
the American Medical Association
as well as the American
Psychiatric Association
have taken policy positions
opposing euthanasia
in mental health-related situations?
Yes, people have very strong opinions
on both sides of this issue,
but things are changing,
and there's a growing recognition that
if a condition is untreatable
You mentioned ketamine therapy.
That is relatively new.
That has helped people
who were previously diagnosed
as treatment-resistant, correct?
Yes, but it's also not helped people
who are treatment-resistant.
And yet, several
acquaintances described Grace
as being quite happy
in the days prior to her death.
Well, that's a common phenomenon.
Quite often, people in her position
experience euphoria
after making the decision
to end their life.
It's not that their pain is gone.
It's that their suffering
will soon be over.
You are legally obligated to report
if a patient tells you that
she's going to kill herself,
but you didn't do that with Grace.
Because she didn't tell me about it.
You say that her decision was
of sound mind?
She didn't tell me about it
because she knew
I was a mandatory reporter.
If anything, I
I think that's evidence
of how rational her choice was.
Rational? OK.
Grace was 24,
her prefrontal cortex wasn't
fully developed,
and you want us to believe that
she was capable of making
a rational choice?
Grace was determined to end her life,
regardless of your
or my opinion on the matter.
But she didn't take her life.
The defendant did.
- Objection.
- Sustained.
Nothing further.
Ms. Fuller, call your next witness.
The defense calls Curtis Foster.
I met Grace when she was
considering a psych rotation.
I I didn't know it at the time,
but all of her academic
pursuits were an attempt
to understand
what was happening to her.
How did you react
when she told you
she wanted to end her life?
I freaked out.
I argued with her.
I begged her to talk to a counselor.
Were you the one who stole
the lethal injection drugs?
No.
That was all Grace.
I went with her.
I tried to talk her out of it,
but there was no stopping her.
Can you tell us about
the night Grace died?
Uh, she called me.
Said it was time.
She asked me to be there.
She said she didn't want to die alone,
and I couldn't say no.
But, um, something went wrong.
She was shaking,
and it was, like, spasms,
and she was moaning,
and the sounds it was
Um, she was in pain,
so I did what I thought
what I know she wanted me to do.
Well, up until that point,
you hadn't done anything wrong.
You could've just left her there,
walked away, or called 911.
I knew she'd be institutionalized,
and her suffering would be prolonged.
And then down the line,
she'd do it again.
She wouldn't stop trying
until it was done.
This way spared her more pain.
I could give her that.
You risked your own freedom,
your whole life to give her that.
I loved her.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Before the injections,
you helped her
to film a video, correct?
Yes.
I want to be very clear.
I am the one making this choice.
Every day for over 10 years,
it has taken every ounce
of strength I have
to even get out of bed.
♪
I'm so tired of feeling like this.
[CRYING] I hurt.
I can't do it anymore.
♪
Papa, Mama, I'm sorry.
I tried to be strong for you.
I tried to tell you before.
♪
You couldn't hear me.
So now I just want to say goodbye.
♪
I'm sorry.
I love you so much.
♪
No further questions.
♪
Mr. Foster,
the new assisted suicide law
allows a physician
to legally prescribe
life-ending medication
for a terminally ill patient
for them to self-administer.
- Are you a physician?
- No.
Did you use a pillow
to suffocate Grace Zhou?
Yes, but
Nothing further.
The defense rests, Your Honor.
♪
Ms. Maroun?
Mrs. Zhou, hi.
How are you holding up?
Do you have a moment?
Yes.
Yes, of course.
How far along are you?
About 20 weeks.
Get ready.
For the rest of your life,
your heart is gonna live
outside your body
and inside someone else's.
It's terrifying and exciting
and scary and incredible.
When Grace was born,
I had this overwhelming reaction.
I just needed her to be
near me at all times.
She was just so fragile.
I wanted to protect her,
to keep her safe.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
We're doing everything we can
to get her justice.
[CRYING] We didn't realize
Grace was in so much pain.
In our culture,
there are just certain things
we don't talk about.
♪
My little girl was hurting,
and I couldn't help her.
Hey
you did the best you could.
She knew that.
♪
I'm not saying I could've done
what Curtis did
but I understand why he did it,
and I don't think
he should be punished for it.
♪
Thank you.
Hey.
[HORN HONKING]
So Grace's parents want us
to drop the charges.
- What? Now?
- Yeah.
I think they finally accepted
that this is what Grace really wanted.
I understand,
but that has no legal bearing on this.
Yeah, I know.
If I'm being honest,
when I look at Curtis,
I don't see a killer.
He's not a threat to society.
He's not gonna kill someone else.
And if that's
what Grace's parents want,
if they don't want him
to be punished, then
No, there's more at stake here
than our placating Grace's family.
No, I'm not saying
we drop the charges,
but maybe we can offer
a manslaughter plea.
This case is too important,
Sam, and it's too dangerous.
If we cut Curtis a break, God knows
more young people will start
asking their boyfriends
and their girlfriends
to end their lives.
No, we have to see this through.
[CELL PHONE DINGS]
Jury's back.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
In the charge
murder in the second degree,
we find the defendant,
Curtis Foster, guilty.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
the court thanks you for your time.
- [SIGHS]
- You are now dismissed.
[GAVEL BANGS]
♪
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
♪
It's the right result, Sam.
Wish it felt that way.
♪
sync & corrections awaqeded
[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.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
No, I'm not nervous.
It's hard to explain.
Exactly, and I just
OK.
Thank you.
Bye.
Hate that I made you love me ♪
'Cause I barely tried ♪
Yeah, I, I, I hate that I ♪
- Miss.
- Oh, my God.
- You scared me.
- Sorry.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Would you like an escort?
It's not safe to be walking
alone here at night.
I'm fine. I'm not going far.
Are you sure?
It's no trouble.
Thank you, but I'm good.
In fact, I've never been better.
'Cause I barely tried ♪
Yeah, I, I, I ♪
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Hey, man.
Hey.
Not a morning person, huh?
Right. Who's the vic?
Grace Zhou, 24 years old.
Roommate found the body.
She called 911.
- Any signs of a break-in?
- Nope.
Jewelry, purse, fancy headphones
all accounted for.
We're missing the phone, though.
We got a trace on it.
We got a cause of death?
Looks like asphyxiation via pillow.
But she looks peaceful,
like she was asleep.
Yeah, but the body was posed
postmortem.
And based on body temperature
and lividity,
I'm estimating time of death
between 2:00 and 4:00 this morning.
Find any signs of sexual assault?
Marvel at the light, gentlemen.
It reveals all.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Looks like our guy's a dribbler.
Let's bag that for testing.
She was a med student?
Primum non nocere.
Hippocratic oath.
First, do no harm.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
I got home around 7:00 this morning.
Grace's bedroom door was open.
That's why I knew something was wrong.
Grace never left her door open.
And how long did you two
live together?
A little more than a year.
She answered my roommate ad
on the med school housing board.
I didn't want a roommate,
but even a fifth floor walk-up
costs a fortune in the city.
And was she in the habit
of having, you know,
- like, late-night visitors?
- No.
Honestly, I kind of got
loner vibes from her.
She was always shut up
in her room by herself.
The walls are paper-thin.
If she had anybody over,
I would've heard.
So no friends?
Boyfriend? Girlfriend?
Can you think of anybody
who might want to hurt her?
I really I couldn't say.
What?
You lived with her for a year,
and yet you know nothing about her.
Look, med school's intense, OK?
The less time you waste
on small talk, the better.
You know, most people
would be pretty shook up.
You come home,
you find your roommate dead.
Well, I just finished
my surgery rotation,
so I've seen my share of dead bodies.
Where were you last night?
At St. Vincent's.
I'm in my ER rotation now.
Do you need some names?
Yeah, actually.
And numbers.
Hold on. Hold on. One last thing.
Have you noticed anything
unusual about Grace recently?
- Anything?
- Lately, she just
she seemed to be in a good mood.
And she left the apartment
a lot more too.
You know where she was going?
Not really.
I mean, at least some of the time,
I know she was visiting her parents
out in Flushing.
Grace never hurt anyone.
She never caused any problems.
I don't understand
how this could happen to her.
Could you tell us more
about your daughter's life
the people she knew,
her friends, social groups?
Grace was shy.
Like, making friends was
never easy for her.
She was smart.
She worked so hard
to get into med school.
We were so proud.
When was the last time
you saw your daughter?
A few days ago.
She came home for dinner.
We hadn't seen much of her
because of school,
but she was visiting
a lot more recently.
Grace struggled
with med school at first.
But then she learned to adjust,
like we knew she would.
Did she seem upset or scared
when you saw her?
Mention anything unusual?
No, she was she was really happy,
like everything was going well.
I'm sorry to have to ask
this question,
but do you know of anyone who
might have wanted to hurt her?
[TENSE MUSIC]
[SOBS]
Her parents said she'd been dating
fellow grad student Curtis Foster.
She ended it last month.
OK, let me guess.
He didn't take it so well.
Excellent guess.
They said he'd been hounding her,
calling her day and night,
begging her to take him back.
OK, bad breakup, ex-boyfriend.
Unfortunately, this one's a classic.
Where are we with her missing phone?
Yeah, we tried pinging it.
Nothing so far.
The killer must've turned it off.
You get any text messages
from the cloud?
Still waiting for the carrier
to get back to us,
but we did get the call log
back, though.
Guess who her last phone call was to.
The ex-boyfriend.
Oh, you're good at this, huh?
Occam's razor.
It's always the ex-boyfriend.
Mm-hmm.
Vic made the call
a few hours before the murder.
Lasted two minutes.
I can't believe Grace is dead.
Grace was considering a psych rotation
in her third year.
Came in with some questions.
How long were you together?
It depends on what
you consider a first date.
Grace was really shy.
She was, um
an introvert.
Do you mind if we
No, not at all.
Thanks.
So you had to make the first move?
[SIGHS] And second, third, and fourth.
Wow, you sound persistent.
I really liked her.
She was smart, sensitive.
And we were together for about
six months after that.
What led to the breakup?
She said she didn't see
a future for us.
That's it? No explanation?
Once Grace made up her mind
about something,
- there was no debate.
- OK.
That would have made me pretty upset.
I wallowed in self-pity for a week.
We heard you remained, uh
what's the word you said?
- Uh
- Persistent.
Very persistent.
I still cared about her.
- That's all.
- Mm-hmm.
But I eventually got the memo.
I left her alone.
She called you last night.
Yeah, I was surprised
to hear from her.
We hadn't really spoken
since the breakup.
She suggested we meet up,
um, but I couldn't.
Why not?
I was at a concert.
Gooseberry at the Sonic Room.
Hey, Curtis Foster's alibi checks out.
Picked up his ticket at
will call, had to show ID.
OK, so much for Occam's razor.
Forensics came back.
They managed to extract DNA
from the stain on the mattress.
Male, not in the system.
But get this it's not semen.
What was it?
Sodium and potassium chloride
with other significant
protein indicators
human tears.
That's extra creepy.
Wouldn't be the first time
someone cried
after committing murder. [KNOCKING]
ME just called.
Something she wants us to see.
Cause of death was asphyxiation.
I found cotton fibers
in her nasal passageway,
mouth, and lungs.
Traces of her saliva
on the pillow confirm
- it was the murder weapon.
- Right.
We got all this from the crime scene.
Well, I haven't gotten
to the weird part yet.
Look here.
Two small puncture wounds
on her left arm.
[TENSE MUSIC]
One on her right.
Was that needle drugs?
Yes, but not the fun ones.
The tox report shows
significant quantities
of sodium thiopental,
pancuronium bromide,
and potassium chloride in her system.
They're the drugs that prisons
use for lethal injections.
♪
Wasn't just a murder.
It was an execution.
♪
Seems like overkill to
smother someone with a pillow
after you've shot them up
with lethal injection drugs.
These drugs don't always work
the way they're supposed to.
Wrong dosage, interacts poorly
with something
already in the system
a lot of things can go wrong.
That's why they botch
executions all the time.
Look what happened
to that woman in Tennessee.
So our murderer subdues the victim,
injects the drugs.
Something goes sideways,
so he smothers her instead?
I think it's possible.
Well, in any case,
we're dealing with
a very disturbed human being
who has access to these drugs
and knows how to use them.
So the vic's messages
from the phone company finally landed.
She received a threatening text
a couple of days before she died
from a fellow med student
named Todd Long.
"Keep your mouth shut.
If you tell anyone,
we'll both be in huge trouble."
Go talk to him.
[TRAIN RUMBLING, HORN HONKING]
It wasn't a threat.
I was trying to protect Grace.
"Keep your mouth shut"?
OK, I probably could've
said that better,
but it wasn't like that.
Enlighten us then.
Our professor assigned
a take-home exam.
Grace saw I was a mess
and offered to do it for me.
The problem was,
the professor could tell
- I didn't write the answers.
- OK.
So why were you texting her
to keep her mouth shut?
Because Grace still wanted
to come clean.
She thought that
if she took the fall for it,
that it would get me reinstated.
I I tried to tell her
it wouldn't work,
but it's like she didn't care
if she got kicked out.
[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]
All right.
Where were you two nights ago?
At urgent care.
I had food poisoning.
Do you know of anyone
who had any kind of issue with Grace?
I um, Dr. Reddy.
Yeah, he's a faculty advisor.
A few days ago,
I saw the two of them arguing.
Lieu, Long's alibi checks out.
He was in the infirmary all night,
hooked up to a banana bag.
His DNA was clear.
OK, what about this faculty advisor?
Dr. Aekansh Reddy
we tracked down
the security cam footage
of the fight that Long witnessed.
Looks like they're really going at it.
OK, not your average
student-teacher conference.
Do we know what they're arguing about?
Turns out,
Reddy's a controversial figure,
and our vic actually led
a student protest against him.
Tried to get his tenure revoked.
Our quiet med student tried
to get her advisor fired?
Why?
She went crazy when she found out that
he was a consultant
for federal penitentiaries.
He advised on lethal injections.
So you're a doctor who
specializes in killing people.
That's a gross oversimplification
of my work, Detective.
Seems pretty simple.
You help people die.
Die humanely.
Grace Zhou didn't see it that way.
Sometimes med students have
a very naive understanding
of how the real world works.
My job is to help execute people
society has already
condemned to death.
I'm just ensuring that medical
protocols are up to date
in order to minimize
their pain and suffering.
And Grace eventually began
to see it that way.
She saw the value in what I'm doing.
This look like
a kumbaya moment to you?
You've got it wrong.
I that wasn't about the petition.
Like I said, she and I had
patched things up.
Didn't look very patched up to me.
I was yelling about something else.
She had just informed me
that she was dropping out.
Grace was quitting medical school?
Yes.
And I thought that was a mistake.
I didn't want her
to throw her life away.
Obviously, I I got worked up,
but out of frustration, not anger.
Where were you
the night of her murder?
In Florida,
consulting on an execution.
I flew back yesterday.
Would you submit to a DNA test?
- Of course.
- OK.
Did Grace tell you
why she was dropping out?
No
but I have my suspicions.
She was interning at a research lab.
Lead researcher is a man
named Anton Visser.
She really admired him,
but something happened recently.
I mentioned his name last week,
and she said she didn't want
anything to do with him.
And then out of nowhere,
she decides to drop out?
She was sleeping with him,
and he dumped her?
Is that what you're saying?
What was your relationship
with Grace Zhou?
She worked here at the lab.
Were you two romantically involved?
- Excuse me?
- No, don't get offended, Doc.
We heard you guys were spending
a lot of late nights together.
Our relationship was
completely professional.
Grace was helping me review
some recent clinical data
for a new drug.
You don't have more qualified
staff for that?
She asked to be part of the review.
She was very invested
in this particular project.
Do you keep a stock
of sodium thiopental
here in the lab?
[TENSE MUSIC]
Yes. Why?
What about pancuronium bromide?
You got that?
Potassium chloride?
♪
Yeah, we're gonna need to see
an inventory list.
♪
I want a lawyer.
♪
That was quick.
Looks like you got another
late night ahead of you.
So
we searched your lab, Mr. Visser.
Dr. Visser.
Sure, whatever.
And do you know what we found?
Missing vials of sodium thiopental,
pancuronium bromide,
and potassium chloride,
all in the exact amounts
that were found
in the body of Grace Zhou
at the time of the murder.
My client had nothing to do with that.
Well, I think he did.
I think you had
an inappropriate relationship
with her, and she threatened
to expose you.
There was nothing sexual
or romantic between us.
I've done nothing wrong.
Then why is he here?
- I'm just being careful.
- Why?
Because I didn't report
the drugs missing.
Why is that?
I was hoping they were
just mislabeled or misplaced.
I was trying to track them down
before anyone noticed.
I was trying to avoid a scandal.
Grant money's hard to come by
these days.
But you and Grace did have
a falling out recently, correct?
We did, but it wasn't personal.
It was about the clinical trial
we were working on.
Can you be more specific?
We were developing a drug
to treat medication-resistant
depression.
We were trying to access
a different neural pathway
than other drugs
currently on the market.
But it failed.
And Grace blamed you for that?
No.
I decided to declare the trial
inconclusive
rather than publish the results.
OK, well, that sounds pretty shady.
Yeah, well, like I said,
grants are hard to come by these days.
To be clear, he did nothing illegal.
But this decision upset Grace.
It did, yeah.
I appreciated how invested
she was, but
listen, I didn't kill Grace.
Well, do you have an alibi
for 2:00 a.m. on the night
she was murdered?
I was at home, asleep.
Alone?
Yeah, well, that's not
a great alibi, Dr. Visser.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Visser's DNA doesn't match.
Yeah, CCTV footage
from the apartment lobby
shows him arriving
at 10:30 p.m. that night
and not leaving again
till the next morning.
I don't think he's our guy.
But the drugs found in Zhou's system
were from that lab,
so whoever murdered her
had to have access to it.
OK.
The lab requires all employees
to sign in and out.
I pulled the log.
OK, so
this is the day that Visser says
- he noticed the drugs missing
- Mm-hmm.
And that's the date
of the last inventory
prior to that.
So whoever our murderer is
had to have stolen them
in that window.
All right. Let me narrow the search.
This is everyone who came
and went in that time period.
Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.
Go back right there.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
See that?
Curtis Foster.
♪
Um, just [DOOR OPENS]
Hey. Sorry could this wait?
- I'm about to see a student.
- This won't take long.
We just need to clear up
a couple things,
- if you don't mind.
- About what?
You lied to us.
You told us you hadn't seen
Grace since you guys broke up,
but that's not exactly true,
now, is it?
You visited Grace
in her lab last week,
right around the time
the drugs that were found
in her system went missing.
You're gonna want to watch this.
♪
After you hung up with Grace,
you never went back in to the concert,
'cause you headed uptown,
same direction as her apartment.
I didn't do anything wrong.
OK. You want to prove it?
Submit to a DNA test.
Please, I
Look at this, Theo.
He's crying,
just like he did
the night he killed Grace.
Hey.
Curtis Foster's DNA was a match
to the fluid found at the crime scene.
Tears?
A killer with remorse is
better than one without.
Marginal, but still.
Pregnancy is making you soft already.
- Huh.
- What else do we have?
Oh, a few threatening emails
after the breakup.
"If you don't reconsider,
you're gonna end up dead,
and I will have blood on my hands."
Well, he really spelled it out,
didn't he?
Yeah. We can also prove that
he had opportunity to steal drugs
from the lab where Grace worked.
He lied to police about his alibi,
left the concert right after
she called him,
and headed in the direction
of her apartment.
Do you know why she called him?
No.
The evidence against him is strong.
Curtis Foster's just lucky
that New York State doesn't
have the death penalty.
Otherwise, there's a decent chance
we would be injecting him
with the same damn drugs
he used to help kill Grace.
The combination of drugs found
in Grace Zhou's body
is very specifically used
for one thing
executions.
On the night of September 12th,
the defendant showed up
to her apartment,
subdued her,
and injected her
with sodium thiopental,
knocking her unconscious.
He then injected her
with pancuronium bromide,
a paralytic agent,
rendering her immobile,
so completely helpless
to defend herself,
even if she had
regained consciousness.
Finally, he placed
a third needle into her vein,
and he shot her full
of potassium chloride,
a powerful drug that is meant
to cause cardiac arrest,
but as you may know,
when a lethal injection isn't
administered properly,
it fails to lead to death,
and instead,
the victim suffers immense
and unrelenting pain.
When she didn't die,
the defendant picked up a pillow
and smothered her to death
all of this to punish her
for breaking up with him.
Grace Zhou was 24 years old.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
And Curtis Foster stole it from her.
No, no. Let's leave the photo.
[TENSE MUSIC]
A lot of what the prosecution
just said is true.
Curtis Foster was in Ms. Zhou's
apartment that night,
and he ultimately did end her life.
But there was nothing cold
or calculated about it.
In fact, it was an act of love,
because Grace Zhou had asked him
to help her end her life.
This was an assisted suicide.
Objection, Your Honor.
[GAVEL BANGS]
Sustained.
Counselors, in my chambers.
♪
This is my suicide note or video.
Whatever.
I've decided to end my life.
[CLICKS]
It is clear
the defense intentionally
sat on this information.
They had plenty of opportunity
to raise it prior to now,
and it should be precluded
as a textbook example
of unfair surprise.
We have no obligation
to present information
that's readily available
to the prosecution
through other means.
The police did
a thorough investigation,
including reviewing
all of Grace's communications
by phone, by her computer,
by the cloud.
There was no trace of this video.
That's because Curtis stopped it
from uploading to the cloud.
But plenty of other evidence
of Grace Zhou's condition existed.
She had suffered severe
depression for years.
And that's why
she wanted to end her life.
She was in chronic, excruciating pain
with no available cure.
She begged for my client's help.
He reluctantly agreed.
She recorded the video on her phone
with the intent of leaving it
for authorities to find.
But when things went south
and he ended up using the pillow,
he took her phone with him
when he left the apartment.
No, no, no.
He didn't
he didn't leave the apartment.
He fled the crime scene,
because he committed murder.
New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act
went into effect
in August of this year,
making assisted suicide legal
for people with incurable diseases.
Depression doesn't qualify
under that law.
There's no language specifically
excluding mental illness.
The law requires that
the diagnosis be terminal with
a reasonable life expectancy
of six months or less.
We have a medical expert
who will testify that
her condition meets this definition.
Under what theory?
Doesn't the law also
require the patient
to be of sound mind?
Exactly. Thank you, Your Honor.
A mental health diagnosis is
de facto disqualified
because depression, by definition,
impacts capacity in this situation.
Your Honor, all we're asking is that
we be allowed to present our case.
[SIGHING]
- You OK?
- Yeah.
Just a little heartburn.
Nobody warned me,
but that's apparently
a thing that happens a lot
when you're pregnant.
How'd it go in there?
The judge is allowing them to present
an assisted suicide defense.
Well, did Zhou have
a terminal disease?
No, but she apparently suffered
- from severe depression.
- [LAUGHS]
No. What? That's not allowed.
I know, but the judge
doesn't seem to care.
So what are they gonna claim?
That her mental illness was so severe,
it was tantamount
to a terminal diagnosis?
Yeah, it sounds like it.
The good news is,
we have the law on our side.
Well, bad news is,
they got emotions on theirs.
They're gonna argue that
Grace was in severe pain,
that she wanted to die.
Therefore, Curtis is a saint,
not a killer.
So we need to provide
some emotion of our own.
We knew that Grace had
struggled at times, but
Um, what kind of struggles, exactly?
She could be sad.
She had very negative thoughts.
She would say terrible things.
That was just teenager stuff.
You know how they are at that age.
What age is that?
It started when she was 13 or 14.
It wasn't anything serious.
Nothing bad happened to her.
She was just moody.
It was hormones.
And she got through it.
It had passed.
So you didn't know
that your daughter was suicidal?
No.
We saw her a few days before,
and she was very happy.
Do you think there's a chance
the depression came back?
Maybe.
But if she told that boy
that she wanted to do that,
he should've told someone.
He should've told us,
not help her do it.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Does this mean
he's going to get away with
killing our daughter?
♪
We're gonna do everything in our power
to make sure that doesn't happen.
We will make it clear to the jury
he didn't have the right
to do what he did.
♪
Dr. Murano,
on top of limiting its scope
to terminal illnesses
with a life expectancy
of six months or less,
the new assisted suicide law
only allows for
self-administered
life-ending medication,
but that is not
what Grace Zhou died of,
- is it?
- No.
How long does it take
to suffocate someone with a pillow?
Because of the porous nature
of fabrics and cushions,
it can take as much
as 10 minutes, sometimes 15.
And what happens during that time?
The brain is deprived of oxygen.
The lungs fill with fluids.
Organs slowly shut down.
That sounds excruciating.
In this case,
she still would've been
paralyzed from the drugs
awake enough to know it was happening,
but unable to stop him.
I imagine it was very painful.
And what would have happened if, uh,
instead of suffocating her
when the drugs didn't work,
the defendant had called 911?
Objection. Calls for speculation.
There's no way for the witness
to know the answer to that.
Sustained.
But you can tell us
that Grace Zhou died
a long and agonizing death?
Almost certainly, yes.
By his hand.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
Dr. Murano, to say that
the drugs in Grace Zhou's
system didn't work
isn't entirely accurate, is it?
They may not have caused her death,
but they still would have had
an effect.
Yes. Uh, we've seen it before
when state executions have failed.
As her body fought off the drugs,
her nervous system would've
gone into overdrive.
She likely went into
uncontrollable seizures.
So it would have been
painful and excruciating
in its own right,
just not enough to kill her.
Yes.
Is it fair to say, then,
that my client was easing her pain
when he did what he did?
Mm, there are other ways to do that.
Well, speaking of pain, Dr. Murano,
are you aware of the pain
experienced by people
with chronic, severe,
drug-resistant depression?
I am aware of the clinical
diagnosis and its symptoms.
So you know excruciating pain was
Grace Zhou's constant
state of being, then?
Objection. Counsel is testifying.
Sustained.
No further questions.
♪
My wife and I, we loved our daughter,
and when her
difficulties started,
we were so confused.
And then we figured it out,
and we got help.
Professional help?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
It worked. She got better.
So were you surprised to learn
that she wanted to kill herself?
Of course.
The
She came to our house a lot
in the weeks before she died,
and she seemed
I I thought
it was finally behind us.
So she seemed happy?
Yes.
And if she had fallen
into one of her darker moods,
it was very recent.
And it would have passed.
The defense is claiming that
her depression was so severe
- that suicide was inevitable.
- No.
If we had known about it,
we could've saved her.
But he took away that chance.
Thank you. No further questions.
Mr. Zhou, let me start
by saying how sorry I am
for your loss.
Just ask your questions.
Fair enough.
[TENSE MUSIC]
You stated that
you were surprised to learn
your daughter wanted to end her life.
Yes.
Well, forgive me,
but that's a bit surprising,
given that she had attempted
suicide twice before
once five years ago,
then again two years ago.
Your Honor,
the defense would like this
marked as exhibit D.
♪
Mr. Zhou, do you recognize
these documents?
Yes.
These are hospital admission forms.
Objection.
Defense should've shared these
as part of pre-trial
reciprocal discovery.
These records were readily available
for the prosecution to find.
They had equal access.
Well, we didn't know
to look for them, Your Honor.
[SIGHS]
Overruled.
Continue, Ms. Fuller.
Mr. Zhou,
these forms were signed by you.
Both times your daughter tried
to end her life,
you were the one to take her in.
She accidentally took too many pills.
It it was a mistake.
Both times?
She had wanted this for years,
hadn't she?
She'd gotten better.
Obviously, that's not true, is it?
No further questions.
Mr. Price.
The prosecution rests, Your Honor.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Hey.
Why didn't you tell us
she had tried before?
It's a family matter private.
[SCOFFS] Well, it's very public now.
We were trying to protect
our daughter.
And we are trying
to get justice for her.
Lying to us only makes that harder.
Come on.
♪
Nolan, they're parents
grieving the loss of their only child.
Yeah, I know, I know.
But if we lose
and mental illness becomes
a basis for legal suicide,
there will be a lot of other parents
in this exact same situation.
♪
I'm the Kagan chair of neurological
and psychiatric science
at Princeton University.
I've spent my career studying
chronic severe depression,
and for the past year,
I was also Grace Zhou's psychiatrist.
What made Grace's situation unique?
Grace suffered from
treatment-resistant
chronic depression.
She had tried every pharmaceutical
and psychotherapeutical
treatment currently available
SSRIs, SNRIs,
tricyclic antidepressants,
ketamine therapy.
None of it had an effect.
So, essentially,
Grace's disease was incurable.
And debilitating.
What Grace experienced was
just as severe and unrelenting
as any terminal physical illness.
Dr. Woll, in your medical opinion,
was Grace Zhou's depression
a terminal disease?
Yes.
She had already attempted
suicide twice.
And you were her doctor.
Do you believe she was of sound mind
to make the decision to end her life?
In my professional estimation,
she was fully capable of making
the decision she made.
Thank you, Doctor.
No further questions.
Dr. Woll, isn't it true that
the American Medical Association
as well as the American
Psychiatric Association
have taken policy positions
opposing euthanasia
in mental health-related situations?
Yes, people have very strong opinions
on both sides of this issue,
but things are changing,
and there's a growing recognition that
if a condition is untreatable
You mentioned ketamine therapy.
That is relatively new.
That has helped people
who were previously diagnosed
as treatment-resistant, correct?
Yes, but it's also not helped people
who are treatment-resistant.
And yet, several
acquaintances described Grace
as being quite happy
in the days prior to her death.
Well, that's a common phenomenon.
Quite often, people in her position
experience euphoria
after making the decision
to end their life.
It's not that their pain is gone.
It's that their suffering
will soon be over.
You are legally obligated to report
if a patient tells you that
she's going to kill herself,
but you didn't do that with Grace.
Because she didn't tell me about it.
You say that her decision was
of sound mind?
She didn't tell me about it
because she knew
I was a mandatory reporter.
If anything, I
I think that's evidence
of how rational her choice was.
Rational? OK.
Grace was 24,
her prefrontal cortex wasn't
fully developed,
and you want us to believe that
she was capable of making
a rational choice?
Grace was determined to end her life,
regardless of your
or my opinion on the matter.
But she didn't take her life.
The defendant did.
- Objection.
- Sustained.
Nothing further.
Ms. Fuller, call your next witness.
The defense calls Curtis Foster.
I met Grace when she was
considering a psych rotation.
I I didn't know it at the time,
but all of her academic
pursuits were an attempt
to understand
what was happening to her.
How did you react
when she told you
she wanted to end her life?
I freaked out.
I argued with her.
I begged her to talk to a counselor.
Were you the one who stole
the lethal injection drugs?
No.
That was all Grace.
I went with her.
I tried to talk her out of it,
but there was no stopping her.
Can you tell us about
the night Grace died?
Uh, she called me.
Said it was time.
She asked me to be there.
She said she didn't want to die alone,
and I couldn't say no.
But, um, something went wrong.
She was shaking,
and it was, like, spasms,
and she was moaning,
and the sounds it was
Um, she was in pain,
so I did what I thought
what I know she wanted me to do.
Well, up until that point,
you hadn't done anything wrong.
You could've just left her there,
walked away, or called 911.
I knew she'd be institutionalized,
and her suffering would be prolonged.
And then down the line,
she'd do it again.
She wouldn't stop trying
until it was done.
This way spared her more pain.
I could give her that.
You risked your own freedom,
your whole life to give her that.
I loved her.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Before the injections,
you helped her
to film a video, correct?
Yes.
I want to be very clear.
I am the one making this choice.
Every day for over 10 years,
it has taken every ounce
of strength I have
to even get out of bed.
♪
I'm so tired of feeling like this.
[CRYING] I hurt.
I can't do it anymore.
♪
Papa, Mama, I'm sorry.
I tried to be strong for you.
I tried to tell you before.
♪
You couldn't hear me.
So now I just want to say goodbye.
♪
I'm sorry.
I love you so much.
♪
No further questions.
♪
Mr. Foster,
the new assisted suicide law
allows a physician
to legally prescribe
life-ending medication
for a terminally ill patient
for them to self-administer.
- Are you a physician?
- No.
Did you use a pillow
to suffocate Grace Zhou?
Yes, but
Nothing further.
The defense rests, Your Honor.
♪
Ms. Maroun?
Mrs. Zhou, hi.
How are you holding up?
Do you have a moment?
Yes.
Yes, of course.
How far along are you?
About 20 weeks.
Get ready.
For the rest of your life,
your heart is gonna live
outside your body
and inside someone else's.
It's terrifying and exciting
and scary and incredible.
When Grace was born,
I had this overwhelming reaction.
I just needed her to be
near me at all times.
She was just so fragile.
I wanted to protect her,
to keep her safe.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
We're doing everything we can
to get her justice.
[CRYING] We didn't realize
Grace was in so much pain.
In our culture,
there are just certain things
we don't talk about.
♪
My little girl was hurting,
and I couldn't help her.
Hey
you did the best you could.
She knew that.
♪
I'm not saying I could've done
what Curtis did
but I understand why he did it,
and I don't think
he should be punished for it.
♪
Thank you.
Hey.
[HORN HONKING]
So Grace's parents want us
to drop the charges.
- What? Now?
- Yeah.
I think they finally accepted
that this is what Grace really wanted.
I understand,
but that has no legal bearing on this.
Yeah, I know.
If I'm being honest,
when I look at Curtis,
I don't see a killer.
He's not a threat to society.
He's not gonna kill someone else.
And if that's
what Grace's parents want,
if they don't want him
to be punished, then
No, there's more at stake here
than our placating Grace's family.
No, I'm not saying
we drop the charges,
but maybe we can offer
a manslaughter plea.
This case is too important,
Sam, and it's too dangerous.
If we cut Curtis a break, God knows
more young people will start
asking their boyfriends
and their girlfriends
to end their lives.
No, we have to see this through.
[CELL PHONE DINGS]
Jury's back.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
In the charge
murder in the second degree,
we find the defendant,
Curtis Foster, guilty.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
the court thanks you for your time.
- [SIGHS]
- You are now dismissed.
[GAVEL BANGS]
♪
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
♪
It's the right result, Sam.
Wish it felt that way.
♪
sync & corrections awaqeded
[WOLF HOWLS]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪