I believe John Curtis may be innocent …
Summary: Don’s team has only a few hours to follow up a lead that might free a mob boss on death row.
Original air date: March 13, 2009 (US)
Written by: Robert Port
Directed by: Ralph Hemecker
Opening numbers:
3309: Death row inmates
1%: Innocent
Prisoner #45632: John Curtis
3.5: Hours until he dies
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Larry coached an intramural basketball team for CalSci in the past
- Colby is on a fishing trip
- Charlie, Larry and Alan are coaching the CalSci basketball team
- Don killed his first suspect when he worked for Fugitive Recovery
Episode Quotes:
- Larry: Is this tie really necessary?
Charlie: All aspects of the games are controlled by forces: look sharp, play sharp.
Larry: How about this annoying athletic supporter?
Charlie: That’s for the players, Larry.
Larry: Oh! - Robin: That was cheap!
Don: What are you talking about? Twelve percent is fine, that food was terrible!
Robin: OK well you don’t blame the waiter, you get mad a the chef.
Don: Yeah, but he’s got all the knives back there and my gun’s in the car. - Nikki: I think I saw this movie.
Don: Yeah? How did it end?
Nikki: This guy gets off death row, right, and goes on this killing spree … Right. I’ll go look for tire tracks. - Liz: How come everyone in LA sees a shrink?
Nikki: Ever try to find a parking spot at lunchtime?
Liz: Good point.
Episode Synopsis:
John Curtis, mob boss, is set to die by the state of California for the murder of Roger Webster, an assistant US attorney. Mere hours before the execution is to take place Don receives a call from a Dr Henry Stanley, Stanley states he has information for Don regarding Curtis but the phone disconnects before he can say anything. Don sends David and Nikki to Stanley’s office. When they arrive they find Stanley near death and the killer running away. David chases the suspect but is shot at as he leaves the building.
Robin is surprised Don is going to such effort to exonerate Curtis. She is convinced Curtis murdered Webster and she is satisfied justice will finally be done later that night. Don explains he has no choice, he has to investigate. The discussion, being held at the jail where Curtis is awaiting execution is interrupted by a young man trying to bully his way past a guard after setting off the alarm. Don intervenes and he finds out the man is Julien Curtis, John Curtis’ son. Robin states he doesn’t have a record, yet and Don let’s him go.
Looking through the evidence in the Webster case, Nikki can’t see how Curtis was convicted. David shows her the confession Curtis made. Once the confession was entered as evidence, everything else was simply accepted. David however is suspicious of it, but is sidetracked when Nikki arrives with evidence from the Stanley shooting that shows a police officer was in the area when David was shot at.
Charlie works out a way for Liz, Nikki and David to read notes left as imprints on one of the doctor’s pads as a way to try and recover information that was stolen by Stanley’s killer. Liz and Nikki start going through the names they can read and get two hits: Chucky Rollins and Danielle “Danny” Hill. Rollins is an associate of Curtis, while Hill is the LAPD officer who arrested Curtis for Webster’s murder four years ago. Nikki and Liz talk to Hill and Hill admits she was at Stanley’s office that afternoon, she says because Rollins was making complaints about her after she arrested him for a charge that was later thrown out.
Liz, Nikki and David arrest Rollins who states Curtis was with him the night Webster was killed and there’s no way Curtis could have killed him. This statement feeds into David’s suspicion about the confession and David asks Charlie to analyze the confession to see if Curtis was lying. Charlie is able to prove Curtis wasn’t telling the truth, but it wasn’t because the confession was coerced, there’s something else going on.
Nikki gets the ballistics report on the gun used in the Stanley shooting and again Danny Hill’s name comes up, she was the arresting officer in the case where the gun used was confiscated. Instead of the gun being destroyed, Hill stole it out of evidence lock up. When confronted, Hill states the FBI doesn’t have much of a case only to be proven wrong by Liz. Liz explains the FBI have figured out what happened four years ago when Webster was killed: it wasn’t John Curtis who shot the AUSA, with was his son Julien. Hill says she knew three years ago Julien killed Webster, but she didn’t care, John Curtis was the real problem, not Julien.
The FBI arrest Julien Curtis for the murder of Henry Stanley, but it’s still too late for John Curtis. He is executed as planned for the murder of Roger Webster, the call for a stay of execution comes too late.