Law & Order: Los Angeles (2010) s01e02 Episode Script
Echo Park
OFFICER: Ma'am, there's no drinking allowed on the beach.
Since when? Your ID, please.
Sorry.
I've been away.
Just empty it out.
You're around decent people now.
You got to follow the rules.
(WHISTLING) (WHISTLING CONTINUES) (MUTTERING) (WHIMPERING) REX: Another sunny day at the beach.
I count five stab wounds so far.
Plus a mastectomy scar on her chest.
Breast cancer.
Poor woman brought her Tamoxifen to the beach.
Poor woman also did time.
You call it in? Yeah.
Stopped her about an hour before for drinking on the beach.
Jane Lee Rayburn.
You know who she was, right? The Echo Park Tribe.
The cult who killed those families in the '70s.
She was released after a 30 year stretch.
TJ: Looks like she left in a hurry.
"Achieving serenity in troubled times.
" Well, she's got it now.
REX: Coroner says she bled out on the spot.
The blade was short and curved.
Fifty feet from a beach full of citizens.
None of them looking in the right direction.
Got some nice video.
Lots of skin but not one shot of our victim.
Baby Jane Lee Rayburn.
She was a 17-year-old runaway in 1979.
That was the 10th anniversary of the Manson Family murders and the Echo Park Tribe celebrated by killing six people on a picnic.
Killed a family of five the next night in a house in Silver Lake.
I was nine when it happened.
My parents wouldn't let me out on my own until they made arrests.
Eleven victims.
You think that would rate life with no parole.
It did.
The tribe's leader, Denis Alan Watson, he's still in the can.
Baby Jane was paroled last year on compassionate grounds.
This scrawl REX: It was written in blood.
Pull up the photos from the Echo Park crime scenes.
Click that one.
Oh.
Looks like somebody waited Cancer wasn't quick enough.
HEATHER: It's unbelievable.
I talked to Jane just last week.
I kept telling her, be careful.
But she was all, "La-di-da, "the universe will take care of me.
" No, the universe isn't that forgiving.
No kidding.
They even threatened me for representing her at her parole.
Ms.
Rayburn get any threats lately? She didn't say but sometimes I'd get one for her on my voicemail.
Comes with the territory, no? Taking Baby Jane Rayburn on as a client? My dad was her lawyer at the original trial.
And I expected her to live up to her rep, a manipulative sadist.
Instead I found a sad woman full of remorse.
Yeah.
Terminal illness will do that to you.
Since she's been out, she's been speaking to high school kids, girls at risk.
This was from two weeks ago.
MALE VOICE ON VOICEMAIL: I hope your fancy friends in Beverly Hills, who give you money to defend scum like Baby Jane, are real proud of you.
It makes me sick that she's living in some cozy apartment in Venice, buying drugs at the corner CVS with her Medi-Cal card.
She should die in agony just like the people she killed.
(BANGING ON DOOR) TJ: Henry Franklin! Police! Open up! We have a warrant.
OFFICER 1: Clear! OFFICER 2: All clear! "The only survivor was the Davis' 4-year-old son Henry, "who witnessed the killings while hiding in a bedroom closet.
" Henry Davis.
Franklin must be his adopted name.
Guy's been reliving it for 30 years.
Hey, 10:00 a.
m.
yoga, Medical Clinic.
Jane Rayburn's daily schedule.
Fifteen minutes for $20.
Come on, ladies.
These hands are magic.
Mr.
Franklin.
My permit's on the chair.
We can talk on the way to the car.
This is about Baby Jane Rayburn, right? It's okay.
I've been expecting you.
Hands on your head.
Yeah, I got her.
I got Baby Jane.
I finally killed her.
I finally paid her back, that sick bitch! I did what the state of California couldn't.
I put the death penalty on Baby Jane.
I'm only sorry I can't do the same to the rest of the Tribe.
You know, I spent four hours hugging my mother, trying to wake her up after they were gone.
TJ: We know, Henry.
We saw the newspaper clips at your apartment.
Why don't you tell us about the day she was killed.
The day was (CLEARS THROAT) It was a Thursday, so she was at her medical clinic on 4th.
I was trying to keep an eye on her.
And then I followed her to the beach.
The knife.
You always carried it or was this the first time? Always.
I was waiting for my moment.
Where did you get the knife? Kitchen drawer, just a regular knife.
Like a steak knife, you mean? Yeah, like that.
Regular steak knife.
I think, maybe I've said enough.
I guess he didn't get the memo about a short curved blade.
He's not reading like the doer.
Or so he'd like us to think.
He'd like us to think he had the balls to avenge his family.
Well, until we're sure what game Mr.
Franklin is playing, see if you can put him at the scene.
SIMKIN: No, I've never seen any of them before.
Did Ms.
Rayburn mention anyone following her to her appointments? Following? No.
REX: There was something else? A couple of weeks ago, she asked me if the Tamoxifen she was taking could cause auditory hallucinations.
I told her it wasn't a known side effect.
She was hearing things? Whistling.
She thought someone was whistling at her.
(WHISTLING ON VIDEO) TJ: I can't see who's doing it.
It's what freaked her out.
Maybe it's some kind of signal.
Something to do with the Echo Park Tribe.
Well, we know where to find people who can tell us.
SALLY: Baby would have been better off dying in the prison hospital.
I never even go to the parole hearings anymore.
No one ever has a good thought for us.
Can't imagine why.
Hey, those people in Echo Park and in the house, they were a bunch of life sucking germs.
You're not going to guilt me about that now.
It's water under the bridge now, Ms.
Ricks.
It's not why we're here.
Right.
Who killed Baby Jane, the psycho-bitch? I'd like to play you something.
(WHISTLING ON TAPE) What the hell? Where did you get that? You recognize it? It's some kind of signal? Yeah, smart cop.
It's the signal we had in the tribe, when we were running in the dark.
Now where did you get it? It was on a video taken at the beach just before Jane was killed.
Oh, man.
It's Denis.
He got her.
Denis Watson? Why would he hurt Jane? She never testified against him.
That was before Jane got all soft.
That's why they let her out.
Maybe Denis thought she was going to turn on him.
Sally, Watson's doing life at the ding-wing at Vacaville.
You don't know what he can do.
You don't know how powerful he is.
You might even be working for him, without even realizing it.
I can't be in here with you anymore.
Guard! Guard! (CRYING) You got to get me out of here.
Guard! I want to go back to my cell.
Well, partner, we're in the ding-wing now.
You must be crazier than me to think I had anything to do with that killing.
Case you didn't notice, I'm in a hole.
See, nobody has anything to say to me.
And I don't got anything to say to anybody.
REX: Well, that may be, Denis, but if you did pull it off, if you reached out to somebody on the outside, it would speak to your power.
I have no power.
I've been telling you people that for 30 years.
So you say.
You listen to this.
This was taken just before Jane was murdered.
(WHISTLING) That's nice.
TJ: Nice? That somebody remembers.
Or maybe somebody killed Baby Jane to impress me.
Either way, it doesn't make me responsible.
Ideas are like children.
They go where they want.
(DOOR LOCK BUZZING) Last chance, Denis, if you contracted this killing, we will find out.
Then it's no more psych ward for you.
In case you didn't notice, the death penalty's back on.
(LAUGHING) That's all of it for the last year.
Fan mail, that's touching.
Watson used to get five times this much every month.
How many of these has he read? None.
He lost his mail privileges 10 years ago.
He can correspond with his lawyer and a brother in Virginia, but that's it.
We're going to need copies of all these.
You got to wonder, how did Watson turn these girls into killers when it practically took a SWAT team to get your kids to bed? He's a better con man than me.
Con man? Some of his fans call him a prophet.
That's another word for a con man.
Partner, you are one blaspheming son of a bitch.
Hi, baby.
Hey.
Hey, TJ.
Hi.
Kids go to bed already? Like a charm.
He's lying.
I know he is.
Might have something here.
"I'm talking about one particular J-Cat bitch "in the pound needs to get hot-walked.
" Okay, pound is prison.
But dogs don't get "hot-walked.
" Horses do.
That's how they cool them down when they come off the track.
"Someone should stop Baby from barking "before she makes a mess for you.
" Baby.
Baby Jane.
Sounds like they're trying to provoke Watson into having her killed.
Where was it sent from? Postmark is Westwood a year ago.
But the lingo is straight from the state pen.
Could be somebody that was on the inside with Jane wrote it, had it smuggled out to Watson.
Maybe Vacaville can lift a print off the original.
RACHEL: I visit a lot of prisons.
I interview inmates who've asked the Innocence Coalition to review their cases.
You're a lawyer? Law student.
Second year.
Any inmates ever give you a letter to mail for them? What's this about? I have a right to know.
We're investigating the murder of Jane Lee Rayburn last week in Venice.
She was a member of the Echo Park Tribe.
ROMAN: Rachel, is everything okay? REX: Sir, this is a private matter.
If it's about her activities while working for the Innocence Coalition then it's my business.
I run the coalition.
I'm the lawyer of record.
Prints found on a letter mailed to a murder suspect matched the prints Ms.
Forester gave when she got her Department of Corrections pass.
What was in the letter? A murder solicitation addressed to Denis Alan Watson.
Were Rachel's prints on the letter or the envelope? The envelope.
So, no reason to assume she knew what was in the letter.
We still need the name of the inmate who gave it to her.
I'm advising her not to answer that.
You know corrections keeps a record of all the inmates you visited? ROMAN: Yes.
I guess you've got a lot of hard work ahead of you.
I got a Maura Dillon.
Rachel Forester visited her four times up in Chino.
Before that, Dillon was in Chowchilla for three years, same time as Jane Rayburn.
What was she in for? Arson.
Killed her two kids.
She did six years but last spring the Innocence Coalition got her conviction overturned for prosecutorial misconduct.
She lives in Mar Vista awaiting a new trial.
Ten minutes drive from Venice Beach.
We should see how she's holding up.
(DOOR CLOSING) I was in the same block as Jane in Chowchilla.
I'm sorry she's dead, but I don't see what it has to do with me.
We're talking to everyone who knew her.
Have you been in touch since you've been out? No.
I've had other things on my mind.
We can imagine.
MAURA: Yeah.
You can get over a lot of things, losing your children isn't one of them.
I thought that's why you were here, to reinvestigate the fire.
No, Ma'am.
How did you get along with Jane? Fine.
More than fine.
She was almost like a mother to me.
I was a mess.
I'd lost my kids.
I was wrongfully convicted.
I didn't belong in prison.
We should tell you we've been talking with Rachel Forester about a letter she was asked to mail to Denis Watson.
I know you're doing your job, but I will not keep talking to you without a lawyer.
I already spent six years in prison for something I didn't do.
Those are nasty looking scars.
They're from the fire when I was trying to save my daughters.
I need to get to work.
Thanks for your time.
Burns from a house fire.
More likely from someone using her as an ashtray.
WARDEN: Five times with a cigarette.
That's how they brand the fresh meat in here.
Any record who did this to Maura Dillon? Well, she shared a cell with Jane Lee Rayburn for three years.
Everyone knows what Jane was like back then.
"Like a mother," according to Maura.
Coming from a woman who killed her kids, I'd take that with a grain of salt.
Five months in, Maura filed paper on Jane for repeated physical and sexual abuse.
Maura alleged that Jane burned her, beat her with a bucket, raped her with a mop until her uterus bled.
They were cellies for three years.
Why didn't you switch them out? Because a week later she withdrew her complaint and refused to transfer.
Can I see this complaint she wrote? Thank you.
REX: Block letters are the same as the letter to Watson.
And they all spell probable cause.
These photos, guilty conscience or denial? REX: Either way that's not our case.
These plants were cut with a pruning knife probably within the last week.
You spend way too much time gardening.
Maybe you should, too.
Didn't we say our weapon was a short curved blade? I don't have a knife like that.
I can't even picture what you're describing.
We searched your house.
Didn't find the knife but did find this on your computer.
A picture your neighbor took.
So where's the knife now? I don't know.
What's it matter? It matches the knife used to kill Jane.
No.
This isn't fair.
This can't be happening to me again.
Maura, we know what Jane did to you in prison.
We have your complaint.
You're twisting things all around.
And that photo, you faked it! Just the same way they faked evidence to make it look like I killed my girls.
Maura, let's stay focused on Jane.
(DOOR OPENS) Ms.
Dillon's lawyer's here.
All right, party's over.
My client's invoking.
Fine with us.
We're placing her under arrest.
What? Oh, god, no.
No! This isn't fair.
This isn't fair! ROMAN: It's okay, Maura.
Her.
I know her.
She's a cop.
She's one of the cops who framed me.
She had me in a room just like that one.
Okay.
Time to go.
Is this your desk? Yeah.
And the woman in the photo? It's my wife.
Detective Casey Ryan, retired.
Ryan.
Well, then you've got a problem, Detective.
Detective Ryan was one of the cops who sent my client to prison six years ago on a coerced confession.
I wasn't even the primary on the case.
Four other detectives talked to her after I did.
It's insane that we're even talking about this.
Well, she's getting a new trial, on account the D.
D.
A.
in the first trial was sleeping with the judge.
You didn't hear? You know I stopped reading the news after I had the baby.
So nobody coerced her to get a confession.
Is she saying somebody did? Doesn't matter what she said, I don't want you getting hurt.
Maura killed her girls because they were keeping her from a rich boyfriend.
She confessed and the arson report backed it up.
End of story.
End of story.
ROMAN: You're off to a great start, Mr.
Dekker.
A case fabricated by the husband of a cop who helped frame my client six years ago.
Will the D.
D.
A.
who played footsies with the judge be helping you? That gentleman's long gone from our office.
Ms.
Stanton and I will be prosecuting your client.
By the book, from arraignment to conviction.
Don't get ahead of yourselves.
LAUREN: Item one, a statement from your law student admitting Ms.
Dillon asked her to mail a murder solicitation to Watson.
Item two, a lab report matching a hair found on the victim to your client's hair.
Any time you want to discuss a plea, raise your hand.
Not a chance.
Take that lab report.
Let's say Maura and Jane did meet that day, the hair was transferred when they hugged.
No.
Enough.
No more lies.
I (WHISPERING) Okay.
Let's concede for the moment that you might be able to make the leap and prove that my client killed Jane Lee Rayburn.
More of a hop than a leap.
Let me give you a preview of the story the jury's going to hear.
Six years ago, after losing her children in a terrible fire, my grief stricken client was coerced into a false confession.
Then wrongfully convicted in a trial in which the prosecution was literally in bed with the judge.
No bearing on this case.
Except it led to my client being locked up in a cell with a cold-blooded sadist who tortured and violated her in every way known to man.
She suffered incalculable psychological trauma.
The state of California turned your client into a killer? Juries don't go for that.
They will.
They won't have a choice.
I'm going to take the system apart.
Maura Dillon has one thing in her favor, no jury's going to care too much about what happened to Jane Rayburn.
Murder is murder.
We need to kick out the main leg of Dillon's defense, that she was wrongly convicted for the arson.
You want us to reopen the case? Not you, Detective.
You've got a conflict.
The initial arson investigation was conducted by a deputy fire marshal named Abner Featherstone.
The truth, and I don't care whose toes you step on.
I've investigated nearly 800 suspicious fires, most of them turned out to be arson.
That one was a classic example.
Show us.
Here, pour patterns left by liquid accelerants, burn trailer to the kids' bedroom.
The living room, you mean, where the kids were found.
Right, the living room.
There was a V-shaped soot pattern pointing to where it started in the hall.
You say most of the cases you investigate turn out to be arson.
Isn't the average in the trade about 50%? And when you did the Dillon case, how many fires had you investigated? Well, that was pretty early on, but I must have done at least a dozen by then.
I'm due in Encino.
Thanks for lunch.
So much for the great Abner Featherstone.
You see that? Black soot smudges? Exactly.
Featherstone said he found brown stains where Maura Dillon poured accelerant on the floor.
But accelerant doesn't leave stains like that.
Rust and charred debris mixed with water do.
From fireman's hoses.
Featherstone made a mistake.
Featherstone made a hundred mistakes.
This fire wasn't arson.
It was caused by a short in a kitchen appliance.
BUCKLEY: I don't care how many arson hotshots you line up.
The woman gave me a statement.
She had details only the person who set the fire could've known.
Details like the nail polish remover she said she used to start the fire? Turns out there was no nail polish remover.
She mixed up one detail.
This happens to be the same detail Featherstone got wrong in his preliminary report.
Whoa.
I didn't feed her any information from that report.
Maybe somebody else did.
(SIGHS) She was talking to other detectives at least six hours before I came in.
You told us she confessed to you.
The one who had the rapport with her was this young lady, Detective Ryan.
After she was done, Maura was good to go.
You're suggesting Detective Ryan coached her? She was the cherry on the squad with the most to prove.
Good luck.
So this is who we're prosecuting? A grieving mother, falsely imprisoned, who killed the mass murderer who raped and tortured her for three years.
This is going to be some rock to push uphill.
You get to tell the boss all about it.
You couldn't just try her for the Rayburn murder, hmm? You had to jam a stick up a hornet's nest.
She didn't kill her kids.
She didn't belong in prison.
It's better that we find out now than in the middle of trial.
We're going to make this thing go away.
You're going to offer Dillon declare victory and get out.
What, a slap on the wrist for a textbook, first degree murder? Right after we apologize to her for her wrongful conviction? No, no, we're not going to apologize.
No.
The official position of this office is that we're considering re-filing the arson case.
In time, people will forget about it and that case will go away.
Whose ass are we covering here? It's already public knowledge that one of the D.
D.
A.
's from our office slept with the judge in that case.
That was not on my watch, Joe.
I cleaned out the bad apples.
Look, I'm concerned about the police department.
They don't need this black eye.
And we need their support.
So we give Maura Dillon what amounts to a walk for the crime she did commit.
But we don't exonerate her for the crime she didn't commit? That doesn't sound like good law to me.
It's not.
It's good politics.
So they found an expert to say it was a short.
Who cares? She confessed.
Mark Buckley told Stanton and TJ somebody primed her.
He said you were alone in the room with Dillon.
I told TJ it couldn't have gone down like that.
But you can't be sure.
Is there something you want to tell me? You know better than to ask me that.
I won't be the only one asking.
I need to check on the babies.
The offer on the table is 12-years-to-life to a plea to manslaughter.
ROMAN: So generous.
Any chance this has something to do with the rumors your office has a new arson report clearing my client in the death of her children? This isn't about that case.
This is about Jane Lee Rayburn whom your client hunted down and stabbed 14 times.
Still, we expect any plea on this case to include an admission by your office that she didn't kill her kids.
That's not going to happen, Mr.
Roman.
You've heard the offer in full.
You know I didn't kill my children.
I loved them more than anything.
ROMAN: Maura, let's do this first.
We'd consider eight years in medium security.
No! My family, people have to know I didn't kill my kids.
Who's going to tell them? ROMAN: Let's do this first.
Forget it.
Offer's off the table.
What? Everything? Everything.
The more I think about it, the more I realize a jury needs to decide this.
The lady deserves her day in court.
I gave you specific instructions to bury this.
We deserve our day in court, too.
(KNOCK ON DOOR) Well, now I know Roman's defense strategy.
He just served notice he intends to present evidence of intimate partner battering.
Between cell mates in state prison? How novel.
And smart.
It's worked for battered women who claim they killed their spouse in self-defense.
I got served when I got home with the kids.
You're a defense witness.
When her lawyer asks you about the confession, Dekker won't be able to stop him.
I know.
I'll do what I have to do.
Meaning what? I live in the real world.
So do I.
All right, you could get sued.
You could get brought up on charges.
We could lose everything.
We have a family.
I'm sorry, baby.
I just I want to protect you.
The People will prove that Ms.
Dillon stalked the victim for two weeks before cornering her in an underpass and, with clear premeditation, stabbing her 14 times.
Ladies and gentlemen, you will hear evidence from the defense about psychological trauma and abuse.
But the People will show that this was nothing more than revenge.
A cold-blooded settling of accounts between two ex-cons.
Good morning.
This trial represents the final act in a terrifying miscarriage of justice perpetrated on my client by the State of California.
Terrifying because it could happen to anyone here.
We will prove that after losing her daughters in a terrible fire, my client was wrongfully convicted of those deaths through police malfeasance and prosecutorial misconduct.
We will show how she was locked in a cell with a convicted mass murderer who for three years abused Maura in ways unimaginable.
We will present expert testimony that as a result of that abuse, Maura reasonably believed her life was in mortal danger and that she acted reasonably when she killed Ms.
Rayburn in defense of her life.
The defense subpoenaed my wife.
I heard.
There's nothing we can do about it.
They're going to try and jam her up on the confession.
Can they? She doesn't know I'm talking to you.
She's being hung out to dry.
She was a good cop.
CLERK: The Defense calls Casey Ryan-Winters.
Sidebar, Your Honor.
JUDGE: Let's hear it.
Your Honor, we object to this witness on the grounds of relevancy.
She's a retired police officer with no connection to the Rayburn homicide.
ROMAN: Her testimony is evidence of the wrongful conviction that put my client in a cell with Jane Rayburn.
Evidence of the events that culminated in her abuse by Ms.
Rayburn.
Fine.
I'm going to allow it.
Swear in the witness.
CLERK: Raise your right hand.
Your Honor, the People will stipulate that as a result of evidentiary mistakes and prosecutorial misconduct, Ms.
Dillon was wrongly convicted of the arson.
That she did not kill her children.
And further, if not for that conviction, she would never have been imprisoned with Jane Rayburn.
Are you sure you want to do that, Mr.
Dekker? Yes.
Absolutely sure, Your Honor.
Mr.
Roman, do you accept his stipulation? Yes, Your Honor.
I no longer see the relevance of this witness.
The witness is excused.
Thank you, Ma'am.
Your Honor, we're going to need a recess to line up our next witness.
Granted.
Court will reconvene at 1:00 p.
m.
Though extreme in its severity, her abuse was typical of what these victims suffer.
With one tragic exception.
She didn't choose to be in a relationship with Jane Rayburn.
The State of California made that decision for her.
Could you describe how this abuse affected my client's perceptions and behavior? She had depression and post-traumatic stress, very common among abuse victims.
And then the fact that she felt victimized by the system that put her in prison, convinced her that she only had herself to rely on to defend her life.
Is that belief common among abuse victims? Many never find a way to break the cycle of abuse.
Only the healthier people think to fight back.
Dr.
Gouldin, isn't it true that the defendant killed Ms.
Rayburn three years after the abuse had ended? It doesn't matter.
The trauma, the fear, can persist for years after the victims separate from their abusers.
So in many ways Jane Rayburn sealed her fate over three years ago.
And it's your opinion that this fear, this belief that their life is in danger is what drives abuse victims to kill their abusers.
Yes.
They see it as the only way to save their life.
That's what drives them? Thank you, Doctor.
When Jane found out I put in a complaint, she went into a rage.
She beat me.
She said she'd have me killed no matter where they put me.
I believed her.
I was scared of Jane all the time.
And worse than the rapes and beatings were the things she said, terrible things about my daughters, my children in heaven.
After three years they transferred me because of overcrowding.
Jane told me she could always find me.
What, if anything, changed after you were released from prison? I still felt the same.
Everywhere I went I saw people who looked like her.
Then I heard she was already out.
I started getting panic attacks.
What did you decide to do? I couldn't wait for her to come after me.
I had to protect myself.
So I found Jane, and I followed her.
I killed her before she could hurt me.
I didn't ask to be put in a cell with Jane.
I just tried to do the best I could, to survive.
But it was too much.
I had to save myself.
Your witness.
I am very sorry for your ordeal, Ms.
Dillon.
You mentioned your children in heaven.
You believe that, don't you? That your babies are up in God's house looking down on you? Yes, I do.
I'm sure they are.
You still think about them? Yes.
Every hour, every day.
You think about the things you'd say to them if they were still alive? I feel like they're here right now, listening.
You'd try to teach them to be good people, wouldn't you? Yes.
That's what mattered to me.
You think of yourself as a good person, don't you? A good person who suffered a great injustice.
Yes.
And so you did.
When you began following Jane, she looked very different from the last time you saw her three years before, didn't she? Yes.
Maybe.
She'd lost a lot of weight.
Her hair had thinned out, she was frail.
She had surgery for cancer.
Not the way you remembered her, was she? No.
I guess not.
She was very sick and harmless, wasn't she? I couldn't be sure she was harmless.
Well, in the weeks you followed her, did you ever see her get into a fight with anyone or yell at anybody? No.
She was no threat to anyone, was she? This was a sick woman who was even afraid of a whistle.
Jane taught you that whistle, didn't she? The Echo Park Tribe whistle.
Yes.
When you followed her, you used it to disorient her, to frighten her.
I don't know.
I just used it.
Isn't that what you wanted? To make her afraid? To feel what you felt all those years? I don't know.
You wanted to pay her back.
Isn't that right? Because you were angry.
You were angry and you wanted revenge.
Your Honor, there's no question here.
JUDGE: Mr.
Dekker.
Maura, isn't telling the truth part of being a good person? It is.
Isn't it? Yes.
So what could you tell us? What would you tell your children, as they listen to you now, about what you did to Jane Rayburn? Mommy got mad and made a mistake.
Because you weren't afraid for your life, were you? No.
You were just angry at Jane, at the people who put you in prison.
Yes.
But you couldn't take it out on them, could you? So you put it all on Jane.
Yes.
That's why you killed her.
That's what was going through your mind when you stabbed her Oh, god.
I couldn't stop.
I was just so angry about everything that happened to me.
Losing my babies.
My life.
It wasn't fair.
It just wasn't fair.
Somebody had to pay.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I just wanted somebody to pay.
No more questions.
Twelve years? We might as well take our chances with the jury.
They heard your client.
I doubt they'll agree revenge is an acceptable defense.
That might not matter so much to them as the fact that Maura's already served six years for a crime she didn't commit.
Voluntary manslaughter with credit for time served.
She does the full six, no parole, no early release.
I am truly sorry for what happened to you.
But now everyone knows.
Six years? I declared victory and got out.
Everybody got their day in court.
I have to go to Parker Center and smooth some feathers.
Your stipulation didn't go over well with the Police Chief.
I am sure you will find a way to spin it to your advantage, sir.
So will you, Joe.
Nobody put a gun to Dekker's head, but he's a smart guy.
Figured the odds.
So what would you have said? Under oath? What do you think? The truth.
One way or the other.
Since when? Your ID, please.
Sorry.
I've been away.
Just empty it out.
You're around decent people now.
You got to follow the rules.
(WHISTLING) (WHISTLING CONTINUES) (MUTTERING) (WHIMPERING) REX: Another sunny day at the beach.
I count five stab wounds so far.
Plus a mastectomy scar on her chest.
Breast cancer.
Poor woman brought her Tamoxifen to the beach.
Poor woman also did time.
You call it in? Yeah.
Stopped her about an hour before for drinking on the beach.
Jane Lee Rayburn.
You know who she was, right? The Echo Park Tribe.
The cult who killed those families in the '70s.
She was released after a 30 year stretch.
TJ: Looks like she left in a hurry.
"Achieving serenity in troubled times.
" Well, she's got it now.
REX: Coroner says she bled out on the spot.
The blade was short and curved.
Fifty feet from a beach full of citizens.
None of them looking in the right direction.
Got some nice video.
Lots of skin but not one shot of our victim.
Baby Jane Lee Rayburn.
She was a 17-year-old runaway in 1979.
That was the 10th anniversary of the Manson Family murders and the Echo Park Tribe celebrated by killing six people on a picnic.
Killed a family of five the next night in a house in Silver Lake.
I was nine when it happened.
My parents wouldn't let me out on my own until they made arrests.
Eleven victims.
You think that would rate life with no parole.
It did.
The tribe's leader, Denis Alan Watson, he's still in the can.
Baby Jane was paroled last year on compassionate grounds.
This scrawl REX: It was written in blood.
Pull up the photos from the Echo Park crime scenes.
Click that one.
Oh.
Looks like somebody waited Cancer wasn't quick enough.
HEATHER: It's unbelievable.
I talked to Jane just last week.
I kept telling her, be careful.
But she was all, "La-di-da, "the universe will take care of me.
" No, the universe isn't that forgiving.
No kidding.
They even threatened me for representing her at her parole.
Ms.
Rayburn get any threats lately? She didn't say but sometimes I'd get one for her on my voicemail.
Comes with the territory, no? Taking Baby Jane Rayburn on as a client? My dad was her lawyer at the original trial.
And I expected her to live up to her rep, a manipulative sadist.
Instead I found a sad woman full of remorse.
Yeah.
Terminal illness will do that to you.
Since she's been out, she's been speaking to high school kids, girls at risk.
This was from two weeks ago.
MALE VOICE ON VOICEMAIL: I hope your fancy friends in Beverly Hills, who give you money to defend scum like Baby Jane, are real proud of you.
It makes me sick that she's living in some cozy apartment in Venice, buying drugs at the corner CVS with her Medi-Cal card.
She should die in agony just like the people she killed.
(BANGING ON DOOR) TJ: Henry Franklin! Police! Open up! We have a warrant.
OFFICER 1: Clear! OFFICER 2: All clear! "The only survivor was the Davis' 4-year-old son Henry, "who witnessed the killings while hiding in a bedroom closet.
" Henry Davis.
Franklin must be his adopted name.
Guy's been reliving it for 30 years.
Hey, 10:00 a.
m.
yoga, Medical Clinic.
Jane Rayburn's daily schedule.
Fifteen minutes for $20.
Come on, ladies.
These hands are magic.
Mr.
Franklin.
My permit's on the chair.
We can talk on the way to the car.
This is about Baby Jane Rayburn, right? It's okay.
I've been expecting you.
Hands on your head.
Yeah, I got her.
I got Baby Jane.
I finally killed her.
I finally paid her back, that sick bitch! I did what the state of California couldn't.
I put the death penalty on Baby Jane.
I'm only sorry I can't do the same to the rest of the Tribe.
You know, I spent four hours hugging my mother, trying to wake her up after they were gone.
TJ: We know, Henry.
We saw the newspaper clips at your apartment.
Why don't you tell us about the day she was killed.
The day was (CLEARS THROAT) It was a Thursday, so she was at her medical clinic on 4th.
I was trying to keep an eye on her.
And then I followed her to the beach.
The knife.
You always carried it or was this the first time? Always.
I was waiting for my moment.
Where did you get the knife? Kitchen drawer, just a regular knife.
Like a steak knife, you mean? Yeah, like that.
Regular steak knife.
I think, maybe I've said enough.
I guess he didn't get the memo about a short curved blade.
He's not reading like the doer.
Or so he'd like us to think.
He'd like us to think he had the balls to avenge his family.
Well, until we're sure what game Mr.
Franklin is playing, see if you can put him at the scene.
SIMKIN: No, I've never seen any of them before.
Did Ms.
Rayburn mention anyone following her to her appointments? Following? No.
REX: There was something else? A couple of weeks ago, she asked me if the Tamoxifen she was taking could cause auditory hallucinations.
I told her it wasn't a known side effect.
She was hearing things? Whistling.
She thought someone was whistling at her.
(WHISTLING ON VIDEO) TJ: I can't see who's doing it.
It's what freaked her out.
Maybe it's some kind of signal.
Something to do with the Echo Park Tribe.
Well, we know where to find people who can tell us.
SALLY: Baby would have been better off dying in the prison hospital.
I never even go to the parole hearings anymore.
No one ever has a good thought for us.
Can't imagine why.
Hey, those people in Echo Park and in the house, they were a bunch of life sucking germs.
You're not going to guilt me about that now.
It's water under the bridge now, Ms.
Ricks.
It's not why we're here.
Right.
Who killed Baby Jane, the psycho-bitch? I'd like to play you something.
(WHISTLING ON TAPE) What the hell? Where did you get that? You recognize it? It's some kind of signal? Yeah, smart cop.
It's the signal we had in the tribe, when we were running in the dark.
Now where did you get it? It was on a video taken at the beach just before Jane was killed.
Oh, man.
It's Denis.
He got her.
Denis Watson? Why would he hurt Jane? She never testified against him.
That was before Jane got all soft.
That's why they let her out.
Maybe Denis thought she was going to turn on him.
Sally, Watson's doing life at the ding-wing at Vacaville.
You don't know what he can do.
You don't know how powerful he is.
You might even be working for him, without even realizing it.
I can't be in here with you anymore.
Guard! Guard! (CRYING) You got to get me out of here.
Guard! I want to go back to my cell.
Well, partner, we're in the ding-wing now.
You must be crazier than me to think I had anything to do with that killing.
Case you didn't notice, I'm in a hole.
See, nobody has anything to say to me.
And I don't got anything to say to anybody.
REX: Well, that may be, Denis, but if you did pull it off, if you reached out to somebody on the outside, it would speak to your power.
I have no power.
I've been telling you people that for 30 years.
So you say.
You listen to this.
This was taken just before Jane was murdered.
(WHISTLING) That's nice.
TJ: Nice? That somebody remembers.
Or maybe somebody killed Baby Jane to impress me.
Either way, it doesn't make me responsible.
Ideas are like children.
They go where they want.
(DOOR LOCK BUZZING) Last chance, Denis, if you contracted this killing, we will find out.
Then it's no more psych ward for you.
In case you didn't notice, the death penalty's back on.
(LAUGHING) That's all of it for the last year.
Fan mail, that's touching.
Watson used to get five times this much every month.
How many of these has he read? None.
He lost his mail privileges 10 years ago.
He can correspond with his lawyer and a brother in Virginia, but that's it.
We're going to need copies of all these.
You got to wonder, how did Watson turn these girls into killers when it practically took a SWAT team to get your kids to bed? He's a better con man than me.
Con man? Some of his fans call him a prophet.
That's another word for a con man.
Partner, you are one blaspheming son of a bitch.
Hi, baby.
Hey.
Hey, TJ.
Hi.
Kids go to bed already? Like a charm.
He's lying.
I know he is.
Might have something here.
"I'm talking about one particular J-Cat bitch "in the pound needs to get hot-walked.
" Okay, pound is prison.
But dogs don't get "hot-walked.
" Horses do.
That's how they cool them down when they come off the track.
"Someone should stop Baby from barking "before she makes a mess for you.
" Baby.
Baby Jane.
Sounds like they're trying to provoke Watson into having her killed.
Where was it sent from? Postmark is Westwood a year ago.
But the lingo is straight from the state pen.
Could be somebody that was on the inside with Jane wrote it, had it smuggled out to Watson.
Maybe Vacaville can lift a print off the original.
RACHEL: I visit a lot of prisons.
I interview inmates who've asked the Innocence Coalition to review their cases.
You're a lawyer? Law student.
Second year.
Any inmates ever give you a letter to mail for them? What's this about? I have a right to know.
We're investigating the murder of Jane Lee Rayburn last week in Venice.
She was a member of the Echo Park Tribe.
ROMAN: Rachel, is everything okay? REX: Sir, this is a private matter.
If it's about her activities while working for the Innocence Coalition then it's my business.
I run the coalition.
I'm the lawyer of record.
Prints found on a letter mailed to a murder suspect matched the prints Ms.
Forester gave when she got her Department of Corrections pass.
What was in the letter? A murder solicitation addressed to Denis Alan Watson.
Were Rachel's prints on the letter or the envelope? The envelope.
So, no reason to assume she knew what was in the letter.
We still need the name of the inmate who gave it to her.
I'm advising her not to answer that.
You know corrections keeps a record of all the inmates you visited? ROMAN: Yes.
I guess you've got a lot of hard work ahead of you.
I got a Maura Dillon.
Rachel Forester visited her four times up in Chino.
Before that, Dillon was in Chowchilla for three years, same time as Jane Rayburn.
What was she in for? Arson.
Killed her two kids.
She did six years but last spring the Innocence Coalition got her conviction overturned for prosecutorial misconduct.
She lives in Mar Vista awaiting a new trial.
Ten minutes drive from Venice Beach.
We should see how she's holding up.
(DOOR CLOSING) I was in the same block as Jane in Chowchilla.
I'm sorry she's dead, but I don't see what it has to do with me.
We're talking to everyone who knew her.
Have you been in touch since you've been out? No.
I've had other things on my mind.
We can imagine.
MAURA: Yeah.
You can get over a lot of things, losing your children isn't one of them.
I thought that's why you were here, to reinvestigate the fire.
No, Ma'am.
How did you get along with Jane? Fine.
More than fine.
She was almost like a mother to me.
I was a mess.
I'd lost my kids.
I was wrongfully convicted.
I didn't belong in prison.
We should tell you we've been talking with Rachel Forester about a letter she was asked to mail to Denis Watson.
I know you're doing your job, but I will not keep talking to you without a lawyer.
I already spent six years in prison for something I didn't do.
Those are nasty looking scars.
They're from the fire when I was trying to save my daughters.
I need to get to work.
Thanks for your time.
Burns from a house fire.
More likely from someone using her as an ashtray.
WARDEN: Five times with a cigarette.
That's how they brand the fresh meat in here.
Any record who did this to Maura Dillon? Well, she shared a cell with Jane Lee Rayburn for three years.
Everyone knows what Jane was like back then.
"Like a mother," according to Maura.
Coming from a woman who killed her kids, I'd take that with a grain of salt.
Five months in, Maura filed paper on Jane for repeated physical and sexual abuse.
Maura alleged that Jane burned her, beat her with a bucket, raped her with a mop until her uterus bled.
They were cellies for three years.
Why didn't you switch them out? Because a week later she withdrew her complaint and refused to transfer.
Can I see this complaint she wrote? Thank you.
REX: Block letters are the same as the letter to Watson.
And they all spell probable cause.
These photos, guilty conscience or denial? REX: Either way that's not our case.
These plants were cut with a pruning knife probably within the last week.
You spend way too much time gardening.
Maybe you should, too.
Didn't we say our weapon was a short curved blade? I don't have a knife like that.
I can't even picture what you're describing.
We searched your house.
Didn't find the knife but did find this on your computer.
A picture your neighbor took.
So where's the knife now? I don't know.
What's it matter? It matches the knife used to kill Jane.
No.
This isn't fair.
This can't be happening to me again.
Maura, we know what Jane did to you in prison.
We have your complaint.
You're twisting things all around.
And that photo, you faked it! Just the same way they faked evidence to make it look like I killed my girls.
Maura, let's stay focused on Jane.
(DOOR OPENS) Ms.
Dillon's lawyer's here.
All right, party's over.
My client's invoking.
Fine with us.
We're placing her under arrest.
What? Oh, god, no.
No! This isn't fair.
This isn't fair! ROMAN: It's okay, Maura.
Her.
I know her.
She's a cop.
She's one of the cops who framed me.
She had me in a room just like that one.
Okay.
Time to go.
Is this your desk? Yeah.
And the woman in the photo? It's my wife.
Detective Casey Ryan, retired.
Ryan.
Well, then you've got a problem, Detective.
Detective Ryan was one of the cops who sent my client to prison six years ago on a coerced confession.
I wasn't even the primary on the case.
Four other detectives talked to her after I did.
It's insane that we're even talking about this.
Well, she's getting a new trial, on account the D.
D.
A.
in the first trial was sleeping with the judge.
You didn't hear? You know I stopped reading the news after I had the baby.
So nobody coerced her to get a confession.
Is she saying somebody did? Doesn't matter what she said, I don't want you getting hurt.
Maura killed her girls because they were keeping her from a rich boyfriend.
She confessed and the arson report backed it up.
End of story.
End of story.
ROMAN: You're off to a great start, Mr.
Dekker.
A case fabricated by the husband of a cop who helped frame my client six years ago.
Will the D.
D.
A.
who played footsies with the judge be helping you? That gentleman's long gone from our office.
Ms.
Stanton and I will be prosecuting your client.
By the book, from arraignment to conviction.
Don't get ahead of yourselves.
LAUREN: Item one, a statement from your law student admitting Ms.
Dillon asked her to mail a murder solicitation to Watson.
Item two, a lab report matching a hair found on the victim to your client's hair.
Any time you want to discuss a plea, raise your hand.
Not a chance.
Take that lab report.
Let's say Maura and Jane did meet that day, the hair was transferred when they hugged.
No.
Enough.
No more lies.
I (WHISPERING) Okay.
Let's concede for the moment that you might be able to make the leap and prove that my client killed Jane Lee Rayburn.
More of a hop than a leap.
Let me give you a preview of the story the jury's going to hear.
Six years ago, after losing her children in a terrible fire, my grief stricken client was coerced into a false confession.
Then wrongfully convicted in a trial in which the prosecution was literally in bed with the judge.
No bearing on this case.
Except it led to my client being locked up in a cell with a cold-blooded sadist who tortured and violated her in every way known to man.
She suffered incalculable psychological trauma.
The state of California turned your client into a killer? Juries don't go for that.
They will.
They won't have a choice.
I'm going to take the system apart.
Maura Dillon has one thing in her favor, no jury's going to care too much about what happened to Jane Rayburn.
Murder is murder.
We need to kick out the main leg of Dillon's defense, that she was wrongly convicted for the arson.
You want us to reopen the case? Not you, Detective.
You've got a conflict.
The initial arson investigation was conducted by a deputy fire marshal named Abner Featherstone.
The truth, and I don't care whose toes you step on.
I've investigated nearly 800 suspicious fires, most of them turned out to be arson.
That one was a classic example.
Show us.
Here, pour patterns left by liquid accelerants, burn trailer to the kids' bedroom.
The living room, you mean, where the kids were found.
Right, the living room.
There was a V-shaped soot pattern pointing to where it started in the hall.
You say most of the cases you investigate turn out to be arson.
Isn't the average in the trade about 50%? And when you did the Dillon case, how many fires had you investigated? Well, that was pretty early on, but I must have done at least a dozen by then.
I'm due in Encino.
Thanks for lunch.
So much for the great Abner Featherstone.
You see that? Black soot smudges? Exactly.
Featherstone said he found brown stains where Maura Dillon poured accelerant on the floor.
But accelerant doesn't leave stains like that.
Rust and charred debris mixed with water do.
From fireman's hoses.
Featherstone made a mistake.
Featherstone made a hundred mistakes.
This fire wasn't arson.
It was caused by a short in a kitchen appliance.
BUCKLEY: I don't care how many arson hotshots you line up.
The woman gave me a statement.
She had details only the person who set the fire could've known.
Details like the nail polish remover she said she used to start the fire? Turns out there was no nail polish remover.
She mixed up one detail.
This happens to be the same detail Featherstone got wrong in his preliminary report.
Whoa.
I didn't feed her any information from that report.
Maybe somebody else did.
(SIGHS) She was talking to other detectives at least six hours before I came in.
You told us she confessed to you.
The one who had the rapport with her was this young lady, Detective Ryan.
After she was done, Maura was good to go.
You're suggesting Detective Ryan coached her? She was the cherry on the squad with the most to prove.
Good luck.
So this is who we're prosecuting? A grieving mother, falsely imprisoned, who killed the mass murderer who raped and tortured her for three years.
This is going to be some rock to push uphill.
You get to tell the boss all about it.
You couldn't just try her for the Rayburn murder, hmm? You had to jam a stick up a hornet's nest.
She didn't kill her kids.
She didn't belong in prison.
It's better that we find out now than in the middle of trial.
We're going to make this thing go away.
You're going to offer Dillon declare victory and get out.
What, a slap on the wrist for a textbook, first degree murder? Right after we apologize to her for her wrongful conviction? No, no, we're not going to apologize.
No.
The official position of this office is that we're considering re-filing the arson case.
In time, people will forget about it and that case will go away.
Whose ass are we covering here? It's already public knowledge that one of the D.
D.
A.
's from our office slept with the judge in that case.
That was not on my watch, Joe.
I cleaned out the bad apples.
Look, I'm concerned about the police department.
They don't need this black eye.
And we need their support.
So we give Maura Dillon what amounts to a walk for the crime she did commit.
But we don't exonerate her for the crime she didn't commit? That doesn't sound like good law to me.
It's not.
It's good politics.
So they found an expert to say it was a short.
Who cares? She confessed.
Mark Buckley told Stanton and TJ somebody primed her.
He said you were alone in the room with Dillon.
I told TJ it couldn't have gone down like that.
But you can't be sure.
Is there something you want to tell me? You know better than to ask me that.
I won't be the only one asking.
I need to check on the babies.
The offer on the table is 12-years-to-life to a plea to manslaughter.
ROMAN: So generous.
Any chance this has something to do with the rumors your office has a new arson report clearing my client in the death of her children? This isn't about that case.
This is about Jane Lee Rayburn whom your client hunted down and stabbed 14 times.
Still, we expect any plea on this case to include an admission by your office that she didn't kill her kids.
That's not going to happen, Mr.
Roman.
You've heard the offer in full.
You know I didn't kill my children.
I loved them more than anything.
ROMAN: Maura, let's do this first.
We'd consider eight years in medium security.
No! My family, people have to know I didn't kill my kids.
Who's going to tell them? ROMAN: Let's do this first.
Forget it.
Offer's off the table.
What? Everything? Everything.
The more I think about it, the more I realize a jury needs to decide this.
The lady deserves her day in court.
I gave you specific instructions to bury this.
We deserve our day in court, too.
(KNOCK ON DOOR) Well, now I know Roman's defense strategy.
He just served notice he intends to present evidence of intimate partner battering.
Between cell mates in state prison? How novel.
And smart.
It's worked for battered women who claim they killed their spouse in self-defense.
I got served when I got home with the kids.
You're a defense witness.
When her lawyer asks you about the confession, Dekker won't be able to stop him.
I know.
I'll do what I have to do.
Meaning what? I live in the real world.
So do I.
All right, you could get sued.
You could get brought up on charges.
We could lose everything.
We have a family.
I'm sorry, baby.
I just I want to protect you.
The People will prove that Ms.
Dillon stalked the victim for two weeks before cornering her in an underpass and, with clear premeditation, stabbing her 14 times.
Ladies and gentlemen, you will hear evidence from the defense about psychological trauma and abuse.
But the People will show that this was nothing more than revenge.
A cold-blooded settling of accounts between two ex-cons.
Good morning.
This trial represents the final act in a terrifying miscarriage of justice perpetrated on my client by the State of California.
Terrifying because it could happen to anyone here.
We will prove that after losing her daughters in a terrible fire, my client was wrongfully convicted of those deaths through police malfeasance and prosecutorial misconduct.
We will show how she was locked in a cell with a convicted mass murderer who for three years abused Maura in ways unimaginable.
We will present expert testimony that as a result of that abuse, Maura reasonably believed her life was in mortal danger and that she acted reasonably when she killed Ms.
Rayburn in defense of her life.
The defense subpoenaed my wife.
I heard.
There's nothing we can do about it.
They're going to try and jam her up on the confession.
Can they? She doesn't know I'm talking to you.
She's being hung out to dry.
She was a good cop.
CLERK: The Defense calls Casey Ryan-Winters.
Sidebar, Your Honor.
JUDGE: Let's hear it.
Your Honor, we object to this witness on the grounds of relevancy.
She's a retired police officer with no connection to the Rayburn homicide.
ROMAN: Her testimony is evidence of the wrongful conviction that put my client in a cell with Jane Rayburn.
Evidence of the events that culminated in her abuse by Ms.
Rayburn.
Fine.
I'm going to allow it.
Swear in the witness.
CLERK: Raise your right hand.
Your Honor, the People will stipulate that as a result of evidentiary mistakes and prosecutorial misconduct, Ms.
Dillon was wrongly convicted of the arson.
That she did not kill her children.
And further, if not for that conviction, she would never have been imprisoned with Jane Rayburn.
Are you sure you want to do that, Mr.
Dekker? Yes.
Absolutely sure, Your Honor.
Mr.
Roman, do you accept his stipulation? Yes, Your Honor.
I no longer see the relevance of this witness.
The witness is excused.
Thank you, Ma'am.
Your Honor, we're going to need a recess to line up our next witness.
Granted.
Court will reconvene at 1:00 p.
m.
Though extreme in its severity, her abuse was typical of what these victims suffer.
With one tragic exception.
She didn't choose to be in a relationship with Jane Rayburn.
The State of California made that decision for her.
Could you describe how this abuse affected my client's perceptions and behavior? She had depression and post-traumatic stress, very common among abuse victims.
And then the fact that she felt victimized by the system that put her in prison, convinced her that she only had herself to rely on to defend her life.
Is that belief common among abuse victims? Many never find a way to break the cycle of abuse.
Only the healthier people think to fight back.
Dr.
Gouldin, isn't it true that the defendant killed Ms.
Rayburn three years after the abuse had ended? It doesn't matter.
The trauma, the fear, can persist for years after the victims separate from their abusers.
So in many ways Jane Rayburn sealed her fate over three years ago.
And it's your opinion that this fear, this belief that their life is in danger is what drives abuse victims to kill their abusers.
Yes.
They see it as the only way to save their life.
That's what drives them? Thank you, Doctor.
When Jane found out I put in a complaint, she went into a rage.
She beat me.
She said she'd have me killed no matter where they put me.
I believed her.
I was scared of Jane all the time.
And worse than the rapes and beatings were the things she said, terrible things about my daughters, my children in heaven.
After three years they transferred me because of overcrowding.
Jane told me she could always find me.
What, if anything, changed after you were released from prison? I still felt the same.
Everywhere I went I saw people who looked like her.
Then I heard she was already out.
I started getting panic attacks.
What did you decide to do? I couldn't wait for her to come after me.
I had to protect myself.
So I found Jane, and I followed her.
I killed her before she could hurt me.
I didn't ask to be put in a cell with Jane.
I just tried to do the best I could, to survive.
But it was too much.
I had to save myself.
Your witness.
I am very sorry for your ordeal, Ms.
Dillon.
You mentioned your children in heaven.
You believe that, don't you? That your babies are up in God's house looking down on you? Yes, I do.
I'm sure they are.
You still think about them? Yes.
Every hour, every day.
You think about the things you'd say to them if they were still alive? I feel like they're here right now, listening.
You'd try to teach them to be good people, wouldn't you? Yes.
That's what mattered to me.
You think of yourself as a good person, don't you? A good person who suffered a great injustice.
Yes.
And so you did.
When you began following Jane, she looked very different from the last time you saw her three years before, didn't she? Yes.
Maybe.
She'd lost a lot of weight.
Her hair had thinned out, she was frail.
She had surgery for cancer.
Not the way you remembered her, was she? No.
I guess not.
She was very sick and harmless, wasn't she? I couldn't be sure she was harmless.
Well, in the weeks you followed her, did you ever see her get into a fight with anyone or yell at anybody? No.
She was no threat to anyone, was she? This was a sick woman who was even afraid of a whistle.
Jane taught you that whistle, didn't she? The Echo Park Tribe whistle.
Yes.
When you followed her, you used it to disorient her, to frighten her.
I don't know.
I just used it.
Isn't that what you wanted? To make her afraid? To feel what you felt all those years? I don't know.
You wanted to pay her back.
Isn't that right? Because you were angry.
You were angry and you wanted revenge.
Your Honor, there's no question here.
JUDGE: Mr.
Dekker.
Maura, isn't telling the truth part of being a good person? It is.
Isn't it? Yes.
So what could you tell us? What would you tell your children, as they listen to you now, about what you did to Jane Rayburn? Mommy got mad and made a mistake.
Because you weren't afraid for your life, were you? No.
You were just angry at Jane, at the people who put you in prison.
Yes.
But you couldn't take it out on them, could you? So you put it all on Jane.
Yes.
That's why you killed her.
That's what was going through your mind when you stabbed her Oh, god.
I couldn't stop.
I was just so angry about everything that happened to me.
Losing my babies.
My life.
It wasn't fair.
It just wasn't fair.
Somebody had to pay.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I just wanted somebody to pay.
No more questions.
Twelve years? We might as well take our chances with the jury.
They heard your client.
I doubt they'll agree revenge is an acceptable defense.
That might not matter so much to them as the fact that Maura's already served six years for a crime she didn't commit.
Voluntary manslaughter with credit for time served.
She does the full six, no parole, no early release.
I am truly sorry for what happened to you.
But now everyone knows.
Six years? I declared victory and got out.
Everybody got their day in court.
I have to go to Parker Center and smooth some feathers.
Your stipulation didn't go over well with the Police Chief.
I am sure you will find a way to spin it to your advantage, sir.
So will you, Joe.
Nobody put a gun to Dekker's head, but he's a smart guy.
Figured the odds.
So what would you have said? Under oath? What do you think? The truth.
One way or the other.