Law & Order (1990) s24e02 Episode Script
The Perfect Man
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.
Get you anything else?
What do you think of these?
Nice.
Yeah, but what if you were the most
amazing woman in the world?
That is somehow insulting and charming
all at the same time. [LAUGHS]
I don't know.
They're not good enough.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Hiya, kid.
[GUNSHOT]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[SIRENS WAILING]
White male, 30s.
Jogger found him 6:05 a.m.,
give or take.
He's warm to the touch but DOA.
Called 911.
- Jesus.
- Agreed.
Shooter didn't police his brass
9-millimeter casing.
We're canvassing for witnesses,
cameras, but so far, no dice.
You got a name?
No wallet, no phone, no keys.
So we know nothing about this guy?
Except for the fact he had
a meal two days ago
at a place called Purple Waves Café.
It's a breakfast joint
over by Bryant Park.
Customer ordered oatmeal.
That doesn't exactly narrow it down.
Poached egg and cinnamon on top.
That does. Yuck.
That's Tyler.
- And who's Tyler?
- A regular.
That's his spot by the window.
Good dude, weird taste in breakfast.
You know Tyler's last name?
No, but that's his office
right over there.
So people really loved him, huh?
We all did.
What exactly did Mr. Miller do?
Started this company
more like an app that revolves around
an online character named ELI.
Does ELI stand for something?
Enigmatic Love Interface.
It's a dating app?
Kinda like Tinder?
Sort of.
Oh.
He was a romantic.
What Tyler Miller built
isn't really a dating site.
It's more like a revolution.
ELI is the perfect man.
So what you're saying
is that people date ELI?
You guys pretend to be some dude
on the other end of the phone?
No. The engine is AI.
And this is romantic?
ELI is profoundly meaningful
to a lot of women, including me.
But it's not a real guy.
Fine line today
between fantasy and reality
maybe no line at all.
Who thinks like that?
Tyler Miller.
Only Tyler Miller.
And I'm guessing
there's quite a few people
who were not thrilled
with this revolution.
You have no idea.
The company is called ELI,
the letters E-L-I,
like the name.
[GUNSHOTS, SCREAMING]
Oh, God. Please hurry.
I'm too young to die.
Please!
This call came into 911 five weeks ago.
And it's all fake?
Every bit.
Our vic's office was swatted
like this three times
in the last two months, and
every time officers pulled up,
they brought the whole damn cavalry,
and nothing was ever going on.
So some freak decides he's got
nothing better to do
than stage a fake shooting
at Miller's office.
Why?
I mean, the cops show up,
ruin the guy's day.
It's just a bad prank.
Listen to this 911 call
from three weeks ago.
The guy's name is Tyler Miller.
It's his company.
[GUNSHOTS, SCREAMING]
He's gone nuts.
He's shooting up the office.
Said he'll die
before he surrenders.
Whoever did that wanted the cops
to show up and kill Miller.
And when they didn't
Someone did it himself in the park.
Exactly.
And these calls were routed
through an untraceable number.
And at the time, that's when
the trail went cold.
But now that it's murder
We're on it.
I can't believe Tyler Miller is dead.
Wait, you don't think I
Well, you tell us, Ethan.
You're the one who filed
a lawsuit against Tyler Miller,
claiming that he stole
your code to build ELI, yeah?
So? He did.
The courts disagreed with you.
And then what happened?
When they dismissed your case,
you swatted his office.
Yeah, we traced
the 911 calls to your VOIP.
We traced the VOIP to your finsta.
You sued Tyler Miller, you lost,
and then you swatted him three times.
And then he's dead.
I didn't do this, I swear.
The kind of apps we build,
we're manipulating people.
You gotta be careful.
Isn't that what all social
media is manipulation?
Not like this.
We create fantasy, sell it as reality.
All the dating sites
are chasing this tech
so people don't have to
find their soulmate
they can create their soulmate.
None of them have launched yet
because everyone's struggling
with the power of this.
What about Tyler Miller?
Didn't care.
He didn't think there was
any difference anymore
between reality and fantasy.
If you're willing
to spend $79.99 a month,
he'd sell you the prettiest lie
you've ever heard.
So people started turning off
huge parts of their life,
the important stuff love, intimacy
like, for good.
- So you wanted him dead.
- No.
I never wanted to kill him.
No?
Then what were you trying to do?
Put the fear of God in him.
I wanted him to wake the hell up.
Just because we can do something
doesn't mean we should.
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Saradino's alibi is good.
Take a look at that.
Three days before the shooting,
a guy named Randall Doering
accosted Tyler Miller
in front of the ELI office,
- said he wanted to kill him.
- Hmm.
The security guards had to break it up.
We got an LKA?
Rego Park.
Wanna go for a ride?
You know I do.
People just don't connect
the way they used to.
It's easy to feel lost or lonely.
And an app is the answer for that?
For some people.
I mean, not me.
I still like hanging around
warm-blooded human beings,
but I don't know.
If Tyler Miller helped a few people
make some sense of connection,
then good for them.
That's our guy.
Randall Doering, NYPD.
Can I help you?
We wanna ask you some questions
about Tyler Miller.
- What about him?
- He's dead.
Dead?
Shot and killed yesterday
morning in Central Park.
What do you want me to do about it?
Well, you can start by telling us why
you stopped by his office
and threatened to kill him.
He ruined my life.
And how did he manage that?
Two months ago,
my fiancée left me for ELI.
Your fiancée left you for an app?
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Today is a big day.
You got your dog-and-pony
show for the board.
And I just want you to know,
you're gonna do great.
Call me as soon as it's over,
just because I like
to see you happy.
Oh, Melanie, you are
so pretty when you're happy.
Call me.
I love you.
ELI made that
specifically for your fiancée?
Just for her.
There's hundreds of 'em.
You don't know what it's like
competing with a machine.
ELI's a damn dream.
He sends my fiancée memes all day
perfectly aligned to her mood.
He's teaching her frickin' French.
I lost her to him.
So you wanted to kill
his creator, Tyler Miller?
I sure did. I just didn't have the guts.
Did you ever think to just
maybe ask your fiancée
to turn the damn thing off?
What are you talking about?
You can't.
Randall Doering's alibi checked out.
Yeah, and he's also not really wrong.
You go on Reddit, any of that stuff,
and it's kind of
an open secret about ELI.
You can insult him, you can ignore him,
but it's almost impossible
to break up with him.
Why? What happens if you try?
He just asks you how
he can be a better boyfriend
and better meet your needs.
So just delete the damn thing.
He'll find you someplace else
Snapchat, TikTok.
He might be the perfect man;
he's also kind of a creep.
You know, I really hate
to say "I told you so."
Then don't.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Somebody just turned on Miller's phone.
West and Barrow.
I'll text you the ping.
You can follow it live.
Yeah.
♪
[PHONE CHIRPING]
Where the hell is it?
♪
[LINE TRILLING]
♪
[LINE TRILLING]
♪
[BOTH GRUNTING]
Shaw!
Police!
[GROANING]
What? You're the police?
Yeah, we're the police!
- Now, get your ass up.
- [GROANS]
You got exactly one chance
to tell us how you ended up
with a dead man's phone. Talk.
- I traded for it, man.
- Oh?
- For what?
- I deal. Dope, okay?
I'm not Escobar.
I just sell enough
to support my own jones.
My buddy wanted to score.
He didn't have any cash.
He traded me that phone
for a jab of dope.
I lose a nickel bag,
I get a phone I can sell
for 20 bucks, man.
- That's just street math, man.
- All right. Who's your buddy?
He goes by Scratch.
There's a hangout by Roosevelt
Park under the bridge.
He's usually there.
That nickel bag you traded for,
did it have an insignia on it?
A pair of dice.
Snake eyes.
[SIRENS WAILING]
[CAR DOORS SLAMMING]
[TENSE MUSIC]
You know a guy named Scratch?
No.
Looking for a guy named Scratch.
You know him?
Never heard of him.
Shocker.
You know a Scratch?
♪
Hey, yo.
I'm not trying to heat you, but, uh
whose dope is that?
♪
NYPD.
We need to talk.
Scratch?
Whoa, whoa. No, no, no, no, no, no.
- It wasn't me, guys.
- Come on.
You got the wrong dude. Tell him.
- It wasn't me.
- Oh, yeah?
Yeah, we get that a lot.
Where'd you get the phone?
I hang out at the North Meadow dugouts.
I shoot up there sometimes.
- You were there yesterday.
- Yeah.
The sun was about to come up.
I heard a gunshot.
I poked my head out,
see what's going on.
Lady ran by me, crazy look on her face.
Whoa, whoa. Hold on.
A lady? Did she say anything?
No, she just ran off.
I went down the path where
she came running from, and
and I found a guy.
He was real dead.
And, uh, I was hoping
I could grab his wallet.
So you robbed a dead guy?
I ain't the pope, bro.
Dude didn't have a wallet on him,
but I found his phone under his body.
I took it. I traded it for some dope.
Can you describe the woman?
White, female,
athletic wear, a ponytail,
and green crossbody bag.
Yeah, at the very least,
this woman could be a witness.
At the most, she did it.
But we were able to pull some
ARGUS footage, and we got her.
6:03 a.m., right after the
shooting, and there she is
headed westbound on 97th.
Then we lose her on Columbus.
But check this out.
She threw something in the dumpster.
Maybe the gun?
Hit it.
[SIREN CHIRPS]
Man, what the hell is this?
NYPD.
Yeah, we gotta get in there.
Wouldn't be my choice, but have at it.
No gun. Found the vic's wallet.
Still had cash, still had credit cards.
- Okay, so not a robbery.
- Not a robbery.
Pulled two DNA samples off the wallet.
One was our victim's, Tyler Miller's.
Was hoping the other one
might be our killer's,
but I ran it through CODIS no hit.
Okay, run it through the local.
Uh, Dixon always told us
to stay away from the local database.
Defense attorneys have
a field day with it.
Judges hate it.
I'm not Dixon.
This is where we are,
and this is what we have,
so run it through the local.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
Looking Laura Kingsbury.
Yeah.
Laura Kingsbury?
NYPD.
We need to talk to you about
a man named Tyler Miller.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Is it front or back?
This is a new one.
Behind your back, please.
♪
You know, Laura, sometimes
people come through here,
and I'm not real sure
whether or not they did it.
This is not one of those times.
We found your DNA
on the victim's wallet.
There was an eyewitness who saw
you fleeing the crime scene.
There's images of you
leaving the park in a hurry.
And we found the gun
under your bed
in the suitcase
that you hid it in.
Sounds like you have
everything you need.
Almost.
Look, we know this happened,
and we know you did it.
What we don't know is why.
I'd like to know.
I'm sure you have something
to say about that.
I'd like a lawyer.
She doesn't exactly
present as a hardened killer.
Clean sheet, went to Columbia.
She's an art buyer for
a high-end interior designer.
And as far as I can tell,
we've established no connection
between Kingsbury and Tyler Miller?
None. And Miller's tech is no help.
His laptop went
to the blue screen of death.
As soon as we opened it up,
his clouds firewalled
somewhere in the deep web.
And he's not exactly around
to give us his password, so
So so on paper, these are
just two young professionals.
She's taking a walk in the park.
He's there.
She pulls out a gun and shoots him.
Why?
Jess.
Nolan.
Do you have a minute?
So, um, Laura Kingsbury's mother
called me and said that you booked her
for the Central Park shooting?
And I'm just
I'm trying to make sense of this.
I know this woman,
and she's not a killer.
She's actually a victim.
Of what?
Of rape.
Laura Kingsbury was brutally raped.
I probably haven't talked to her
for a year at least, but back then,
I helped her and her family
navigate an extraordinarily
difficult time,
because no one would listen to her.
We didn't know about the sexual assault.
Because they never took a report.
That's how this whole thing started.
I understand, but that doesn't change
what happened three years later.
But what I'm trying to say is
that something's not right here.
I think there's some sort of a mistake.
There's no mistake.
We're all pros here.
We're all in the same line of work.
Now, the evidence is there.
We found the murder weapon
in her apartment,
- her DNA on the victim's wallet.
- What? DNA?
Why would her DNA even be
in a federal database?
It wasn't. We ran it through the local.
The local database?
So that's how you
connected her to the wallet?
Correct.
The only reason that
she's in that database
is because she was raped.
Because she gave us a sample
for her rape kit.
We have to use every tool
available to catch killers,
and the database is helpful.
It helps us close cases, murder
cases, sexual assault cases.
I understand that.
But I have fought this fight before,
and I think that we can
all agree that that database
is an ethical mess.
- That's your opinion.
- No, that is a fact.
If Laura Kingsbury knew
that her DNA was being used
in this capacity, who knows what she
would have done or not done?
And that is the real problem.
If word gets out, if women
find out that their DNA
is being used in some rogue database,
they might not come forward.
They might not consent to a rape kit.
It's not ideal. I agree.
But Laura's case is highly unusual.
And the majority
of sexual assault victims
do not end up in the local database.
These are all valid points,
noble arguments,
but none of it changes the fact
that Laura Kingsbury murdered someone.
We have the evidence,
and that evidence is legal.
Well, let's see what
a judge says about that.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
I hear Captain Benson has a problem
with this local DNA database.
Uh-huh, and she's persuaded the defense
to file a motion to suppress.
What do you think of this database?
Is it ethical?
Everybody in this database
has voluntarily consented
to surrendering their DNA
for one reason or another,
so there's nothing illegal about it.
That wasn't my question.
I know.
Right now, I am more
interested in getting justice
for Tyler Miller
than debating the ethics
of the local database.
Do your thing.
Focus on the case.
We'll discuss this ethical
quandary down the road.
Your Honor, Ms. Kingsbury
went to a hospital,
asked to have her DNA taken.
There's no dispute the sample
was taken lawfully.
When someone consents to a
search or volunteers evidence,
they've waived their right
to the Fourth Amendment.
If she had known that
her DNA would be stored
in an unregulated database,
she never would have
surrendered her DNA in the first place.
There's only one class
of people who are worried
the police have their DNA criminals.
Your Honor, just because
the government possesses
this information doesn't mean
they can use it any way they want to.
We're investigating a murder.
I've got to weigh the
defendant's privacy concerns
against the obvious policy benefits
of assisting law enforcement
in identifying
suspects in a violent crime.
To me, the latter objective
is more pressing.
I'm denying the defendant's motion.
The DNA stays in the case.
Detective Shaw, were you able to learn
how Ms. Kingsbury acquired this weapon?
She used her mother's
address in Pittsburgh.
And how did you determine that this gun
found in Ms. Kingsbury's home
was the murder weapon?
Our ballistics team was able to match
the round pulled from the
victim's body to that weapon.
Thank you. I have nothing further.
Ms. Calhoun?
We have no questions for this witness.
The People rest.
Call your first witness.
We call Captain Olivia Benson.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Your Honor, Captain Benson
is an expert witness
regarding sexualized trauma.
Well, how is that relevant
to this trial?
We plan to argue that the
shooting was in self-defense
and that Tyler Miller
had been stalking my client
for months before
the incident in question.
Stalking? Self-defense?
Your Honor, this is the first
we're hearing of any of
My client will testify that she believed
Mr. Miller was going to
kill her that morning.
All right, let's assume
that there's some merit
to Ms. Calhoun's assertions,
but how is that
relevant to Captain Benson?
This case is going to come down
to my client's state of mind
of whether she acted reasonably.
And we believe that a jury
should understand
that Laura's definition of reasonable
is very different from someone that
has never been raped before.
We cannot excise
Laura Kingsbury's past trauma
from the moments leading up
to her pulling that trigger.
And Captain Benson
is a globally recognized
authority in this field.
Obviously, Benson is
a qualified expert, but
But we can't ask her to climb
into Ms. Kingsbury's head
and redefine the statutory
definition of self-defense.
Given the defense's assertion
that the victim was, in fact,
stalking the defendant,
I'm going to allow
Benson as an expert
in this limited capacity.
And in your roughly
30 years with the NYPD,
how many survivors of sexual
assault have you interviewed?
Um [CHUCKLES]
Nearly 10,000.
You must have noticed commonalities.
Yeah.
Trauma experienced by
many women can last for years,
and particularly in cases where
the assailant is never caught.
Many women experience insomnia, depression.
Many just see the world
as a more threatening place.
They have a heightened
perception to danger,
to threat, to things that another person
might find innocuous.
Every decision sort of
goes through this lens
of fear and doubt
where to live, where to work,
where to eat lunch.
Whether to go for a walk
in Central Park.
Objection leading.
Sustained.
But those are reasonable fears?
Absolutely.
Based on their trauma history
Objection.
Sustained.
I have nothing further.
As a captain in
the New York Police Department,
do you invest a lot of time
testifying on behalf
of people accused of murder?
- [SCOFFS] Wow.
- No, no.
You're here because you're
a friend, you are an advocate,
you have an agenda.
I am an advocate for women.
And I do have an agenda to stand
with victims of sexual assault
to help people like Laura Kingsbury.
So you wear many hats,
but you're not a mind reader.
And she didn't call you the day
she shot Tyler Miller and
and tell you what was on her mind.
Oh, and you didn't investigate
Tyler Miller's murder?
No, I did not.
So, in fact, you don't have
the faintest idea
what Ms. Kingsbury was thinking
when she pulled that trigger.
- Actually, I think that I do.
- Right.
You've even suggested that
her fears were reasonable.
And yet you have also argued that women
who suffer from this sort
of sexualized trauma
can no longer be objective.
A heightened perception
to danger, right,
even in circumstances
that another person
might find innocuous.
Aren't you saying two things
at once, Captain Benson?
Survivors like this, are they on edge?
Yes.
Are they easily spooked?
Absolutely, because they live
in a permanent state of terror.
So you're welcome
to call that unreasonable.
But I sure as hell am not gonna do that.
- I think you just did.
- Excuse me?
You keep protesting that Ms.
Kingsbury had reasonable fears,
but her fears were subjective.
They were based on her own experiences.
That's not the legal standard
here, Captain Benson.
Her fears need to be
objectively reasonable.
And it's clear that she
was not in imminent danger.
Do you have any idea how badly
the system failed Laura Kingsbury?
But that's not the
Because when she was raped,
she made the very brave
decision to go to the police.
And the police officer
that she talked to,
the man that was supposed to help her,
told her that she should have
had a few more slices of pizza
before she started drinking.
That's terrible.
But Tyler Miller had
nothing to do with that.
And then she tried
to get a restraining order
against Tyler Miller
because he was stalking her.
But the police said that she
didn't have enough evidence,
and that he was just flirting with her.
And there's no crime in that.
And that is because the law
doesn't recognize something
as innocuous as having
flowers sent to you
in the wrong circumstances.
They don't understand that that can be
threatening and terrifying,
because it's the pattern of
action that causes real fear.
Laura Kingsbury didn't have
an objective reason
to believe that law enforcement
was going to help her.
She had every reason to believe
that she was on her own.
[TENSE MUSIC]
She did what she had to do,
based on her truth.
So you tell me what's
reasonable and what's right.
♪
Tyler and I met online.
We went on three or four dates.
And after you called it off,
he continued to contact you?
Relentlessly.
Flowers, messages.
He was obsessed with covering
his tracks electronically,
but I knew it was him.
Did he ever contact you in person?
All the time.
He would show up at my bodega
where I get my coffee.
He would show up at my Pilates studio.
How did he know what class
I signed up for?
It makes you crazy.
Do you still have
any of the texts or letters
that Mr. Miller sent you?
Just the letters.
Your Honor, I have here
126 letters
written by Mr. Miller to my client.
I request they be
admitted into the record.
Why do you still have these letters?
Why didn't you destroy them?
I kept them at my mother's
house so that when he hurt me,
she could tell the world who did it.
Did you ever just ask Mr. Miller
to stop communicating with you?
Of course.
He didn't. He couldn't.
What do you mean?
Tyler had a God complex.
Objection.
Overruled. Go ahead.
Tyler Miller thought that
his app, ELI, was working,
was catching on because of what
he brought to the character,
because Tyler was
the perfect man, not ELI.
So in his mind, if I rejected him,
then the whole thing
came crashing down
his business empire, his image.
So he had to change my mind.
And if he couldn't?
He'd have to kill me.
Objection.
Sustained.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
May we approach?
This is the first we're hearing
of these letters.
So I would request that we take
the rest of the day and tonight
to review the material.
Yes, we're in recess until 9:00 a.m.
[GAVEL BANGS]
126 handwritten letters?
We had no idea.
The defense hasn't been
very forthcoming.
Are these letters aggressive?
[SIGHS]
"I'll be your moon on a dark night,
your anchor in rough seas."
No, they're cringey, not criminal.
There are no threats of violence.
I have to help the jury understand,
Tyler Miller wanted to be a romantic.
He just wasn't any good at it.
I'm not so sure about that.
A young woman living
in the big city alone
doesn't care how bad Tyler
Miller was at being romantic.
They're gonna look at these
as being invasive.
And so might half of your jury.
Trying to parse the words of a dead man
that are, at best, uncomfortable?
You're playing into the defense's hand.
So come back to the facts and the law.
Focus on the one and only
question that matters:
when Laura Kingsbury decided
to pull that trigger,
was she objectively in
imminent fear of bodily harm?
♪
Before you illegally
acquired a handgun
the murder weapon
you didn't make any effort
to obtain non-lethal defense
uh, pepper spray,
one of those security alarms
that goes on your keys?
No.
And after you shot Mr. Miller,
you didn't stop to render aid?
No.
You didn't call 911?
No.
You shot Mr. Miller in the eye,
and then you just ran.
You left him to die.
And you went home
and hid the murder weapon
and prayed that no one
would ever find you.
No, I feel terrible that
it turned out this way.
You feel terrible that you killed him
or terrible that you got caught?
Objection, Your Honor.
Sustained.
When you stole Tyler Miller's
wallet after you killed him,
your intent was to make this
look like a robbery
to throw off the police
so you wouldn't get caught,
because you knew what you did was wrong.
No, because I was afraid
that no one would believe me.
No one has ever believed me.
The police didn't believe me
when I was raped.
The police didn't believe me
when I tried to get
an order of protection against Tyler.
And you don't believe me now.
Tyler Miller didn't do
or say anything threatening
- to you the day you killed him?
- No.
No, in fact, he never threatened you.
He never said that out loud
not in your imagination, but out loud
that he intended to do you harm?
No, but he didn't have to.
- It was implied.
- Implied?
He was everywhere.
I I had to do it.
No, no.
You chose to do it.
There's a big difference.
[TENSE MUSIC]
I have nothing further.
♪
We'll resume this afternoon.
[GAVEL BANGS]
♪
You wanted to see me?
Hear her out, Nolan.
So I came to ask you and Nick
if you would consider
offering Laura a deal.
- Why would we do that?
- Come on, Nolan.
Who benefits from Laura
sitting in a prison cell?
The family of the dead man?
I'd start there.
Laura was the victim
of a terrible crime.
But you don't get to shoot somebody
who's got a crush on you.
I agree.
But there are other considerations here.
Such as?
It seems "The Journal" has decided
to launch a crusade against the use
of the city's local DNA database.
You gotta be kidding me.
Oh, how could they
possibly have gotten that idea?
It's hard to say.
I can't believe you would
leak this to the press.
Manslaughter feels
like the right call here.
- Nick?
- Ten years.
That'll give the victim's
family some closure.
But it still recognizes
the history of trauma
that this defendant has suffered
and the way the criminal justice system
has let her down.
Make the deal, Nolan.
♪
Laura, you're gonna plead guilty
to manslaughter in the first degree.
We will recommend
that you serve ten years.
No.
I know that you've been
through hell and back
with this, but this is a good deal.
You have my word.
No, I'm not doing it.
I've spent years trying to
reclaim my life and my voice.
That's why I got the gun
so I could try
to feel like a regular person.
Do you know how long it took me
to build the courage
just to go for a stupid walk
in the park?
I do.
If I plead guilty,
all of that was for nothing.
That's not true.
No, I'm not guilty.
I didn't do anything wrong.
I did what I had to do because
he was going to hurt me.
He was.
And if the police had done their job
at any stop along the way,
if the system had believed me
when I was raped
or when I was being stalked,
we wouldn't be here right now.
And if you would have called
me when he was stalking you,
I could have done something to help you.
Laura, if we finish out the trial,
the jury is going to convict you.
And not because they don't
have sympathy for you
or they don't believe you were scared
but because they know that what you did
in the eyes of the law is murder.
He's right.
Laura, take the deal.
- Well, we tried our best.
- I talked to her.
She said that she'll take
Man Two and do five years.
That's a non-starter.
Hell, Man One was a gift.
A gift?
Do you have any concept of what
that woman has been through?
Any concept at all?
Okay, I have tremendous empathy
for what she has endured,
but the fact remains she killed a man
an innocent man.
And like it or not, he's the victim.
He is the one we need
to be worried about.
We failed Laura Kingsbury, all of us.
We have constructed a world
in which too many women
our mothers, our wives, our daughters
spend their days
looking over their shoulder
wondering who's coming for them next.
And we have to do better.
The issue today is whether Tyler Miller
deserved to die for our sins.
The answer, of course, is no.
The defendant wants you to believe
she acted in self-defense.
For you to agree with her,
you must find that a person
in her shoes who fired
that shot acted in a manner
that was objectively reasonable.
We've proved to you
that was not the case.
Mr. Miller had never hurt her
or even threatened her.
He was not armed or advancing
towards Ms. Kingsbury.
She was 20 feet away
from him when she fired.
She had every opportunity to retreat
without choosing violence,
as the law required.
When the police first found
Mr. Miller's notebook
in his office, they figured
it was work product
relating to ELI, Mr. Miller's company.
It wasn't.
It was a list
a long one of all the things
Mr. Miller loved about the defendant.
"The way you stand on your tiptoes
when you're waiting in line."
So this is a photo taken by Tyler Miller
of the defendant doing exactly that
standing on her tiptoes,
waiting in line.
They were on a date
waiting for a movie to start.
"The way you twirl your hair
when you're figuring out
what to order"
also taken by Mr. Miller.
Tyler Miller was guilty
of failing to read
certain social cues
or or maybe of being
a hopeless romantic.
Laura Kingsbury is guilty of murder.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
In the charge of murder
in the second degree,
we find the defendant,
Laura Kingsbury, guilty.
Members of the jury,
thank you for your service.
[GAVEL BANGS]
No.
♪
Congratulations on your guilty verdict.
You got what you wanted, I suppose?
We're having a press
conference tomorrow, 11:00 a.m.
Baxter is going to announce
that we are no longer
going to use evidence procured
through the local database
to solve unrelated crimes.
[SIGHS]
I know this doesn't affect
the outcome of Laura's case.
But we'd like you to be there
at the press conference.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
♪
Yeah.
I'll be there.
♪
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.
Get you anything else?
What do you think of these?
Nice.
Yeah, but what if you were the most
amazing woman in the world?
That is somehow insulting and charming
all at the same time. [LAUGHS]
I don't know.
They're not good enough.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Hiya, kid.
[GUNSHOT]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[SIRENS WAILING]
White male, 30s.
Jogger found him 6:05 a.m.,
give or take.
He's warm to the touch but DOA.
Called 911.
- Jesus.
- Agreed.
Shooter didn't police his brass
9-millimeter casing.
We're canvassing for witnesses,
cameras, but so far, no dice.
You got a name?
No wallet, no phone, no keys.
So we know nothing about this guy?
Except for the fact he had
a meal two days ago
at a place called Purple Waves Café.
It's a breakfast joint
over by Bryant Park.
Customer ordered oatmeal.
That doesn't exactly narrow it down.
Poached egg and cinnamon on top.
That does. Yuck.
That's Tyler.
- And who's Tyler?
- A regular.
That's his spot by the window.
Good dude, weird taste in breakfast.
You know Tyler's last name?
No, but that's his office
right over there.
So people really loved him, huh?
We all did.
What exactly did Mr. Miller do?
Started this company
more like an app that revolves around
an online character named ELI.
Does ELI stand for something?
Enigmatic Love Interface.
It's a dating app?
Kinda like Tinder?
Sort of.
Oh.
He was a romantic.
What Tyler Miller built
isn't really a dating site.
It's more like a revolution.
ELI is the perfect man.
So what you're saying
is that people date ELI?
You guys pretend to be some dude
on the other end of the phone?
No. The engine is AI.
And this is romantic?
ELI is profoundly meaningful
to a lot of women, including me.
But it's not a real guy.
Fine line today
between fantasy and reality
maybe no line at all.
Who thinks like that?
Tyler Miller.
Only Tyler Miller.
And I'm guessing
there's quite a few people
who were not thrilled
with this revolution.
You have no idea.
The company is called ELI,
the letters E-L-I,
like the name.
[GUNSHOTS, SCREAMING]
Oh, God. Please hurry.
I'm too young to die.
Please!
This call came into 911 five weeks ago.
And it's all fake?
Every bit.
Our vic's office was swatted
like this three times
in the last two months, and
every time officers pulled up,
they brought the whole damn cavalry,
and nothing was ever going on.
So some freak decides he's got
nothing better to do
than stage a fake shooting
at Miller's office.
Why?
I mean, the cops show up,
ruin the guy's day.
It's just a bad prank.
Listen to this 911 call
from three weeks ago.
The guy's name is Tyler Miller.
It's his company.
[GUNSHOTS, SCREAMING]
He's gone nuts.
He's shooting up the office.
Said he'll die
before he surrenders.
Whoever did that wanted the cops
to show up and kill Miller.
And when they didn't
Someone did it himself in the park.
Exactly.
And these calls were routed
through an untraceable number.
And at the time, that's when
the trail went cold.
But now that it's murder
We're on it.
I can't believe Tyler Miller is dead.
Wait, you don't think I
Well, you tell us, Ethan.
You're the one who filed
a lawsuit against Tyler Miller,
claiming that he stole
your code to build ELI, yeah?
So? He did.
The courts disagreed with you.
And then what happened?
When they dismissed your case,
you swatted his office.
Yeah, we traced
the 911 calls to your VOIP.
We traced the VOIP to your finsta.
You sued Tyler Miller, you lost,
and then you swatted him three times.
And then he's dead.
I didn't do this, I swear.
The kind of apps we build,
we're manipulating people.
You gotta be careful.
Isn't that what all social
media is manipulation?
Not like this.
We create fantasy, sell it as reality.
All the dating sites
are chasing this tech
so people don't have to
find their soulmate
they can create their soulmate.
None of them have launched yet
because everyone's struggling
with the power of this.
What about Tyler Miller?
Didn't care.
He didn't think there was
any difference anymore
between reality and fantasy.
If you're willing
to spend $79.99 a month,
he'd sell you the prettiest lie
you've ever heard.
So people started turning off
huge parts of their life,
the important stuff love, intimacy
like, for good.
- So you wanted him dead.
- No.
I never wanted to kill him.
No?
Then what were you trying to do?
Put the fear of God in him.
I wanted him to wake the hell up.
Just because we can do something
doesn't mean we should.
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Saradino's alibi is good.
Take a look at that.
Three days before the shooting,
a guy named Randall Doering
accosted Tyler Miller
in front of the ELI office,
- said he wanted to kill him.
- Hmm.
The security guards had to break it up.
We got an LKA?
Rego Park.
Wanna go for a ride?
You know I do.
People just don't connect
the way they used to.
It's easy to feel lost or lonely.
And an app is the answer for that?
For some people.
I mean, not me.
I still like hanging around
warm-blooded human beings,
but I don't know.
If Tyler Miller helped a few people
make some sense of connection,
then good for them.
That's our guy.
Randall Doering, NYPD.
Can I help you?
We wanna ask you some questions
about Tyler Miller.
- What about him?
- He's dead.
Dead?
Shot and killed yesterday
morning in Central Park.
What do you want me to do about it?
Well, you can start by telling us why
you stopped by his office
and threatened to kill him.
He ruined my life.
And how did he manage that?
Two months ago,
my fiancée left me for ELI.
Your fiancée left you for an app?
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Today is a big day.
You got your dog-and-pony
show for the board.
And I just want you to know,
you're gonna do great.
Call me as soon as it's over,
just because I like
to see you happy.
Oh, Melanie, you are
so pretty when you're happy.
Call me.
I love you.
ELI made that
specifically for your fiancée?
Just for her.
There's hundreds of 'em.
You don't know what it's like
competing with a machine.
ELI's a damn dream.
He sends my fiancée memes all day
perfectly aligned to her mood.
He's teaching her frickin' French.
I lost her to him.
So you wanted to kill
his creator, Tyler Miller?
I sure did. I just didn't have the guts.
Did you ever think to just
maybe ask your fiancée
to turn the damn thing off?
What are you talking about?
You can't.
Randall Doering's alibi checked out.
Yeah, and he's also not really wrong.
You go on Reddit, any of that stuff,
and it's kind of
an open secret about ELI.
You can insult him, you can ignore him,
but it's almost impossible
to break up with him.
Why? What happens if you try?
He just asks you how
he can be a better boyfriend
and better meet your needs.
So just delete the damn thing.
He'll find you someplace else
Snapchat, TikTok.
He might be the perfect man;
he's also kind of a creep.
You know, I really hate
to say "I told you so."
Then don't.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Somebody just turned on Miller's phone.
West and Barrow.
I'll text you the ping.
You can follow it live.
Yeah.
♪
[PHONE CHIRPING]
Where the hell is it?
♪
[LINE TRILLING]
♪
[LINE TRILLING]
♪
[BOTH GRUNTING]
Shaw!
Police!
[GROANING]
What? You're the police?
Yeah, we're the police!
- Now, get your ass up.
- [GROANS]
You got exactly one chance
to tell us how you ended up
with a dead man's phone. Talk.
- I traded for it, man.
- Oh?
- For what?
- I deal. Dope, okay?
I'm not Escobar.
I just sell enough
to support my own jones.
My buddy wanted to score.
He didn't have any cash.
He traded me that phone
for a jab of dope.
I lose a nickel bag,
I get a phone I can sell
for 20 bucks, man.
- That's just street math, man.
- All right. Who's your buddy?
He goes by Scratch.
There's a hangout by Roosevelt
Park under the bridge.
He's usually there.
That nickel bag you traded for,
did it have an insignia on it?
A pair of dice.
Snake eyes.
[SIRENS WAILING]
[CAR DOORS SLAMMING]
[TENSE MUSIC]
You know a guy named Scratch?
No.
Looking for a guy named Scratch.
You know him?
Never heard of him.
Shocker.
You know a Scratch?
♪
Hey, yo.
I'm not trying to heat you, but, uh
whose dope is that?
♪
NYPD.
We need to talk.
Scratch?
Whoa, whoa. No, no, no, no, no, no.
- It wasn't me, guys.
- Come on.
You got the wrong dude. Tell him.
- It wasn't me.
- Oh, yeah?
Yeah, we get that a lot.
Where'd you get the phone?
I hang out at the North Meadow dugouts.
I shoot up there sometimes.
- You were there yesterday.
- Yeah.
The sun was about to come up.
I heard a gunshot.
I poked my head out,
see what's going on.
Lady ran by me, crazy look on her face.
Whoa, whoa. Hold on.
A lady? Did she say anything?
No, she just ran off.
I went down the path where
she came running from, and
and I found a guy.
He was real dead.
And, uh, I was hoping
I could grab his wallet.
So you robbed a dead guy?
I ain't the pope, bro.
Dude didn't have a wallet on him,
but I found his phone under his body.
I took it. I traded it for some dope.
Can you describe the woman?
White, female,
athletic wear, a ponytail,
and green crossbody bag.
Yeah, at the very least,
this woman could be a witness.
At the most, she did it.
But we were able to pull some
ARGUS footage, and we got her.
6:03 a.m., right after the
shooting, and there she is
headed westbound on 97th.
Then we lose her on Columbus.
But check this out.
She threw something in the dumpster.
Maybe the gun?
Hit it.
[SIREN CHIRPS]
Man, what the hell is this?
NYPD.
Yeah, we gotta get in there.
Wouldn't be my choice, but have at it.
No gun. Found the vic's wallet.
Still had cash, still had credit cards.
- Okay, so not a robbery.
- Not a robbery.
Pulled two DNA samples off the wallet.
One was our victim's, Tyler Miller's.
Was hoping the other one
might be our killer's,
but I ran it through CODIS no hit.
Okay, run it through the local.
Uh, Dixon always told us
to stay away from the local database.
Defense attorneys have
a field day with it.
Judges hate it.
I'm not Dixon.
This is where we are,
and this is what we have,
so run it through the local.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪
Looking Laura Kingsbury.
Yeah.
Laura Kingsbury?
NYPD.
We need to talk to you about
a man named Tyler Miller.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Is it front or back?
This is a new one.
Behind your back, please.
♪
You know, Laura, sometimes
people come through here,
and I'm not real sure
whether or not they did it.
This is not one of those times.
We found your DNA
on the victim's wallet.
There was an eyewitness who saw
you fleeing the crime scene.
There's images of you
leaving the park in a hurry.
And we found the gun
under your bed
in the suitcase
that you hid it in.
Sounds like you have
everything you need.
Almost.
Look, we know this happened,
and we know you did it.
What we don't know is why.
I'd like to know.
I'm sure you have something
to say about that.
I'd like a lawyer.
She doesn't exactly
present as a hardened killer.
Clean sheet, went to Columbia.
She's an art buyer for
a high-end interior designer.
And as far as I can tell,
we've established no connection
between Kingsbury and Tyler Miller?
None. And Miller's tech is no help.
His laptop went
to the blue screen of death.
As soon as we opened it up,
his clouds firewalled
somewhere in the deep web.
And he's not exactly around
to give us his password, so
So so on paper, these are
just two young professionals.
She's taking a walk in the park.
He's there.
She pulls out a gun and shoots him.
Why?
Jess.
Nolan.
Do you have a minute?
So, um, Laura Kingsbury's mother
called me and said that you booked her
for the Central Park shooting?
And I'm just
I'm trying to make sense of this.
I know this woman,
and she's not a killer.
She's actually a victim.
Of what?
Of rape.
Laura Kingsbury was brutally raped.
I probably haven't talked to her
for a year at least, but back then,
I helped her and her family
navigate an extraordinarily
difficult time,
because no one would listen to her.
We didn't know about the sexual assault.
Because they never took a report.
That's how this whole thing started.
I understand, but that doesn't change
what happened three years later.
But what I'm trying to say is
that something's not right here.
I think there's some sort of a mistake.
There's no mistake.
We're all pros here.
We're all in the same line of work.
Now, the evidence is there.
We found the murder weapon
in her apartment,
- her DNA on the victim's wallet.
- What? DNA?
Why would her DNA even be
in a federal database?
It wasn't. We ran it through the local.
The local database?
So that's how you
connected her to the wallet?
Correct.
The only reason that
she's in that database
is because she was raped.
Because she gave us a sample
for her rape kit.
We have to use every tool
available to catch killers,
and the database is helpful.
It helps us close cases, murder
cases, sexual assault cases.
I understand that.
But I have fought this fight before,
and I think that we can
all agree that that database
is an ethical mess.
- That's your opinion.
- No, that is a fact.
If Laura Kingsbury knew
that her DNA was being used
in this capacity, who knows what she
would have done or not done?
And that is the real problem.
If word gets out, if women
find out that their DNA
is being used in some rogue database,
they might not come forward.
They might not consent to a rape kit.
It's not ideal. I agree.
But Laura's case is highly unusual.
And the majority
of sexual assault victims
do not end up in the local database.
These are all valid points,
noble arguments,
but none of it changes the fact
that Laura Kingsbury murdered someone.
We have the evidence,
and that evidence is legal.
Well, let's see what
a judge says about that.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
I hear Captain Benson has a problem
with this local DNA database.
Uh-huh, and she's persuaded the defense
to file a motion to suppress.
What do you think of this database?
Is it ethical?
Everybody in this database
has voluntarily consented
to surrendering their DNA
for one reason or another,
so there's nothing illegal about it.
That wasn't my question.
I know.
Right now, I am more
interested in getting justice
for Tyler Miller
than debating the ethics
of the local database.
Do your thing.
Focus on the case.
We'll discuss this ethical
quandary down the road.
Your Honor, Ms. Kingsbury
went to a hospital,
asked to have her DNA taken.
There's no dispute the sample
was taken lawfully.
When someone consents to a
search or volunteers evidence,
they've waived their right
to the Fourth Amendment.
If she had known that
her DNA would be stored
in an unregulated database,
she never would have
surrendered her DNA in the first place.
There's only one class
of people who are worried
the police have their DNA criminals.
Your Honor, just because
the government possesses
this information doesn't mean
they can use it any way they want to.
We're investigating a murder.
I've got to weigh the
defendant's privacy concerns
against the obvious policy benefits
of assisting law enforcement
in identifying
suspects in a violent crime.
To me, the latter objective
is more pressing.
I'm denying the defendant's motion.
The DNA stays in the case.
Detective Shaw, were you able to learn
how Ms. Kingsbury acquired this weapon?
She used her mother's
address in Pittsburgh.
And how did you determine that this gun
found in Ms. Kingsbury's home
was the murder weapon?
Our ballistics team was able to match
the round pulled from the
victim's body to that weapon.
Thank you. I have nothing further.
Ms. Calhoun?
We have no questions for this witness.
The People rest.
Call your first witness.
We call Captain Olivia Benson.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Your Honor, Captain Benson
is an expert witness
regarding sexualized trauma.
Well, how is that relevant
to this trial?
We plan to argue that the
shooting was in self-defense
and that Tyler Miller
had been stalking my client
for months before
the incident in question.
Stalking? Self-defense?
Your Honor, this is the first
we're hearing of any of
My client will testify that she believed
Mr. Miller was going to
kill her that morning.
All right, let's assume
that there's some merit
to Ms. Calhoun's assertions,
but how is that
relevant to Captain Benson?
This case is going to come down
to my client's state of mind
of whether she acted reasonably.
And we believe that a jury
should understand
that Laura's definition of reasonable
is very different from someone that
has never been raped before.
We cannot excise
Laura Kingsbury's past trauma
from the moments leading up
to her pulling that trigger.
And Captain Benson
is a globally recognized
authority in this field.
Obviously, Benson is
a qualified expert, but
But we can't ask her to climb
into Ms. Kingsbury's head
and redefine the statutory
definition of self-defense.
Given the defense's assertion
that the victim was, in fact,
stalking the defendant,
I'm going to allow
Benson as an expert
in this limited capacity.
And in your roughly
30 years with the NYPD,
how many survivors of sexual
assault have you interviewed?
Um [CHUCKLES]
Nearly 10,000.
You must have noticed commonalities.
Yeah.
Trauma experienced by
many women can last for years,
and particularly in cases where
the assailant is never caught.
Many women experience insomnia, depression.
Many just see the world
as a more threatening place.
They have a heightened
perception to danger,
to threat, to things that another person
might find innocuous.
Every decision sort of
goes through this lens
of fear and doubt
where to live, where to work,
where to eat lunch.
Whether to go for a walk
in Central Park.
Objection leading.
Sustained.
But those are reasonable fears?
Absolutely.
Based on their trauma history
Objection.
Sustained.
I have nothing further.
As a captain in
the New York Police Department,
do you invest a lot of time
testifying on behalf
of people accused of murder?
- [SCOFFS] Wow.
- No, no.
You're here because you're
a friend, you are an advocate,
you have an agenda.
I am an advocate for women.
And I do have an agenda to stand
with victims of sexual assault
to help people like Laura Kingsbury.
So you wear many hats,
but you're not a mind reader.
And she didn't call you the day
she shot Tyler Miller and
and tell you what was on her mind.
Oh, and you didn't investigate
Tyler Miller's murder?
No, I did not.
So, in fact, you don't have
the faintest idea
what Ms. Kingsbury was thinking
when she pulled that trigger.
- Actually, I think that I do.
- Right.
You've even suggested that
her fears were reasonable.
And yet you have also argued that women
who suffer from this sort
of sexualized trauma
can no longer be objective.
A heightened perception
to danger, right,
even in circumstances
that another person
might find innocuous.
Aren't you saying two things
at once, Captain Benson?
Survivors like this, are they on edge?
Yes.
Are they easily spooked?
Absolutely, because they live
in a permanent state of terror.
So you're welcome
to call that unreasonable.
But I sure as hell am not gonna do that.
- I think you just did.
- Excuse me?
You keep protesting that Ms.
Kingsbury had reasonable fears,
but her fears were subjective.
They were based on her own experiences.
That's not the legal standard
here, Captain Benson.
Her fears need to be
objectively reasonable.
And it's clear that she
was not in imminent danger.
Do you have any idea how badly
the system failed Laura Kingsbury?
But that's not the
Because when she was raped,
she made the very brave
decision to go to the police.
And the police officer
that she talked to,
the man that was supposed to help her,
told her that she should have
had a few more slices of pizza
before she started drinking.
That's terrible.
But Tyler Miller had
nothing to do with that.
And then she tried
to get a restraining order
against Tyler Miller
because he was stalking her.
But the police said that she
didn't have enough evidence,
and that he was just flirting with her.
And there's no crime in that.
And that is because the law
doesn't recognize something
as innocuous as having
flowers sent to you
in the wrong circumstances.
They don't understand that that can be
threatening and terrifying,
because it's the pattern of
action that causes real fear.
Laura Kingsbury didn't have
an objective reason
to believe that law enforcement
was going to help her.
She had every reason to believe
that she was on her own.
[TENSE MUSIC]
She did what she had to do,
based on her truth.
So you tell me what's
reasonable and what's right.
♪
Tyler and I met online.
We went on three or four dates.
And after you called it off,
he continued to contact you?
Relentlessly.
Flowers, messages.
He was obsessed with covering
his tracks electronically,
but I knew it was him.
Did he ever contact you in person?
All the time.
He would show up at my bodega
where I get my coffee.
He would show up at my Pilates studio.
How did he know what class
I signed up for?
It makes you crazy.
Do you still have
any of the texts or letters
that Mr. Miller sent you?
Just the letters.
Your Honor, I have here
126 letters
written by Mr. Miller to my client.
I request they be
admitted into the record.
Why do you still have these letters?
Why didn't you destroy them?
I kept them at my mother's
house so that when he hurt me,
she could tell the world who did it.
Did you ever just ask Mr. Miller
to stop communicating with you?
Of course.
He didn't. He couldn't.
What do you mean?
Tyler had a God complex.
Objection.
Overruled. Go ahead.
Tyler Miller thought that
his app, ELI, was working,
was catching on because of what
he brought to the character,
because Tyler was
the perfect man, not ELI.
So in his mind, if I rejected him,
then the whole thing
came crashing down
his business empire, his image.
So he had to change my mind.
And if he couldn't?
He'd have to kill me.
Objection.
Sustained.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
May we approach?
This is the first we're hearing
of these letters.
So I would request that we take
the rest of the day and tonight
to review the material.
Yes, we're in recess until 9:00 a.m.
[GAVEL BANGS]
126 handwritten letters?
We had no idea.
The defense hasn't been
very forthcoming.
Are these letters aggressive?
[SIGHS]
"I'll be your moon on a dark night,
your anchor in rough seas."
No, they're cringey, not criminal.
There are no threats of violence.
I have to help the jury understand,
Tyler Miller wanted to be a romantic.
He just wasn't any good at it.
I'm not so sure about that.
A young woman living
in the big city alone
doesn't care how bad Tyler
Miller was at being romantic.
They're gonna look at these
as being invasive.
And so might half of your jury.
Trying to parse the words of a dead man
that are, at best, uncomfortable?
You're playing into the defense's hand.
So come back to the facts and the law.
Focus on the one and only
question that matters:
when Laura Kingsbury decided
to pull that trigger,
was she objectively in
imminent fear of bodily harm?
♪
Before you illegally
acquired a handgun
the murder weapon
you didn't make any effort
to obtain non-lethal defense
uh, pepper spray,
one of those security alarms
that goes on your keys?
No.
And after you shot Mr. Miller,
you didn't stop to render aid?
No.
You didn't call 911?
No.
You shot Mr. Miller in the eye,
and then you just ran.
You left him to die.
And you went home
and hid the murder weapon
and prayed that no one
would ever find you.
No, I feel terrible that
it turned out this way.
You feel terrible that you killed him
or terrible that you got caught?
Objection, Your Honor.
Sustained.
When you stole Tyler Miller's
wallet after you killed him,
your intent was to make this
look like a robbery
to throw off the police
so you wouldn't get caught,
because you knew what you did was wrong.
No, because I was afraid
that no one would believe me.
No one has ever believed me.
The police didn't believe me
when I was raped.
The police didn't believe me
when I tried to get
an order of protection against Tyler.
And you don't believe me now.
Tyler Miller didn't do
or say anything threatening
- to you the day you killed him?
- No.
No, in fact, he never threatened you.
He never said that out loud
not in your imagination, but out loud
that he intended to do you harm?
No, but he didn't have to.
- It was implied.
- Implied?
He was everywhere.
I I had to do it.
No, no.
You chose to do it.
There's a big difference.
[TENSE MUSIC]
I have nothing further.
♪
We'll resume this afternoon.
[GAVEL BANGS]
♪
You wanted to see me?
Hear her out, Nolan.
So I came to ask you and Nick
if you would consider
offering Laura a deal.
- Why would we do that?
- Come on, Nolan.
Who benefits from Laura
sitting in a prison cell?
The family of the dead man?
I'd start there.
Laura was the victim
of a terrible crime.
But you don't get to shoot somebody
who's got a crush on you.
I agree.
But there are other considerations here.
Such as?
It seems "The Journal" has decided
to launch a crusade against the use
of the city's local DNA database.
You gotta be kidding me.
Oh, how could they
possibly have gotten that idea?
It's hard to say.
I can't believe you would
leak this to the press.
Manslaughter feels
like the right call here.
- Nick?
- Ten years.
That'll give the victim's
family some closure.
But it still recognizes
the history of trauma
that this defendant has suffered
and the way the criminal justice system
has let her down.
Make the deal, Nolan.
♪
Laura, you're gonna plead guilty
to manslaughter in the first degree.
We will recommend
that you serve ten years.
No.
I know that you've been
through hell and back
with this, but this is a good deal.
You have my word.
No, I'm not doing it.
I've spent years trying to
reclaim my life and my voice.
That's why I got the gun
so I could try
to feel like a regular person.
Do you know how long it took me
to build the courage
just to go for a stupid walk
in the park?
I do.
If I plead guilty,
all of that was for nothing.
That's not true.
No, I'm not guilty.
I didn't do anything wrong.
I did what I had to do because
he was going to hurt me.
He was.
And if the police had done their job
at any stop along the way,
if the system had believed me
when I was raped
or when I was being stalked,
we wouldn't be here right now.
And if you would have called
me when he was stalking you,
I could have done something to help you.
Laura, if we finish out the trial,
the jury is going to convict you.
And not because they don't
have sympathy for you
or they don't believe you were scared
but because they know that what you did
in the eyes of the law is murder.
He's right.
Laura, take the deal.
- Well, we tried our best.
- I talked to her.
She said that she'll take
Man Two and do five years.
That's a non-starter.
Hell, Man One was a gift.
A gift?
Do you have any concept of what
that woman has been through?
Any concept at all?
Okay, I have tremendous empathy
for what she has endured,
but the fact remains she killed a man
an innocent man.
And like it or not, he's the victim.
He is the one we need
to be worried about.
We failed Laura Kingsbury, all of us.
We have constructed a world
in which too many women
our mothers, our wives, our daughters
spend their days
looking over their shoulder
wondering who's coming for them next.
And we have to do better.
The issue today is whether Tyler Miller
deserved to die for our sins.
The answer, of course, is no.
The defendant wants you to believe
she acted in self-defense.
For you to agree with her,
you must find that a person
in her shoes who fired
that shot acted in a manner
that was objectively reasonable.
We've proved to you
that was not the case.
Mr. Miller had never hurt her
or even threatened her.
He was not armed or advancing
towards Ms. Kingsbury.
She was 20 feet away
from him when she fired.
She had every opportunity to retreat
without choosing violence,
as the law required.
When the police first found
Mr. Miller's notebook
in his office, they figured
it was work product
relating to ELI, Mr. Miller's company.
It wasn't.
It was a list
a long one of all the things
Mr. Miller loved about the defendant.
"The way you stand on your tiptoes
when you're waiting in line."
So this is a photo taken by Tyler Miller
of the defendant doing exactly that
standing on her tiptoes,
waiting in line.
They were on a date
waiting for a movie to start.
"The way you twirl your hair
when you're figuring out
what to order"
also taken by Mr. Miller.
Tyler Miller was guilty
of failing to read
certain social cues
or or maybe of being
a hopeless romantic.
Laura Kingsbury is guilty of murder.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
In the charge of murder
in the second degree,
we find the defendant,
Laura Kingsbury, guilty.
Members of the jury,
thank you for your service.
[GAVEL BANGS]
No.
♪
Congratulations on your guilty verdict.
You got what you wanted, I suppose?
We're having a press
conference tomorrow, 11:00 a.m.
Baxter is going to announce
that we are no longer
going to use evidence procured
through the local database
to solve unrelated crimes.
[SIGHS]
I know this doesn't affect
the outcome of Laura's case.
But we'd like you to be there
at the press conference.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
♪
Yeah.
I'll be there.
♪