This was my body.
On December 27, 1979,
I lay in bed all day.
Whether I was asleep or in a coma
later became a subject of dispute.
When my breathing became obstructed...
Maria!
My husband, Claus von Bülow,
finally did as my maid had been urging all day.
He summoned a physician.
Dr. Paultees.
I stopped breathing.
My heart stopped beating.
By this time, I was certainly in a deep coma
from which I awoke several hours later.
By the next morning, I was myself again.
There's no reason for all this fuss.
I've never felt better in my whole life.
This first coma aroused suspicion and fear
in the minds of my personal maid, Maria,
my son, Alex,
and my elder daughter, Ala.
From this time on,
though they never voiced their suspicions to me,
they kept a vigilant eye on Claus.
A year later, just before Christmas,
their darkest fears seemed justified.
Has mummy had breakfast yet?
No, we haven't seen her.
My husband did not want our daughter, Cosima,
to see what he had found,
so he motioned to his stepson Alex.
Second coma.
- Oh, no. - My pulse was 38,
my temperature, 81.6 degrees.
Did you call an ambulance?
Nicholas, would you ask Robert to open the main gates?
We're expecting an ambulance.
Mrs. von Bülow...
Ma'am, send an ambulance immediately.
= it's on Belleview Avenue.
- Look, bring her something warm. - Thank you.
Uh, or... or blankets or anything you can find.
All this activity was pointless.
We better do an eeg.
I never woke from this coma,
ahd I never will.
I am what doctors call persistent vegetative,
a vegetable.
According to medical experts,
I could stay like this for a very long time,
brain-dead, body better than ever.
Enter Robert Brillhoffer,
former Manhattan district attorney.
My two children from my first marriage,
Alex and Ala von auersberg,
hired Brillhoffer to investigate the case.
He put a "do not resuscitate” order on her hospital chart.
They sent Alex and a private investigator
back to my Newport cottage, Clarendon Court,
to search for drugs.
They found plenty
in Claus' closet.
On top of that,
the hospital lab reported
that my blood insulin on admission
was 14 times normal,
a level almost surely caused by injection.
Insulin injection could readily cause coma...
Or death.
This encrusted needle tested positive for insulin.
Alex couldn't wait to get back...
Let's get out of here.
And show Brillhoffer.
Now they felt they had the murder weapon.
All they lacked was the motive.
At that moment,
my husband was vacationing with his mistress,
the very beautiful soap opera actress, Alexandra Isles.
Oh, god.
Mrs. Isles, a divorcée,
was the daughter of an old friend,
count Billy Botsky.
Brillhoffer also discovered that, at my death,
Claus, whose own net worth was only a million dollars,
stood to inherit 14 million from me.
Alexandra later testified
that Claus showed her a legal analysis of my will.
On the evidence collected by Alex, Ala, and their lawyer, Brillhoffer,
my husband was accused of twice trying
to murder me with injections of insulin.
On March 16, 1982,
he was found guilty on both counts.
Charged the defendant committed on December 27th, 1979...
Even Alexandra isles testified against him.
How do you find?
Guilty.
As to count two,
charge the defendant committed on December 21, 1980,
the crime of assault with intent to murder,
how do you find?
Guilty.
You are about to see how Claus von Bülow sought to reverse...
Or escape from that jury's verdict.
You tell me.
And two!
Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!
Taking you downtown!
Air dersh!
Take it in! Take it in! Foul!
Okay. Here I go. Here I go! Watch the hands!
Yeah, hello.
What?
Oh, shit. Ju... bottom line.
Oh, shit!
Hi.
Let's try that again.
Hi, dad. Remember Maggie?
Hi, Maggie. Hello.
They're going to fry. The Johnson brothers.
What?
But...
Two black kids broke their father out of prison.
The father shot two people,
and the sons are convicted of murder.
A lawyer prays for an innocent client.
Finally, finally, I get two.
Both of them are going to get zapped.
No more appeals?
Supreme court, but this was the best shot.
Mmm!
It's the press.
You don't want to talk to the press?
Dershowitz psychiatric institute.
Yeah, hang on a second.
Claus von Bülow.
It's a reporter.
With an English accent?
If I can't save two innocent kids, what's the point?
- I might as well hang it up. - Yeah. One second, one second, sorry.
He really seems to think he's von Bülow.
Hello. This is Alan Dershowitz.
Who are you? What do you want?
It's von Bülow.
Back in business.
Can I help you, sir?
Claus von Bülow.
Elevator's to the left, go right ahead.
Holy shit.
Hello?
Professor Dershowitz, hello, hello.
How good of you to come.
Pleasure.
Won't you sit down?
Do you play?
That? No.
Most people think it's a game of luck.
Actually, it's largely a matter of nerve.
Um... nothing, thank you, Charles.
Why don't we go to Delmonico's and have a proper lunch?
Whatever.
I should tell you that I have the greatest respect
for the intelligence and integrity of the Jewish people.
When I married Sunny,
she was the most beautiful divorcée in the world
and one of the wealthiest.
Even so, we never got this table.
Professor Dershowitz.
Dr. von Bülow.
Two injections of insulin, already I'm a doctor.
No, in America, it's fame rather than class.
Now, after all this unpleasantness,
I always get the best table and...
Speaking of the unpleasantness...
Oh, yes, I suppose we better discuss your fee.
Okay.
It's 300 dollars an hour.
Good Lord!
You know, I used to be a lawyer in London.
That sounds a bit steep.
It's average for a case like this.
Besides, I do a lot of pro bono work.
You would pay for that.
Plus, I have to pay students, associates...
Are you saying if I agree to pay 300,
you will handle my appeal?
No, not so far.
It doesn't look like my kind of case.
I'm not a hired gun.
I got to feel there's some moral or constitutional issue at stake.
But I'm absolutely innocent,
and my civil liberties have been egregiously violated.
I've got two black kids facing the electric chair
for a crime they did not commit.
They are innocent.
Well, before you assume I'm guilty,
won't you hear my story?
Nope. Never let defendants explain.
Puts most of them in an awkward position.
How do you mean?
Lying.
But I give you my word as a gentleman.
Oh... well...
Well, won't you at least read the record and
see if you can find something... well...
Constitutional?
You do have one thing in your favor.
Everybody hates you.
Well, that's a start.
Come on, Maxwell!
Get up! Come on, Max!
He was hit! He... = oh! Hit!
Yes!
So what do you think?
Oh, he did it. He did it.
Of course he did it. Can we win?
Hundred to one against.
The maid. The maid shmeared him on both comas.
Look at it. At this. It says here...
After you realized that Mrs. von Bülow
had not gotten up, what did you do?
I came downstairs,
and Mr. von Bülow said that madame
had a very sore throat,
and I didn't have to do any work,
and she was in bed all day.
What are you doing?
She's ice cold.
Madame! Mrs. von Bülow!
Leave her alone.
She's sleeping.
She was drinking last night.
We didn't get any rest.
She's not sleeping.
She's unconscious.
You must call a doctor. = Maria.
Go on!
A half hour later, she had not moved.
I went back and forth all morning.
Strain over the last several days.
Finally, mid-afternoon,
Mr. von Bülow spoke to Dr. Paultees,
but he lied to doctor.
Yes, she's sleeping now,
but she was up earlier this morning to the bathroom
and had a soft drink.
So I don't think there's any cause for alarm.
But she never moved,
never got up.
She was lying in the same position all day.
Later, her heart stops,
and Dr. Paultees, he comes and saves her.
After they go to the hospital,
I'm changing the sheets.
I find a puddle of urine.
If madame went to the bathroom,
she would not have peed in her bed.
Right.
Why would Claus lie about that?
Well, it's suspicious, but hardly criminal.
How about the second coma?
Well, Maria wasn't in Newport for that one.
But shortly before the second coma...
I'm cleaning up their room
when I find Mr. von Bülow's white canvas bag
packed for Newport.
Inside, there's a little black bag:
A bottle of insulin, a syringe, and needles.
Alexander!
Alexander, come here!
Insulin.
For what, insulin?
My lady is not diabetic.
Three weeks later,
Sunny's lying unconscious in a freezing bathroom
with her nightgown hiked over her waist.
If I was on that jury,
I would have voted to convict.
Then you're taking the case?
It reminds me of my Hitler dream.
You know, Hitler calls up.
He's alive, needs a lawyer.
I say, "sure, come on over."
Then I have to decide.
Do I take the case or do I kill him?
You? No question.
I would take the case.
Then kill him.
I'm a maniac. I need someone with your judgment,
someone to watch what I'm doing, occasionally remind me about the law.
When can I see the transcripts?
You're a former prosecutor, conservative.
We agree on nothing.
But you're smarter than the Rhode Island DA.
If I can beat your arguments, I can destroy his.
Look, Rhode Island is the most corrupt state in the country.
Everything is political.
I don't think that way. You do.
I have to see the big picture. I can't afford to immerse myself in facts,
but we must know the facts.
Out of all my ex-students,
no one can assimilate information as quickly as you two.
Well, I agree with that assessment.
You're out of your mind.
I only have 45 days to file.
I can't do it without you.
Look, Sarah, I know you don't want to come back...
Is this strictly professional?
Better be.
That's wonderful.
Now, I want the best people in the world on our side,
the most prestigious experts,
Nobel prize-winning scientists.
Some of your colleagues at Harvard, perhaps.
Hey, hey, wa... wait a minute, Claus.
Look, we got a little problem there, okay?
People like that, we can't control.
They'll find one incriminating fact,
they'll tell the whole world.
I'm not afraid, Alan.
Let the chips fall where they may.
That's what an innocent man would say.
I know.
That just came for you, dad.
My daughter, Cosima. She never doubted me.
She loves Alex and Ala dearly,
and siding with me has cost her their affections.
I don't know what I would have done.
Okay, look, I said I didn't want to hear your story,
but I do need some information.
'Course.
Okay, I gather they'll, the older children, deny Sunny had a problem
with pills and alcohol?
Spectacular understatement.
So there must be somebody who saw it, right?
Some witness, somebody, somewhere? A friend?
- You want affidavits? - Yes, I do.
I'll get them.
You'll get them?
You should also know, the drugs prescribed for me were taken by Sunny.
That's a lot of drugs, Claus.
But the prosecution's allegation that I knew about syringes, injections,
totally accurate.
Sunny and I used to give ourselves b-12 injections in the late sixties.
It was quite the fad in London.
Can I explain something to you?
The less I know from you,
the more options I have.
When you tell me “the truth,”
you limit me to a defense that lines up with what you have to say.
But isn't the truth the simplest way, Alan?
I mean, why did I stay all day at Sunny's side
without calling a doctor?
Because Sunny detested doctors.
If we called one without her approval,
she went berserk.
Once she broke her hip
and didn't go to hospital for two full days.
Claus, did you hear what I just said?
Of course. Did you hear the judge sentenced me?
Sorry. 30 years is a pretty stiff sentence.
Twice trying to murder one's wife,
anything less would be monstrous.
But for a man like myself,
who did nothing...
What I wanted to ask,
if we lose the appeal,
will I have the chance later
to set my affairs in order before I'm incarcerated?
In Europe, a gentleman is given the opportunity
to end things properly.
Come on, Claus.
We are each the keeper of our own souls, Alan.
Okay, two big problems.
The case against him is very strong.
But probably more important,
the legal conviction isn't the only conviction
that we got to reverse.
The more dangerous conviction
is the absolute certainty of the American people
that Claus is guilty.
Finding grounds for reversal won't be enough here.
Judges on the Rhode Island supreme court will have to go home to their spouses
and explain why they reversed.
To get them to do that, we must completely obliterate
every single aspect of the state's case.
Destroy both the medical case and their witnesses
so the judges have no possible way to affirm.
Total victory, or we are dead in the water.
Now, I assume that you've all had an opportunity
to look at the transcripts,
first impressions, yeah, Minnie?
I think this whole thing stinks.
I think Claus von Bülow stinks.
He's obviously guilty of something pretty despicable.
And if we free him,
we become partners in his crime,
accessories after the fact.
I'm really shocked,
with your record defending the poor and oppressed,
that you've taken this case.
I won't have anything to do with it,
and I hope my fellow students won't either.
Good-bye.
May I exercise my first amendment right to free speech?
If lawyers only defended innocent clients,
there would be 10 defense lawyers in the entire country,
and none of you would be able to find a job.
Why help guilty people get off?
Oh, you're sure he's guilty, 100 percent sure.
He had a lawyer. He had a trial.
He was convicted.
Are you sure he had a fair trial?
Come on!
It's the basis of the whole legal system.
Everyone gets a defense.
So the system is there
for the one innocent person who is falsely accused.
Okay, look.
Say it's you, okay?
You decide...
You decide to get a divorce.
You're going to divorce your husband.
A week later,
you're accused of molesting your son.
Oh, no, now don't give me that look.
Stuff like this happens all the time.
Suddenly, you're alone.
You're hated.
It's... it's a nightmare.
Everyone assumes that you are guilty.
Even the mailman is beginning to look at you a little... a little funny.
You only got one person who believes in you.
There's only one person you can trust,
your lawyer.
Yeah. Okay.
So, someone's got to defend Claus.
But why you?
Why us?
Look, you're my student.
Y-you have a choice.
You d... you don't have to do anything you don't want to do.
That is your choice.
The reason I take cases,
and here, I'm unlike most other lawyers
who are not professors and therefore have to make a living,
I take cases 'cause I get pissed off,
and I am pissed off here.
The family hired a private prosecutor.
They conducted a private search.
Now, we let them get away with that,
rich people won't go to the cops anymore.
You know what they're gonna do?
They're going to get their own lawyers to collect evidence.
And then they are going to choose which evidence
they feel like passing on to the DA,
and the next victim isn't going to be rich like von Bülow.
But it's gonna be some poor schnook in Detroit
who can't afford or can't find a decent lawyer.
I think it's a little more complicated
than your simple moral superiority.
No?
I agree von Bülow is guilty,
but that's the fun, I mean, that's the challenge.
See, now there is a lawyer.
What?
Yeah, okay. Put him on.
Alan, a rather unsavory character
called David Marriott contacted me
claiming to have information about a drug delivery at Clarendon Court.
Okay. Now, where does he live?
Somewhere in Wakefield.
Okay, we... no, we'll get on it.
Tom, I want you to get a private investigator
to dig into a David Marriott who lives in Wakefield.
Okay. How are we going to win this case?
The judge made lots of mistakes.
Judges always make mistakes.
How are we going to win?
All right, one issue leaps up,
this lawyer, Brillhoffer,
interviewed Alex, Maria, everybody.
He was the first person fo hear their stories.
He took notes and he used those notes at trial
against a defense witness.
But the defense never saw the notes.
The judge wouldn't let us have them.
This alone seems like sufficient grounds. It's perfect Brady.
Okay, fine.
Why don't you draft a letter
writing to Brillhoffer asking him very nicely
to send us his notes?
Yeah, right. He'll fax them right over.
Yeah, right.
We could win on this issue alone and he knows it.
You know it, I know it.
We'll just make sure he knows it.
Now... Nancy and Dobbs...
Yes?
They're going to attack the medical testimony.
Mm-hmm.
Our Rhode Island counsel, Peter Macintosh,
he will analyze the state supreme court.
I think the rest of us should begin dissecting the transcripts,
errors, inconsistencies, anything unusual.
Okay, great. Now, remember,
most cases are won in the field,
not in court.
Minnie?
You want to work with Sarah on this?
You may learn something.
- Come on, Minnie. - Come on, Minnie.
- Minnie! - Come on.
Please?
Come on.
"Course I don't trust David Marriott.
I don't know David Marriott.
But if he knew Alex von Auersberg...
You're crazy, I don't know who you think you are.
You Perry Mason?
Let our private investigator interview this jerk.
It's stupid, it's arrogant,
and it's unprofessional.
- It's fun. - Fun? This guy is a sleaze.
You don't know what he's going to try.
What, is he going to shoot me?
Come on, I'm from Brooklyn.
Okay, look, I'll stand by the window every 10 minutes, okay?
That way you can know I'm safe.
I had this friend...
Gilbert Jackson...
Interior decorator.
Flaming queen, but a very excellent guy.
He introduced me to Alex von Auersberg.
You sure it was Alex?
We had dinner a few times, drinks.
All I knew, Alex was some rich kid.
So sometimes,
this is like, uh, summer of '77,
I'd motor to Newport for some r and r.
Gilbert asked me to bring Alex a package.
I figured interior decoration.
Maybe drapes.
Like six times.
So I'd call Alex.
How'd you get his phone number?
From Gilbert.
You still have it?
Maybe.
I'm that kind of guy.
Here.
One night I got curious.
Opened the package.
Fucking pharmacy, man.
Needles, syringes, white powder.
Nice selection of pills.
Demerol.
Like a drugstore.
You delivered drugs six times and didn't know it?
Stupid, huh?
Then Gilbert asked me again.
I couldn't say no, but this time
I made Alex open the package in front of me.
Voila.
I go, "awful lot of pharmaceuticals for one person.”
He goes, "oh, I give some to my mom
to keep her off my back.”
Few weeks later, Gilbert gets mistaken for a softball.
Two guys bash his head in.
Alex calls me, totally urinary.
Will the cops find his phone number
and fuck up his trust fund or something?
Well, that's the fat.
That's the skinny.
You like it?
You traffic with drug dealers and drag queens.
You have a part-time job.
You ride around in rented limos.
All in all, I would have to say
you're probably the least impressive witness
I've ever seen.
Wait a minute.
You think I'm scum, don't you?
Blow it out your ass.
You want a witness to back me up?
I'll get one.
And, hey,
maybe I'll see you at the Celtics, huh?
I am not going to let them execute you.
You're not going to die.
Look, Johnny, th...
Johnny, this is going to be a lot easier on me
if you don't cry, okay? I... I kn...
I know your brother's hysterical, I...
Number o... they always set a date for the execution,
and they always postpone it...
He's great when he's like this, huh?
That's right.
I just wish he had something left for the people around him.
What are you talking to me about money?
Did I ever ask you about money?
Anyway, it's nice to have you back here.
Okay. Say hello to your brother.
Right.
Okay.
Okay, who's got what?
Uh, yeah. Maria's testimony.
She says Sunny did take valium prescribed for Claus.
Okay, score one for von Bülow.
And this Jamie Smather prescription?
Who's Jamie Smather?
Three-hundred-pound redheaded hooker in pigtails and white boots.
She supplied Claus with valium.
He had a gorgeous mistress and he went with an ugly whore?
You know, there's some things even mistresses won't do.
Like what?
I-I'm not telling.
Anyway, Maria swears
she first saw this Jamie Smather prescription February 14th,
and then again February 28th.
So?
It wasn't prescribed till the 28th.
You're not suggesting she's lying?
Okay, how about Maria's insulin? "For what, insulin"?
- Anything more on that? - Not yet.
Something about that bothers me.
Okay, who's next?
Brillhoffer wrote back.
He's very attached to his notes.
"I am satisfied
that there is not a scrap of paper in my files
that might even arguably be viewed as exculpatory.”
English translation?
He says he doesn't have anything that'd help us.
You with me?
Pay dirt.
What's pay dirt?
He's a lawyer.
If he really didn't have anything, he'd give it to us...
But there's something there
and he's gonna fight like hell to hold onto it.
I will bet my fee
that no one remembered seeing insulin
until after the lab report came back.
So... you're suggesting...
Memory enhancement.
It might be more than that.
Possibly.
A frame-up.
You mean by the kids?
Where are you getting all this, from Brillhoffer's letter?
Pure deduction.
A good lawyer is part psychiatrist, detective, logician.
A great lawyer...
Never would have taken this case.
If there's nothing more...
Has anybody read this?
It's an interview with Truman Capote.
He says when she was 19,
Sunny von Bülow
taught him how to inject drugs.
Let me see that.
Well, well, well, the famous professor.
Alan, I'd like to introduce my new girlfriend,
- Andrea Reynolds. - I'm not his girlfriend, I'm his savior.
Perfectly true.
Two days after the trial ended, we fell in love.
- It was really very, very dramatic. - Yes, Andrea, Andrea, come on.
Since then, I've devoted my life to clearing his name.
I made him hire you.
"Get the Jew," I said.
Darling...
Can the Jew get down to business?
We've got an affidavit.
A Smythe, Mrs. Ruth Smythe,
gave us an affidavit corroborating Truman capote.
I have affidavits, too.
Newport people.
They describe Sunny taking pills,
getting drunk and falling down...
Bumping into doorways,
smearing lipstick all over her face.
Not a very pretty picture.
She did it, didn't she?
Don't be a priss.
Sunny was a lovely woman.
Spoiled rotten.
Yes, but lovely.
Till she drank.
Two drinks and she became... nasty,
- irrational. - All women are irrational, darling.
Did we mention the priest?
Oh. Marriott apparently confided in a priest
who's consented to talk to us.
A father Capello from Providence.
Priest?
Well, a priest is the ideal witness.
- It's like getting the word of god. - I checked.
God is unavailable.
If
If the priest comes through
and we can get documentation on Sunny's drug use,
then self-injection may be a plausible theory.
There's no insulin in this case.
Yeah, but people do use insulin,
they use it for dieting, it's not a prescription drug.
Sunny was concerned about her weight.
Maybe, but believe me, Alan...
There's no insulin here.
Really?
How can you be so sure?
Do you realize...
With this case, I'm looking for evidence to exonerate you?
But at the same time, I'm also wondering...
What really happened...
Who you are.
Who would you like me to be?
Your mother's death...
What happened?
I believe she had a heart problem.
Really?
The rumor in England is you killed her.
Hey, wait a minute, Alan.
Statute of limitations ran out on that years ago.
There's rumors also that I killed my aunt.
And that I'm a necrophiliac,
who injected Sunny with insulin
so that I could have my way with her.
Please.
Your mother's death wasn't recorded for five full days.
True.
Where were you during that time?
In the flat.
Where the body was?
My mother is my own business.
Did Claus drive me crazy?
Even I don't know.
But it's true that I took up to 24 laxatives daily,
popped aspirin like m&ms,
smoked three packs of cigarettes a day,
had a problem with alcohol,
took valium and seconal frequently,
and consumed large quantities of sweets
despite a medical condition, hypoglycemia,
which made them hazardous.
As for my state of mind...
I had not had sex with my husband for years.
My schedule was...
I woke at 9:30,
did a little exercise and shopping,
ahd returned to bed at three o'clock
for the remainder of the afternoon.
I liked to be in bed.
I didn't much like anything else.
Hold on here, will you?
Come in.
Alan.
Welcome to my humble law firm.
In the kitchen,
our insulin-on-the-needle team.
They're cooking up some surprise for us.
This is our Brillhoffer notes team.
Mr. von Bülow!
Where do you keep the paper towels?
Ask Sarah!
Sarah used to live here.
This...
I guess he was up all night.
This sort of commune,
you do it on every case?
Never before.
Thirty-eight days to write 100 pages?
Only way to get it done.
Here's the black bag team.
Illegal search teams.
My son, Elon, lost his room.
Well, actually, this is, uh, this is another case
that you're paying for.
And this is my team.
You wish.
I... I can't find the damn thing.
Hi. I'm Sarah.
And a very lovely Sarah you are.
Does that really work?
Flattery?
Absolutely.
Like Chinese food?
What do you give a wife who has everything?
An injection of insulin.
How... ah, my prawns.
How can one define a fear of insulin?
Claus-trophobia.
Hm.
Is there anything more you can tell us
about Alexandra Isles?
For instance, is it true that she gave you a deadline
of Christmas 1979 to be together?
Uh, not really.
No, she knew I was looking for full-time work.
I worked for JP Getty in London.
Alexandra assumed that when you did find a job,
you'd marry her, correct?
Oh, she assumed it.
How about when she testified,
did you get a sense that she wanted to get back together?
Very much so. In fact, at the trial, she said...
I loved him, but I was still caught up in my own anger...
And I'm sorry I acted that way then.
I loved him, and I was angry.
Let me ask you this. Maybe you can't answer.
Do you still love him?
I don't know.
That means yes, doesn't it?
It would seem so.
In fact, after the trial,
she wrote me a letter saying so explicitly.
A very passionate letter.
Passionate and...
Jealous.
But that was the relationship from the outset.
That was Alexandra.
She was your love slave.
Ah.
Well, I think now I'll have my own individual order
of ginger prawns.
- Waiter. - Three weeks before her final coma,
Sunny overdosed on aspirin.
Can you tell us anything about that?
No one maintained I had anything to do with that, Alan.
No, of course not.
I'm asking you what happened.
Well, Sunny had been unwell.
Ohhh...
Are you all right?
Oh, just a bit dizzy.
Well, if you're dizzy, don't go wandering.
Sunny?
Oh, my god.
Come on, my darling.
Now, you're all right.
Come on, put your arm around my shoulder.
There we are.
Now, you're all right.
Get you... come on. We'll get you back into bed.
Something happened to my head.
You're all right. = it's cut.
Just a little cut. It's nothing.
Come on.
Let's get you lying down.
There you are.
There.
Shall I call a doctor?
No! No, I don't want...
I don't want a doctor.
Just... don't want a doctor.
Just want to be left alone.
Want to be left alone with all those beaut... beautiful letters.
What did you do with those letters?
Why did you write those letters?
And those...
Later, Dr. Praug said
we needn't have gone to the hospital,
but I wasn't going to take any chances.
Why did she take so much aspirin?
Oh, Sunny always took aspirin.
She'd been taking a lot for several days.
That's not what our doctor said.
Dr. Lucas Lupardus,
chief forensic toxicologist, Suffolk county,
says that people who take large amounts of aspirin every day
never reach that level.
He also said the average blood level in cases of death is...
Sixty. Hers was 90.
So...
So it was obviously a suicide attempt.
Why?
Yeah, why?
Why?
Alan, do they all want to be prosecutors?
We're waiting.
Well, I presume she was unhappy.
How about we all finish up and go back to the house?
We're not going to win this on a technicality. Peter.
I've read every case in the last seven years
where the Rhode Island supreme court reversed.
They don't like to make new law,
they don't like to discuss broad legal issues.
When they do reverse,
the grounds are technical,
but the reason seems to be
they suspect a convicted defendant may be innocent.
Okay, so everybody get that?
True or not, we've got to convince the judges
that you are innocent.
Claus, now I do want to hear your side of the story.
With pleasure.
Innocence has always been my position.
First coma. What preceded it?
Well, Sunny loved Christmas.
It was her favorite season, really.
You see, what you must understand about Sunny
is that she loved giving more than anything else.
J peace on earth and mercy mild j
j god and sinners reconciled... j
each year, she always made a big bowl of fresh eggnog.
Now, that year, she drank a lot of it.
How much?
Oh, 10 or 12 glasses.
With her hypoglycemia?
She didn't always drink like that?
Never.
She never touched alcohol at all except on social occasions
to overcome her shyness...
Or when she was upset.
This was not a social occasion.
No.
We'd been discussing divorce all afternoon.
This whole subject of your...
Work... coming between us,
isn't it just a pretext when the real subject is her?
Certainly not.
I'm thinking of redecorating this whole fucking house.
Then she knew about Alexandra.
Yes.
How did she find out?
Uh...
I, um...
I told her the previous summer.
Ala, can't we find one a bit slower?
- Ah, that's much better. - Hm.
- Cooler. - Hm.
Thank you.
Oh, I've been meaning to mention...
Our understanding about my...
Extracurricular activities.
Mmm?
I've been involved with someone who...
Falls outside the parameters of our agreement.
- Really? - Someone...
Peripherally in our circle.
Billy Botsky's daughter,
Alexandra isles.
Well.
That must be better for you
than what you've had to put up with.
You're referring to the call girls.
Yes.
I mean, that is where you've gone previously, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
And isn't this better?
Or is Billy Botsky's daughter a call girl, too?
This is much better.
That was what, July, August?
Now it's Christmas time,
and you were still squabbling over Alexandra?
No. We were fighting about my work.
Well, by the evening,
she'd drunk so much eggnog,
that I had to help her into the bedroom.
Alexander.
Time for bed, darling.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
There we are.
Please don't hold my arm.
Darling, you know when you get like this...
Remember?
You fell and broke your hip.
That was years ago.
It was two years ago.
Get me a scotch and soda.
May I at least urinate alone?
She runs the water every time she goes in there.
If she was already soused, why'd you go for the scotch?
Because she asked for it.
Sunny got what Sunny wanted.
It's okay.
Good night, dad.
Good night, darling.
Good night, Claus.
Good night, Alex.
Hasn't my mother given us enough money?
Claus?
That night, we hardly slept.
Your age, it's perfectly acceptable to retire.
I'm already retired.
I haven't worked full-time since Getty.
Exactly. It's your ego.
You've never had a career. Not really.
Well, I'm going to have one now.
Oh, come on, Sunny, your father worked.
Do you want the children to grow up
thinking a male's place is in a deck chair?
Claus, you marry me for my money,
then you demand to work.
You're the prince of perversion.
I mean, what? Are you trying to destroy our whole family?
Oh, no, of course not.
I... l... l simply want some...
Intercourse with the world.
Shut up, pan!
Oh, what does it matter?
So is that it?
Another divorce?
Okay.
I'll divorce you. I will.
Oh, god...
Two-time loser.
I'll divorce everybody.
I don't want a divorce.
I don't want to marry Billy Botsky's daughter.
I want to stay with you and I want to work.
I need that as a man.
It's hopeless.
Oh, god.
I need my beauty sleep.
Why do you... why do you believe it's hopeless just because of some...
Good night, Claus.
Sunny, you know I love you.
Good night.
Okay, and the next day?
Well...
Maria's testimony was wildly exaggerated.
Sunny was never moaning.
Maybe the occasional snore, but...
And Maria shook Sunny.
Nobody ever shook Sunny.
What happened when she regained consciousness?
After the first coma,
well, it was kind of absurd.
Everybody was angry at me.
Can't you ever leave me alone?
Why did you do it?
I would have been better off.
You would have been better off.
What do you want me to say?
That I'm sorry I saved your life?
Yes.
Say it.
Of course I'm not sorry.
Wha...
Claus...
What am I going to do with myself?
When I phoned Alexandra,
to tell her what had happened, she said the same thing,
she said, "why did you do it?
Why did you call the doctor?”
You telling me she wanted you to let Sunny die?
No, no, no, no, no.
It was more...
"Everybody says Sunny" s such an unhappy woman
and has nothing to live for."
Well, so much for the first coma.
The second, of course,
was much more theatrical.
Theatrical? What is this, a fucking game?
This is life and death. Your wife is laying in a coma.
You don't even make a pretense of caring, do you?
'Course I care, Alan.
It's just I don't wear my heart on my sleeve.
Let's call it a night, okay?
Okay, guys, so...
As you wish.
There were three drugs on the needle, right?
Amobarbital, valium, insulin.
We can't all be you, Alan.
Shoot! Shoot! All right.
Okay, get a doctor to prepare five needles,
one with nothing,
two with valium, amobarbital, and insulin,
two with just valium and amobarbital.
We're gonna send them to the same lab that our famous needle went to.
Let's see if we can get a false positive result.
If we don't?
We don't, I clean the latrines.
Aw, you're not gonna believe this.
David Marriott wants money.
Yeah, who doesn't?
I'm afraid his memory might fade.
Oh, the hell with him. Forget about him.
Well, he has lost his crumby job,
and he is running around trying to find evidence for us.
Okay, why don't we do what the government does with its witnesses?
Okay? We'll pay for his time.
What's his time worth?
Buck and a half. = Sarah? Dersh?
Your team's on.
Okay. You going to pass to me this game or what?
No.
Their private investigator said
the needle had a small encrustation near the tip.
Now, doctors tell us this is totally inconsistent with injection.
Okay, so how did it get there?
Oh.
If I inject this needle,
the skin acts as kind of a swab.
It cleans the needle off,
leaving the tip completely free of liquid.
But if I just dip the needle into the liquid,
what do you see?
Dry this out,
you have an encrustation.
So it's a frame-up?
It's Desdemona's handkerchief.
My stepchildren thought I was guilty,
didn't feel they had enough evidence,
and so concocted some.
This should win us the case, no?
No. We're maybe halfway home.
There's still a lot of weird stuff.
Did you love Sunny?
I married her.
Of course I loved her. She was beautiful.
Rich.
Why not?
What I've seen of the rich, you can have.
I do.
The black bag,
was it yours?
Sunny appropriated it.
Now, to understand that,
you must understand that after the first coma,
she went into a complete rage.
Where are they? Did you take them?
Certainly not. Take what?
My pills, you moron.
Valium, seconal...
You took them, didn't you?
My dear, I've long since stopped interfering.
Well, who? My children wouldn't dare...
Oh.
Oh, I know who.
Where are you going?
Maria!
She soon found them.
It's my lovely mother, isn't it?
She's behind all this.
She's in cahoots with Maria.
Well, just because she had all the money
before I had all the money
does not mean she's my lord and master.
'Course not. I am your lord and master.
Just kidding.
Maria loves me too much.
It's unhealthy for her,
and it's certainly no fun for me.
There.
We'll see if that ugly little maid of mine
can sniff this one out.
And what are you going to do with all that?
I'm not going to tell you.
I assure you, it not gonna be among my affairs.
Odd she used that word, affairs.
You realize the prosecution thinks you ground up the drugs
so you could inject Sunny?
And frankly, this nose drop business is pretty far-fetched.
But consider the pattern, Alan.
It's public record that Sunny used drugs.
Her behavior here of hiding them in liquid
so that no one will find them,
it's your classic alcoholic buying pints of whiskey
and stashing them all over the house.
You're right.
Of course, I mean...
I mean, you've always been right, haven't you?
This is the most dangerous case I've ever worked on.
You find that exhilarating?
No, I do not.
I am breaking every rule.
'Cause the best way to win is to proclaim your innocence,
and I've never done that for anybody.
And the problem I got is I see who you are.
You'd do anything to win.
So would you.
Yeah, but you don't trust the legal system.
You're saying I'd manufacture witnesses?
Affidavits?
No, but you would sacrifice me.
Oh, please, Alan.
See, the more I believe that you are innocent, the more nervous I am.
I go out on a limb for you,
you're proven guilty, I look like an asshole.
My reputation, my credibility, my career, destroyed.
That's the risk you're taking, isn't it?
Yeah, well, fuck you.
Fuck you, man.
I'm glad we understand one another.
It's easy to forget all this is about me...
Lying here.
To most of you, my name means coma.
My second marriage means attempted murder.
Everything that came before,
everything beautiful, does not exist in the public mind.
No one thinks of how I loved my children.
Look at Cosima,
and Alex, of course,
and Ala,
and certainly no one cares about Claus,
the way he was when I fell in love with him.
When Claus and I first met,
I was married to the dashing, young prince Alfred Eduard Friederich
Vincenz Martin Maria von Auersberg.
It was 1964,
seven years into my first marriage.
It seems that my first husband,
Alfie, as he was called,
had vowed to be unfaithful with every pretty girl in Europe.
He was having quite a success.
And so...
I was unfaithful with Claus.
Psst!
Wildly unfaithful.
Happy memories.
But it's not the passion I remember most.
It's the tenderness.
Good god, what's that?
There's one of Frank's pets.
Oh, my god. No, no.
I never liked people much,
not as a rule.
Go ahead, feed him.
But Claus was somehow different.
Not a normal person, I guess.
It's all right. Do it again.
Give him some more.
Aw!
One of those things you never forget.
Of course, now he lives in my apartment...
My bedroom...
My bed.
Cold, isn't it?
Cold and brutish and the way of the world.
Looking at him now,
the issues seem simple.
Is he the devil?
If so, can the devil get justice?
And all this legal activity...
Is it in Satan's service?
"Sunny von Bülow was totally vulnerable
to Claus von Bülow."
Can't argue with that.
But it's speculation. Exaggeration.
You keep working on it.
Totally inflammatory!
Okay, good. Let's go over this.
Okay, we went over it... once, I just wanted you to see if...
Oh, shit, wha... what is this, illegal search?
It's a classic technicality.
It's a guilty man's argument.
Come on, this is different.
Usual fourth amendment case, you're trying to exclude evidence
that's bad for your client. = no, no. No, no.
Same thing here. Same thing.
No. This search destroyed evidence.
No fingerprints, no inventory.
Yeah, what's left hurts Claus, but under Brady,
the state has an obligation...
Wait, wait, wait a second. The cops tested the drugs
- from the illegal search, right? - Yes, yes.
And we are saying that that test constituted a second illegal search.
There are precedents.
- Walter, Jacobson, Morgan. - I know there are precedents.
I know the law is on our side. I'm not debating that.
What I'm trying to do is...
No. You're debating me personally. Why?
I'm debating strategy, okay? I'm not... I'm not debating you.
We're all on the same team.
A-a-are we on the same team here or not?
I don't know. We seem to be.
Well then, why don't I feel it?
I thought this was strictly professional.
- It was. - That's bullshit, Alan.
Look, I brought you... I... l asked you to work on this case
because I think you are a good lawyer.
I think you're a fine lawyer, too. You're a great lawyer.
But you give everything you have to the law,
and you forget the people you care about.
My clients are the people that I care about.
Obviously.
What I care about, all I care about,
all I fucking care about is this!
This case!
And making... making the best possible appeal we're capable of doing, okay?
Now, you can make your argument better, Sarah.
You know that! I know that!
So why don't you just do it and cut out all the bullshit?
Wow, you always have to have the last word, don't you?
What?
We're going to lose.
W-why do you think this case fascinates people?
'Cause one time or other every man is driven crazy by his wife,
and in his secret heart,
he wants to do exactly what Claus is accused of,
kill her in some sly, silent way that can't be detected.
Claus is a scapegoat.
Someone has to suffer for the sin that we all want to commit.
Alan, that's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous, you're right.
It's rid...
What do you got?
Prosecution's case is based on a theory.
The needle in the bag,
plus insulin on the needle,
- plus insulin in her blood. - Right, right, yeah. Okay, fine.
In Derek, this Rhode Island supreme court,
these same judges,
said that in a case based on circumstantial theory,
the case falls apart
if any part of the theory is weak.
If there's a weak link in the chain,
then you throw the whole chain out?
Exactly.
Peter, that's very... that's good.
That... that's very good.
Oh, yeah, this is good.
- Thank you. - Oh, yeah.
Wait, wait, wait. What do you want me to do now?
What I want you to do?
I want you to find as many alternative theories as possible.
Hey! Hey, hey!
Come on, come on, come on. There's only seven days left.
Dersh? I'm sorry, but you better come downstairs.
Hey, Dersh. Sorry to get you out of bed.
What do you... what do you want, more money?
Can you get more?
Can I have a glass of water, please?
No.
The reason I'm here,
my affidavit is inaccurate.
Great. Just what I need right now.
- That's swell. - Yeah.
I left something out, something incredibly important.
Remember I gave Alex's drugs to a woman at Clarendon Court?
Yeah. So?
Well, that bitch was definitely Sunny von Bülow.
David...
This, uh...
This is bad. It looks bad.
I've met with you, what, five times now? All of a sudden...
No, it's not sudden.
I think I always knew, but I became convinced
by staring at pictures of her.
Well, we can't use your affidavit unless it's truthful.
Are you sure this time?
I swear...
On the body and soul of my mother.
Poor woman.
Put in this change and make him go over
every word of the affidavit.
Uh...
Can I use your men's room?
More money?
Can you get more?
But if Claus had injected her,
he'd have thrown away the needle, right?
Sure. If he threw away the insulin,
why keep the needle?
Hey, Claus is strange, but he ain't stupid.
He is arrogant.
Is that a crime?
Sometimes.
Why are we even discussing this?
It's obvious. The kids framed him.
Whoa, you changed your tune.
A frame-up doesn't mean he's innocent.
The kids could have framed a guilty man.
Dersh!
Telephone!
It's Peter Macintosh.
Yeah?
You know what it is?
Okay.
Word in Rhode Island is that the state can't lose.
They got an Ace up their sleeve.
What is it?
He's going to try to find out.
All right, my friend...
Friend? I like that.
Nothing personal.
Okay, no students, no witnesses.
Second coma. Let's hear it.
Well, Alan,
strange as it may seem now in retrospect...
Claus, cut the bullshit.
December 20, 1980.
Sunny was unwell.
We'd been arguing all afternoon.
I'd at last been offered a new position in the oil business,
which would have meant my spending some time in Europe.
Well, the discussion must have escalated,
because I went to talk to the children.
This cargo will bring 50,000 gold florins
from any rebels worth the name.
50,000 florins?
That's a pretty good take.
Let's put it to the vote.
All those in favor...
If you'll forgive my interrupting, skipper,
I'd like to think before I...
L... I've something to tell you both.
We're heading for the biggest and the best pirate days ever!
L...
It looks as if...
As though...
Mummy and I are going to have to split up,
because my work is something she just cannot tolerate.
Mummy says things like that.
She always gets over it.
Yes, but this has been going on for too long.
I'm going to Europe for a few months in the New Year,
and this will probably lead to a split.
Oh.
It's all right. She'll get over it.
Yeah, well, Alexander says that conversation happened the next day.
Can you imagine anything more absurd
than announcing your intention to divorce a woman
who's just fallen into a coma?
No. That evening, everything seemed normal enough.
Not cheerful,
but then, we didn't usually giggle at mealtimes.
Despite her doctor's warnings about sweets,
the only thing Sunny consumed was a sundae.
After supper, I went to finish off some work in my study.
Well, what should we all do?
The others decided to chat in the living room.
Ah, that would be lovely, but...
First I need to go to my... To my room for just a minute.
After about an hour, I dropped in on them.
Darling, would you care for anything?
Mmm...
If there's some...
Chicken bullion left.
I'll look.
There you are, darling.
Thank you.
How is your work... coming?
I'm totally flummoxed.
I can't get the figures to make any sense.
Why don't you call your friend Deborah?
I doubt she'd be in Saturday night.
So, Deborah, I think you'll agree, that's 728... right, now.
But Deborah was home,
and we did talk for some time until...
- Claus. - Hold on.
Come quick. Mummy's not well.
Deborah, can I call you back in the morning? Thanks.
Her voice got very weak and she almost fell down. I had to help her.
Somebody open a window.
I find the chill reassuring.
Now I must speak with Claus.
- Night, mummy. - Night.
Good night, darling.
Good night, Alex.
She'll be all right.
That is, if Claus has time to talk.
Or are you going to work
every spare moment right through Christmas?
Hmm?
Is your work really so fascinating,
or are you trying to drive me away?
Because if you are, it's succeeding beautifully,
because I don't want this.
I didn't marry you for this.
I could have had anybody.
With my money? Anybody.
Well?
Say something!
Do something!
Be a man!
I already have a butler.
Do something!
I don't want this! I don't!
I don't want this!
Please! I don't...
I don't want th...
The same conversation as the previous year,
only this time with greater venom.
You've always been afraid of me.
It's not because of my money.
It's basically because you're a coward.
Because your pitiful masculinity is so fragile
you can't stand the idea of confrontation,
so you go off with miss Botsky...
Good night.
Hey! Hey.
As was usual, I was awakened before dawn.
I let the dogs out, as was customary.
I went back through the bedroom
to my study as quietly as possible.
I did not notice if my wife was in bed.
I did not notice if the light was on under the bathroom door.
Had it been on, I wouldn't have given it a thought.
I did my exercises, showered,
and then I called Deborah Knowles.
Well, I mean, it's stable and it's profitable.
Can anyone really believe,
if I was trying to murder my wife,
that I would spend an hour going over a tedious set of figures?
After the call, I passed through the bedroom again.
I remember it was freezing.
By this time, Sunny was certainly not in bed,
and I heard water running in the bathroom.
I had breakfast, walked the dogs,
and on my return,
asked the children where mummy was.
Has mummy had breakfast yet?
We haven't seen her.
Sunny?
Her bathroom was her private sanctuary.
No one entered it, except the maid, of course,
to clean up.
Sometimes she stayed there for hours, or so it seemed.
One can only speculate what goes on behind a closed door.
Sunny, are you there?
I hesitated even to knock.
Darling?
Sunny?
Oh, god.
Once I'd ascertained she was breathing,
I went to fetch Alexander.
Why not call an ambulance first?
Panic, Alan, panic.
I mean, I... il...
I... l needed to talk to somebody. There...
She was breathing normally.
It wasn't... it wasn't like the year before.
I mean, in retrospect it seems absurd,
but I looked at her upper lip, she had blood on it.
I thought she'd broken a tooth.
That was the extent of my concern,
and that's...
That's really all... all I can...
That's really all I can say.
Yeah, but is it the truth?
Of course.
But not the whole truth?
I don't know the whole truth.
I don't know what happened to her.
Wish I didn't believe you.
You know, it's very hard to trust someone you don't understand.
You're a very strange man.
You have no idea.
Everybody here?
Peter Macintosh is late. Says he's got bad news.
There he is.
Well?
I found out what the state has.
Mm-hm. = their Ace in the hole.
It's you.
It's me?
David Marriott taped all his conversations with you.
Oh, great.
The scuttlebutt is, if we win the case, you go to prison.
What did I say?
Good ol' corrupt Rhode Island, I got a friend to get me an excerpt.
The reason I'm here,
my affidavit is inaccurate.
David, this is bad. It looks bad.
What, you want more money?
Can you get more?
Yeah.
Hey, that is not what I said.
It's on tape, Alan.
I don't care if it's on tape, it's not what I said.
What do we do? =I don't know.
I... I'll tell you what we do. We ignore it, that's what we...
Alan, with that tape, it's your whole career.
I now believe Claus is innocent. So.
We've decided, no tricks, no technicalities.
We are going to base our appeal
directly and explicitly on Claus' innocence.
That's not proper.
An appeal has to be based on judicial error.
It is. The judge should've thrown out the case.
How can you say there was insufficient evidence
when a jury convicted him?
- That's a good point, but... - But that's what we are saying.
If the rules don't work, you change them.
Red Auerbach got the jump ball rule changed
when the Celtics had a short team.
Uh, but it's dangerous politically, Alan.
If the judges feel insulted, then we're gonna find...
Wait up, here. State Supreme Court shouldn't even look at an appeal
based on new evidence.
Hey, guys, I'll take care of that, okay?
You just... you leave it to me.
Look, I know you're all exhausted.
We got four days left.
What we do now is going to decide this thing.
Do you wanna win, or not?
Alan! = what?
- We've got something. - We've hit the jackpot.
Our needles that had amobarbital and valium...
But no insulin...
Both came back with false positive readings
for insulin.
Okay.
One was 93, the other 282.
We've knocked out every piece of their medical case.
Good work, good work.
Okay, now, now all they've got left is my neck.
Anybody know anything about editing audio tapes?
Defense! For what, defense!
- Come on! - Come on!
All right, Alan.
- Come on! - Hey!
Hurry up!
- What's going on? - Pass it, Alan.
I got it. Wait a minute. I got it, I got it.
- Where's Raj? - He's upstairs.
- Where you going? - Alan!
Raj, Raj, I got it.
I got it.
Remember Maria?
She could have said it like this...
Insulin?
For what, insulin?
My lady is not diabetic.
You see? "My lady is not diabetic.”
She is assuming that the bag is Sunny's.
Her first reaction, instantaneous,
not part of a legal strategy devised later,
is that the stuff in the black bag
belonged to Sunny, not Claus.
Who's gonna know better than she?
Start writing.
You are not god, you are a prosecutor,
and Alabama cannot execute those Johnson kids
before the supreme court rules!
That... that's right! You heard me right.
You've got two hours to get to Rhode Island.
You're gonna have to speed.
You want me to commit a crime?
Of course not! Because if you do, they're gonna stop you,
you're not gonna make the deadline.
I'm telling you right now, buddy, those kids fry, you're next!
You forgot your jacket.
You're damn right!
Some startling developments in the von Bülow case.
Harvard law school professor Alan Dershowitz
had been accused of paying for falsified testimony,
but those accusations were discredited today
by the Rhode Island Attorney General,
who announced that David Marriott's tape was doctored
and that Marriott is not a reliable witness.
So, what was he up to, Alan?
Who was he working for?
Damned if I know.
Hope they don't think he was working for you.
Alan, no one's going to think...
Look, I don't think you did it, okay?
But at the Chinese restaurant,
you did duck the big question.
Chuck is our Alexandra isles expert.
Sunny's aspirin overdose...
What happened? Sunny had a headache?
Headache... was Alexandra, right?
Let's hear it, Claus.
Alexandra was spiteful.
On the day of Sunny's aspirin overdose,
she returned some presents I'd given her,
some photographs...
Love letters.
She dropped them off in a shopping bag.
Did Sunny see them?
Sunny was home.
I was not.
Alexandra neglected to address the package to me.
I want to be left alone with all those beau... beautiful letters.
What did you do with those letters? Why did you write those letters?
There's a big difference between knowing about an affair
and having love letters crammed down your throat.
It seems that Sunny did care about your affair.
She cared a lot.
Why didn't you tell us?
Everything was open book.
"Get the best experts.
I'm not afraid of the truth.”
Looks to me like Alexandra tried to force Sunny into a suicide.
Or they plotted it together.
Either way, he's protecting Alexandra,
because he's still in love with her.
And why not?
I mean, hey, she's a babe.
"Course I still love her.
And hate her.
Alexandra, Sunny, Andrea...
I love them all.
Being a human being is very literal.
You're trapped.
Time moves in only one direction,
forward.
It's stupid and boring
and results in a lot of silliness.
Example, the legal process.
In this particular case,
a vast amount of time, effort, and money was spent
trying to determine precisely what happened
on those two nights so close to Christmas,
December 26th, 1979, December 20th, 1980.
Happened right here.
Even now it all looks the same,
feels the same, smells the same.
If you could just go back in time and take a peek,
you'd know,
and all this would be unnecessary.
All rise!
Hear ye, hear ye!
All persons having business before the supreme court
holding in Providence within and for the state of Rhode Island
may now draw near...
Then again,
everyone enjoys a circus.
Be seated.
If the appellant is ready, you may proceed.
If it please the court,
oral argument will be made by out-of-state counsel,
professor Alan Dershowitz.
Your honors,
you may not like Claus von Bülow.
You may think he is guilty of something,
but I am here to tell you he is innocent.
Our new evidence will clear...
Professor, you know there isn't a single case which allows you
to introduce new evidence on appeal.
Well, there is one, your honor,
and you wrote it. Derek.
In Derek...
In Derek, you yourself said
that a case based on circumstantial theory rather than fact
only stands up
if no other theory makes sense.
The only way to show a better theory
is to present it.
Get on with it, counselor.
I hope you will have the courage
to free an innocent man
and remedy a grave injustice.
This will never work.
Too smart for his own good.
Alan says it will work,
if the prosecutor takes the bait.
What do you mean, "bait"?
Argues the evidence.
Your honors,
introduction of new evidence on appeal
violates every principle of jurisprudence,
every statute,
every precedent, every rule of ethics.
Ah, he's nailing us right off the bat.
I am not going to stand before you
and argue Mr. von Bülow's guilt.
However,
I have no choice but to address Mr. Dershowitz' arguments
one by one.
- Bingo. - First,
the matter of the encrusted needle...
So? Now it's up to the judges.
Tell me what you really think.
I think it's easier to love somebody
than to live with them.
Love is fantasy.
Living is work.
I'll say. And those people don't like to work.
But, if you don't do the work, the love dies,
and nobody wants to deal with that one.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
The love died,
Sunny couldn't accept it...
So Claus tried to kill her?
Maybe.
I don't agree.
Face it, all we had to do was prove the state made a lousy case.
We didn't prove that Claus was innocent.
We couldn't. We didn't have to, and he probably isn't.
He isn't? You mean, you thi...
I mean, so, he didn't inject Sunny with insulin.
So what? Break it down. First coma, no problem.
Even the attending doctor thought it was caused by hypoglycemia,
loss of air to the brain, and so on.
All right. But what about the second coma?
I mean, why does Claus act so guilty?
Hey, come on, wouldn't any man feel guilty if his wife was suicidal?
Yeah, so, so maybe she took the sleeping pills
with the intention of killing herself,
but how did she end up lying on a marble floor in a freezing bathroom
with her head under the toilet bowl?
How about this?
Sunny wakes up miserable.
Second marriage is over.
Children are leaving home.
What's to live for?
But when she was found,
her nightgown was hiked over her waist.
Exactly. How did it get there?
Okay, let's say she's standing at the sink.
She has to pee.
At exactly the same instant,
the drugs hit.
Body convulses.
She grabs the nightgown.
I don't buy that.
It does seem far-fetched.
So's the truth sometimes.
Oh, bull. I think she took the barbiturates the previous night.
And, let's say he saw her take them,
or she told him she was going to before they fell asleep.
This time, he wants her to succeed.
Sunny?
Maybe there's some way he can help her along.
Of course, the open window.
Zero degrees.
But somebody might see her there.
The action of dragging her would naturally pull up the nightgown.
In this cold, how long could she survive?
Remember what Sunny said?
"I would have been better off.
You would have been better off.”
Because the law is a blunt instrument.
It is not a rapier. It is a cudgel.
Tomorrow, death penalty,
which reminds me of the comedian who said,
"ll don't know why they call it the death penalty.
That's no penalty. You're out of the game!"
- Good news. - Great news.
And more good news.
The decision came down?
They just announced it.
Five-zip.
We murdered them.
Grounds?
Well, they got the Brillhoffer notes.
And that silly, silly guilty man's argument,
search and seizure.
Federal or state? = both.
- That's important. - Yeah, it's federal, they could appeal it
in the us supreme court.
But because it's Rhode Island, they can't. We win.
Don"t... don't get too excited until we see Brillhoffer's notes.
We destroyed their medical case,
but their witnesses still carry emotional weight
if there's a second trial.
Unless...
The Brillhoffer notes show that they've changed their stories.
Good afternoon, sir.
Let me get that for you.
Thank you.
You have Brillhoffer's notes?
Yes.
Well?
They're not what we hoped.
I knew it.
They're much better.
No one mentioned seeing insulin when they first talked to Brillhoffer.
Plus... Maria told them
that at Thanksgiving, when she supposedly saw insulin
for the first time,
she couldn't even read any of the labels.
They were all scraped off.
What does this mean?
It means
that if there is a second trial,
we can be reasonably confident
both the medical case and their witnesses
are now highly suspect.
Oh, god.
So...
Darling...
This is Alan Dershowitz.
Yes, I know. Hello.
Alan tells me...
Well, things look very hopeful.
I knew it would come out all right.
Thank you.
Yes, Alan, thank you.
I am eternally grateful.
Hey, this means we'll be getting back your bail,
a million dollars.
Uh, I know I still owe you, Alan.
Please send me your bill.
And maybe when you're in New York,
uh, we can...
We can meet for lunch. I'd enjoy that.
One thing, Claus...
Legally, this was an important victory.
Morally, you're on your own.
Claus von Bülow was given a second trial
and acquitted on both counts.
This is all you can know...
All you can be told.
When you get where I am,
you will know the rest.
Two packs of vantage, please.
Anything else?
Yes, a vial of insulin.
Just kidding.