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.
( garbled radio transmission )
This damn Indian winter, man.
That's summer, genius.
No such thing as Indian winter.
When it's this cold this late in the year,
it is definitely somebody's fault.
Oh, so blame it on the Native Americans?
You got somebody better to blame?
The problem with the world--
crap doesn't just happen.
It's got to be someone's fault.
Yeah, well, it keeps us in business.
It makes a lot of lawyers rich.
Early morning jog?
Five to two they did something.
Well, it's too cold to find out exactly what.
RADIO DISPATCHER: Holding suspect at 496 Broadway.
Are you...
Look at this.
Bobby, it's freezing outside, man.
What harm could it do?
There's smoke.
Maybe there's fire.
Could be a medal of honor in this.
Hey, you coming?
In and out. In and out.
to finish my coffee? How am I supposed
I'm coming back as a C.P.A. Next lifetime
No outdoor work.
a damn trash fire. Bobby, it's
Trash my ass.
That's a body.
MAN: So far not a whole lot.
Flame burned evenly.
Hardly touched the skin.
Multiple bruises, fractures-- all from a blunt object.
Still, your clothes are on fire
you're going to be doing a rain dance.
This guy was probably dead before they torched him.
We've also got a mess of footprints.
See if you can size it.
You caught it?
We saw the flames from the car.
You got any witnesses?
None standing on line to be interviewed.
He's beaten, then burned. He had to scream.
Somebody had to hear it.
I don't know if this means anything,
but right before we found the body,
we saw four or five black kids run by, heading uptown.
Could you pick them out?
The victim's name is Ezra Shore.
He lives over on Columbus Avenue.
I thought this only happened in Brooklyn.
Come again?
You didn't tell him?
The dead guy was wearing
one of those Jewish beanie things.
Son, that's called a yarmulkah.
Captioning sponsored by NBC/Universal
He wasn't just beaten; he was brutalized.
The smoke clears on this,
it will be Crown Heights revisited.
There is no evidence that this is a hate crime, Mike.
Did you look at these photographs?
Two uniforms on the scene said some black kids...
Run across the street.
You've seen this played out before.
We jump to conclusions.
The press follows our lead.
The waters get so muddy that we never see the bottom.
Should we treat it like a mugging?
No. I want to treat it like a homicide.
We play the usuals.
Family, friends, business...
We're just spinning our wheels we go that way.
Maybe not; Ezra was brutalized.
That means there should be blood all over,
but C.S.U. didn't find near the scene.anywhere
So they killed him someplace in the alley.ed him
But hate crimes are crimes of fear.
The bodies usually don't get moved.
And the fire?
Destroying evidence.
Or sending a message.
You know what might be helpful?
If we could find out something about the departed Mr. Shore.
WOMAN: that killed him,re
it was the beating.
Blood oxygen analysis,
he was dead before they torched him.
You think there were more than one?
Angle of blows to the head,
chest, broken vertebrae in the spine...
yeah, I'd say so.
Yeah. That or a mack truck.
Did he put up a fight?
Well, he didn't go gentle.
Defensive wounds on the hands and arms.
Fingernail scrapings.
We got some dried blood.
Enough to tell a story?
Not enough to DNA. Sorry.
But one was type-AB.
Hey, that narrows it down.
Well, this is just a preliminary, Mike.
Ezra called me from the store.
It must have been around 6:00.
That was the last time you talked to him?
He said he would be working late with Isaac.
"Go ahead," he said.
Eat without him.
Isaac?
His brother.
What business is your husband in, Mrs. Shore?
Jewels.
Diamonds mostly.
He has his own store on West 47th Street.
Was business good?
I don't understand.
Well, sometimes if there's a problem with cash flow,
one might be induced to borrow money
from the wrong people.
My husband did very well, Detective.
One shouldn't be saying yizkor for a man of 45.
It's the prayer for the dead.
Do you have any idea who...?
Well, there was something.
Every now and then they hassled me and Ben
on the way back from school-- these black kids.
It's no big deal.
The police should know everything, Caleb.
Now they do.
Is there a possibility
that your husband was carrying the jewelry on him when...?
Anything that would relate to the business,
you would have to ask Isaac.
He's probably at the shop closing up right now.
Father died 15 years ago.
Ezra never missed a beat.
He took over the business?
I was independent.
I thought I didn't need the family.
I learned the hard way.
Six years ago Ezra took me in.
Rachel said you were here with him last night.
We went over inventories till maybe about 8:00.
And then?
I left.
If I knew it was going to be the last time...
we had words...
had a disagreement
over purchase orders.
Did he ever carry the stones on him?
Oh, sure.
He signed out lot 492, six stones.
Worth probably ten, 12,000.
I'm sure he had a late sales meeting.
He often visited clients
after store hours.
He'd walk around with that much in his pocket?
In a briefcase.
It's the way we do business.
Mind if I look?
Please.
The meeting.
Do you know where it was or with whom?
Ezra lived for his work.
He often visited four or five clients in an evening.
Did your brother use this car service?
Yes. Miracle Limo.
They're over on Tenth.
...used to be I flip through a couple of pages,
takes two seconds.
Now you got to boot the damn machine--
whatever the hell that is.
Here you go-- Shore Diamonds.
Yesterday, pickup 9:15 p.m., 26 West 47th.
And you dropped him?
21St and Seventh.
That's a lot of real estate.
You got anything more specific?
You're lucky I got the machine turned on.
Yeah, we're lucky.
Ezra got here at the earliest at 8:30.
So it has to be somebody who works late.
Let's see what we got.
Interior design firm, temp employment agency...
There's a lot of doctors.
Bringing ten G's worth of diamonds to a checkup? I don't think so.
An accountant?
Flanagan.
Here we go. Nah.
Summers Estate Sales, seventh floor.
CERRETA: Top floor, Near East Gems, Joe Tashjian, President.
Oh, my God.
He was a nice man.
I should call on the family.
Yesterday, Mr. Tashjian
did you have a meeting with Ezra Shore?
A meeting? No. A battle, yes.
You don't talk to Ezra Shore.
You butt heads.
He showed up quarter to 10:00.
Haggled for maybe two hours.
So you bought his diamonds?
I'm an importer.
I buy abroad; I sell domestic.
Ezra bought sapphires and rubies from me.
Bargained me down to 15 G's.
And he left here with them?
Sure.
You want a copy?
Maybe.
Did Ezra say
where he was heading when he left?
Tried his car service, but he couldn't get through.
Said he'd hail a cab.
The jewels-- they weren't on the body?
I don't want to be crude or anything,
but the sapphires and the rubies--
they weren't paid for yet.
$10,000 in diamonds
another 15 in sapphires and rubies
and this guy travels unprotected?
Would you prefer he carry a piece?
I'd prefer he travel by armored car.
Wouldn't have mattered.
You rob someone, you take the money and run.
You don't hang out for a beating and a barbecue.
My call is they were after Ezra.
The diamonds were gravy.
Whatever.
They took the jewels.
We find the jewels, we find our guys.
Got some lines out on the local pawns.
13 wedding rings, half a dozen watches,
some gold earrings.
No sapphires, no rubies, no unmounted diamonds.
Did Ezra Shore have a kid named Caleb?
Yeah. Why?
He's in holding.
Seems he did a number on some homeboy's face.
LOGAN: It says here you went after one Reginald Beggs.
Black, 15 years old.
What happened, Caleb, hmm?
Was this one of the kids who bothered you before?
Yeah, sure.
Problem is, two witnesses say you were all over him.
No provocation, nothing.
Caleb,
all you have to do is tell us the truth
and we can help you out.
It's as simple as that.
You can't beat on every black kid in the city.
What do you want?
The guy killed Dad.
He told you this?
It's all over the neighborhood.
Those guys laughed about Dad dying in an alley.
Laughing doesn't mean he killed him.
The son of a bitch said he liked burning him.
He said I was next.
What do you want me to do?
You hassling me
and it's my face that's busted.
You're an angel.
You got that. Caleb Shore says
you did the number on his old man.
So I must be lying?
The guy's going to pop you for no reason?
You look at them guys?
They look normal to you?
Like I said, I was just hanging,
then my head's being smashed in.
Tuesday morning-- who were you with?
I was here with my sister, studying.
I'm going to be a lawyer.
Some picture, Reg.
You had a nice smile.
Yeah, before he busted up my face.
Do you mind?
I got a choice?
OFFICER: Used to be to stay alive,
you stayed below 86th Street.
Nowadays, somebody's just looking to step into something.
This one of the kids you saw that day?
We weren't really looking.
What about clothes?
Anything?
They were running.
Sorry.
on 93rd... That deli
guys like to hang there.
They don't bother me, my customers.
I let them hang.
Mm-hmm.
Is this one of them?
Two packs a day.
Tries to get me to sell him beer.
The day of the murder?
Couldn't say.
You believe that stuff?
We can be convinced.
It's talk.
All these kids are looking for juice.
Did you hear Reggie admit to it?
Yeah, that and 25 other things.
Thanks a lot.
Well, it corroborates Caleb's story.
It might just be talk.
At least we know Reggie hangs in the neighborhood.
We got nothing to put him in that alleyway.
Maybe we do.
What size shoe do you think Reggie wears?
Let's talk to the man about a warrant.
You can't be serious, man.
Yo, you can't take my Michaels, man.
Just the left one.
I got rights, man.
And we got a warrant.
So, give us the shoe now,
or you come downtown,
we run it through some tests,
and you're out of there.
With my shoe?
Depends what we find.
You see this here?
It's kind of blurry, lighter than over here.
Whoever wears this shoe
over-pronates when he walks.
It's worn away, uneven.
Similar wear patterns here.
Unfortunately, they're not fingerprints.
What's this?
Running shoes tend to pick up more pebbles, glass, et cetera.
Now, is it possible
these two prints are from the same shoe? Yes.
Is it probable? I'm not sure.
Which means I wouldn't be a very good witness.
Reggie doesn't know that.
Can I borrow these two?
Y'all only doing this because I'm black, man.
This one was lifted out of the alley
the day that Ezra Shore was murdered, Reggie.
So, what you want me to do?
To look at this one.
It's from your shoe.
They're the same.
It proves you were in the alley
at the time of the murder.
Man, go 'head with that.
We have two people who swear you were bragging about it.
So? That don't prove nothing.
It proves you stepped in something
and it stinks
and it's not going away.
You killed him for the jewels?
Or 'cause he was Jewish?
I ain't do anything, man.
You know what, Reggie?
I personally don't believe you.
Yo, talk to the deli guy.
I was in there buying cigarettes.
I ain't know what was going down.
Who was it, Reggie?
I am talking to you.
Fontaine, man.
Yo... crazy, man.
And Cyrus and Harley.
I came out the store, they was lighting him on fire.
And beating the living crap out of him?
What was it, baseball bats?
Bricks?
How did it feel
to crush his skull?
Yo, that's bull, man.
The hell with this punk.
25 Years is too short for him.
All right, yo, look... yeah
but I just watched, man.
I swear, I didn't have nothing against that dude.
And Fontaine did?
Yeah.
Says they should go back where they came from.
CRAGEN: Wait a minute here.
He says his buddies did the number on Ezra
and we already know there's no blood there?
His story may not get 100% on the stink test
but it's a start.
I've had month-old flounder that smelled better.
He knew the M.O., The beating, the fire.
Maybe he reads the newspapers.
Granted, his facts are a little off,
but the bottom line is, he says he saw it go down.
Two uniforms saw four kids running from the scene.
Reggie named three names.
If he's innocent, he keeps his mouth shut.
Sure, sitting in an interrogation room
without his shoes.
You check out these homeboys?
Yeah, they're clean.
What about the diamonds?
He never saw the briefcase.
That could be his buddies.
( phone ringing )
Cragen.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
3:00.
Okay.
Everybody wants to join the party now.
got a witness, Yes, we've
only his facts don't jive with our forensics report.
How far off base is he?
With the beating that Ezra took,
there should have been blood splattered somewhere
and we found nothing.
Which means he wasn't killed in the alley.
Except Mr. Beggs said
he saw the guys do the job there.
Suppose the blood was on garbage that was destroyed in the fire.
He could be telling the truth.
Well, we've applied for warrants.
Maybe we'll find the briefcase or the jewels.
Look, this is not the only dance on my card.
Typical case, your office wouldn't even be involved yet.
It's not a typical case.
Ben, I want you to present this to a grand jury.
There's no way we convict.
Even a mediocre lawyer gets this tossed.
I'm not talking about a conviction.
I'm talking about an indictment.
We get a bill...
it looks like we're doing something.
Politics controlling the grand jury process?
This is a political office.
Kid says he's an eyewitness.
We can put him at the scene.
This isn't the first time we indict
and then develop our case for trial.
You got the names of these other kids?
Yeah.
Read them their rights.
What's up?
Fontaine Robinson,
Cyrus Tanner, Harley Monks,
you're under arrest for the murder of Ezra Shore.
That's harassment!
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do say can be used against you in a court of law.
Take them away.
COURT CLERK: Docket number 776761--
People v. Fontaine Robinson, Cyrus Tanner, and Harley Monks.
One count each, murder in the second degree
and one count each, robbery in the first degree.
JUDGE: Is legal aid
representing these defendants just for arraignment?
I'm in it for the long haul.
Well, give me a plea.
Not guilty.
The people are serving grand jury notice
upon the defense
and filing the same with the court.
What do I hear on bail?
100,000 on each defendant.
They're teenagers.
It's excessive.
Would it make a difference
if the state asked for $50,000, Miss Langstrom?
Bail set at $100,000.
Next.
Only thing this proves is Reggie Beggs and his Hi-Tops
were in the alley at some point.
Reggie put your boys with him.
That makes him an accomplice--
meaning you're short on corroboration.
The blood under the victim's fingernail
matches Harley Monks.
It matches me and a million others in Manhattan.
You searched my clients' homes.
You ran their clothing through the lab.
No baseball bats, no blood tracks...
all show and no tell.
The grand jury will indict.
And I'll have it dismissed
before your head hits the pillow.
With an eyewitness? I doubt it.
Reggie Beggs went bragging
that your clients killed Ezra Shore.
And posturing constitutes evidence?
You think I don't know what you're up to?
You and Schiff can put on your happy faces for the press.
But I'm telling you now,
you go the distance on this
you can expect a civil rights suit
against the city.
Do you get the feeling
we're scrambling to catch a train here?
( phone ringing )
Hello?
Uh-huh.
What's up?
( sighs )
All right.
Isaac Shore and his lawyer.
They want to meet with us before the grand jury.
Now you come to us? The grand jury starts in 15 minutes.
Ezra was my brother. Believe me, I want to help,
but I have to visit my rabbi before I do anything.
It's a matter of Talmudic law.
There may be a prohibition
against incriminating family members.
Isaac, we've got three teenagers
suspected of killing your brother.
How in the world do you expect...?
They were also charged with robbery.
You're going to ask Isaac about the diamonds
Ezra was carrying?
Of course, but what does that have to do
with your client's family?
If all required duties weren't paid
when those diamonds entered the country,
Mr. Shore's heirs could be liable
for substantial fines.
Give me a couple of days.
We'll check with the rabbi.
It's probably much ado.
He's scheduled a second witness.
He's been subpoenaed and if he doesn't testify,
you know I can hold him for contempt.
I also know you're not going to do that, Ben.
ROBINETTE: We could grant the family
transactional immunity.
That's possible, but...
Whatever you say on the stand,
no matter how much you incriminate them,
they can't be charged.
So even if the Talmud prohibits it...
You're perfectly in the clear.
Only tell me, Ben, are you going
to put Caleb on the stand?
All right, fine.
They both have immunity.
TASHJIAN: It was two hours before we settled on a price: $15,000.
How many stones were there exactly?
TASHJIAN: Three sapphires, one carat each.
The rubies were small, half carat, maybe four stones.
What did Mr. Shore do with them?
He put them in his briefcase.
And then what did he do?
He left.
I assume he was going home to his family.
ISAAC: I know from the ledger
Ezra signed out lot 492.
What was the value of the diamonds in lot 492?
Retail, maybe $10,000.
Did your brother often take diamonds from the store?
If he had business that evening or early the next morning, yes.
Mr. Shore, do you have any idea
who might have killed your brother?
Well, I know he...
Ezra had problems in the neighborhood.
Thank you.
It was Dad, Benny, and me.
We got to the park on 100th.
We used to cut through,
but since the black kids started hassling us,
we go around.
What happened on that particular day?
Four guys were hanging there, the same guys as before.
They called us names-- yid, kike.
STONE: Then what happened?
CALEB: Dad yelled at them and he said
that he'd kick their butts if they didn't lay off.
BEGGS: I was on Amsterdam near 93rd.
I went to this deli to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Then what did you do, Mr. Beggs?
I went outside to look for my friends.
What were they doing?
They was in the alley.
They was standing over Mr. Shore.
Cyrus threw garbage on him.
Fontaine lit him on fire.
Let's back up a step.
You left the deli.
You went to the alley.
What was the first thing you saw?
Like I told you, they lit him on fire.
Mr. Beggs, you testified under oath to the police
that you saw your friends beat Mr. Shore
and then set him on fire.
I was scared, man.
I didn't know what to do.
Young man, are you now telling me
that that was a lie?
Look, I had to tell them something.
I seen Fontaine start the fire.
That's it.
That man was already dead when I got there.
But you also told Caleb Shore
that your friends killed his father.
That was just air, man.
You just made this up?
It's like...
I was just trying...
It's about getting juice.
Like people think you wasted a man,
they step aside when you walk by.
Do you know what perjury is, Mr. Beggs?
I'm sorry we lit him up.
I'm sorry I lied.
You don't believe me, that's up to you.
Our witness changes his story on the stand.
I had to withdraw the murder case.
You hit a bad lie, you don't walk off the course.
There's no way the grand jury would indict
even if I finished presenting, they'd no bill the kid.
Then what?
Then we wouldn't have some op-ed wannabe
write that we're choosing sides.
Oh, great. Two weeks ago,
we were patsies to the Jewish lobby.
Now it's the black caucus.
30 years ago, blacks and Jews
were marching together in Selma, Alabama.
Now it's every man for himself.
You're named as respondent in this Writ of Mandamus petition.
Forced us to re-present the case to the grand jury.
Who filed it? Isaac Shore.
He wants us to release the grand jury transcripts.
He's angry. He wants justice.
Talk him out of it.
There was no conspiracy, no gentlemen's agreement.
The case simply fell through.
My brother was beaten and burned.
The police have the boys that did it.
You let them go. What should I think?
That we didn't have enough evidence.
That we relied on the wrong witness.
Then Ezra was the wrong victim.
it's obviously a whitewash. Come on, Ben,
Their leaders screamed louder than ours.
The case mysteriously disappears.
If and when we get new evidence,
we will resubmit to the grand jury.
Two days later, you withdraw.
STONE: What's your implication?
It's no implication, Ben.
It's an assertion.
If you wanted an indictment, you could have gotten one.
That's nonsense.
Then turn over those transcripts.
Grand jury proceedings are secret.
Then we'll proceed with the Writ of Mandamus.
The decision to resubmit is entirely within my discretion.
There's statutory prohibition against releasing transcripts.
Not if I can prove to the judge
there was prosecutorial misconduct.
ISAAC: These boys killed my brother.
I will not turn the other cheek, Mr. Stone.
Well, I'll make the transcripts available.
Thank you.
I'll send over a messenger.
You'll see them in my office, Mr. Shore.
TOBIS: Mr. Shore has two families to feed.
We're talking almost a day's worth of reading.
Who's it going to hurt?
I'll bend the rules for your client, Mr. Tobis.
I won't break them.
You want to read those transcripts,
come to 1 Hogan Place.
ROBINETTE: If the case is withdrawn from the grand jury,
Isaac's got a legitimate gripe.
Reading the transcripts is the only way
to convince himself nothing funny went down.
Exactly, so it shouldn't matter where he reads them.
Unless someone else
wants to see the transcripts.
The real killers.
Could be this case has nothing to do with race.
Diamonds, money.
Greed is always a good place to start.
Let's take a look at the grieving brother.
The past three months, cash flow reports
show the Shore Jewelry
bought over $3 million worth of diamonds.
Not bad in a recession.
Only during the same period,
they only carried 2.2 million in insurance.
What's that have to do with Isaac?
What, they bought more diamonds than they insured?
$900,000 more.
Who prepared the insurance lists?
Isaac.
He did the books.
Could be Isaac skimmed from the business,
buying jewels for his own account.
And Ezra found out...
Isaac killing his own brother...
I don't know if I buy that.
Maybe he's not in this alone.
Hmm, could be.
The discrepancies are too big to be overlooked.
ISAAC: The diamond market is very complicated.
Inventory is tied to real market value.
ROBINETTE: You undervalued your inventory
for the purposes of insurance?
If that's what he says he did.
I think he stole money from his brother.
You think Isaac killed his brother?
ROBINETTE: He had motive and opportunity.
We can make a case.
STONE: All the evidence points to you.
You didn't do it alone.
So speak up and maybe we can work something out.
Nice try.
Come on, Isaac.
Mike, wait.
I'd like to talk to my attorney in private.
Almost 20 minutes.
You think Tobis will let him talk or what?
25 Years in Attica...
I think he'll cough up a name.
His lawyer is just plugging up the loopholes.
I want to say this for the record.
My client still has immunity deriving from his appearance
before the grand jury.
Whatever he says, you can't touch him.
I'm the one, Mr. Stone.
I killed Ezra.
I did it alone.
Uh, Mr. Shore, this is a mistake.
You're protecting someone.
Why?
Believe whatever you want.
That's what happened.
We gave him immunity because he didn't want to testify about the business.
We never mentioned murder.
The statute covers everything he talks about on the stand.
We gave him immunity as quid pro quo for his testimony; he lied.
That breaks the deal-- common sense.
Common sense has nothing to do with it.
Man waives his Fifth Amendment rights
by testifying.
Whether he tells the truth or not.
It doesn't matter. He's entitled to immunity.
You think he killed his brother?
No, I think he's protecting someone.
Uh-huh.
Then we threaten him with perjury.
The idea of four years in Attica
should scare the hell out of him. He'll talk.
The alternative might scare him more.
The man's scared.
He saw what happened to his brother.
Man is desperate enough to steal from his own family.
Subpoena his personal records
and find out who he owes money to.
Banks kill with a thousand cuts
not with a whack.
Some lenders are in a bigger hurry.
Ezra dies, Isaac gets the business.
It's a good way to insure prompt payment.
His bank statements look clean.
No evidence of regular payments to anyone.
No withdrawals.
Sure it's not about money?
I didn't say that.
Remember those diamonds Isaac bought but never insured?
They're all purchased from Joseph Tashjian.
$300,000 worth of sapphires
and rubies each month.
A month later,
they were sold back to Tashjian
at a $10,000 mark-up.
And you don't think Tashjian is stupid about money?
I don't think the diamonds exist.
It's smoke and mirrors
with real money shuffling back and forth.
So it's a laundry.
Dirty money in. Clean money out.
With phoney receipts to make it all look kosher.
They're laundering over $4 million a year.
The Shore brothers get $10,000 off every resale?
Their fee for laundering Tashjian's money.
Tashjian's was the last place Ezra went.
I'll get a warrant.
Half an hour, my lawyer will have your butts out.
Your butt's going to be in a patrol car
if you don't shut up!
Phil...
you want a Rolex?
Maybe a Cartier for the missus?
Looks like, feels like, sounds like.
A warehouse full of felonies.
( speaking Armenian )
Mr. Tashjian produced counterfeit goods
without the benefit of a license
from the copyright holder.
He smuggled them into the country.
It has nothing to do with my client.
It does
under federal conspiracy laws.
Laundering profits from an illegal enterprise.
That's tax fraud and racketeering.
You gave me immunity.
State, not federal.
You don't have a patch of ground
to stand on, Mr. Shore.
We know Joseph Tashjian
killed your brother.
You don't realize my family...
Mr. Shore,
what you don't realize
is, we are talking about racketeering charges.
You will forfeit all the proceeds
from your illegal activities. That's everything, sir.
Cars, homes, cash...
Ben, you'll never be able to prove
which assets were bought with bad money.
The burden of proof is on your client.
We will strip your family bare.
Ezra took me into the business.
He paid me as much as he could.
I don't blame him.
But it wasn't enough for my family.
So when Joseph Tashjian
asked me to help him with his money,
I thought,
"Who could get hurt?"
So your brother Ezra had no idea
the business was laundering money.
Not for a whole year.
He rarely looked at the books.
He trusted me.
STONE: And what did he do when he found out?
SHORE: He was furious that I would risk
everything my father had worked for.
He demanded I stop immediately.
He just didn't understand.
What didn't he understand?
He didn't understand I wanted to stop as well,
but Tashjian wouldn't let me out--
that he had partners, dangerous men.
Ezra didn't care.
He wanted to talk to Tashjian himself.
Well, I told him, "Please."
I begged him.
Around 9:00, he got a car
and went over to Tashjian's office anyway.
STONE: And what did you do?
I followed him.
Please tell the court what happened
at Joseph Tashjian's.
Everything got out of hand.
I tried to calm Joe down, but he was...
he was ranting like a crazy man.
He blamed me.
Said we were trying to run him out of his business.
Tashjian took a cane...
He was acting like an animal,
like a savage,
again and again...
bashing Ezra's head...
his body.
There was so much blood.
And he just kept beating and beating.
And I just watched.
He killed my brother and I just watched.
Mr. Shore, why didn't you tell the police?
I was scared.
So scared
you would have let three innocent boys
go to jail?
I thought after a while the charges would be dropped.
STONE: And when they were,
then you confessed. Why?
Because
he said he would hurt the family.
He would kill my children, Ezra's children.
Mr. Stone,
my family-- that's all I have.
No more questions.
Who owns Shore's Jewelry?
Ezra.
My father gave him the business.
And how much did Ezra pay you?
$60,000 a year.
And how much did you earn last year
from Mr. Tashjian's money-laundering operation?
About 140,000.
And your brother wanted to take that away, huh?
Must have made you mad.
Mad enough to kill?
Objection.
Withdrawn.
Mr. Shore, you admitted
lying to the police, right?
Yeah.
And to your attorney?
Yes.
To the district attorney?
Yes.
And you lied
to the grand jury.
To protect my family.
What did you expect me to do?
Do you at all
feel responsible for your brother's death?
It's possible.
You confessed to his murder, didn't you?
If it weren't for you, your brother would be alive.
Isn't that correct, Mr. Shore?
Yes!
He was very compelling. What more could they want?
If the jury doesn't believe your eyewitness,
it's all worthless.
They will understand Isaac's motive for lying.
They'll see he was scared. Empathy goes a long way.
And they'll also see
he neatly avoided forfeiting all his assets under Rico
by testifying.
You don't believe I can win.
I believe you got a hell of a mountain to climb
in your summation.
Isaac's lack of credibility
translates into reasonable doubt.
The jury could find Tashjian technically not guilty.
We all know he killed Ezra Shore.
Our knowledge is a long way from proof.
One witness-- that's all they have.
The victim's brother.
If you fully believe Isaac Shore
is telling the truth, convict him.
Why not?
Isaac Shore lied to the grand jury,
to his family.
He lied to the police, to the prosecutors.
At one point, he confessed to having killed him.
Of course, he could be telling the truth now.
Sure, it's possible
Joseph Tashjian murdered Ezra Shore.
You may even think it's probable,
but in that case,
there's only one thing you can do.
Your duty is clear.
You must return a verdict
of not guilty
because in this system, "probably" is not good enough.
You must be convinced
beyond a reasonable doubt.
Isaac Shore has told so many lies
that it would be unreasonable not to doubt his testimony.
Yes, Isaac Shore should have come forward
and said that, "Joseph Tashjian savagely murdered my brother."
And he should have stood up in the grand jury and said,
"Those three boys are innocent.
Joseph Tashjian's the killer."
But he didn't do that.
Was he immoral?
Was he evil?
Isaac Shore was terrified.
He'd eyewitnessed an unspeakable horror--
the brutalization of a family member.
And it was his greatest fear to ever see that happen again.
So why would Isaac Shore concoct a story like this?
The fears of Isaac Shore--
they don't make his testimony any the less credible
and they certainly don't make Joseph Tashjian
any the less guilty.
Joseph Tashjian is guilty of murder in the second degree.
On the sole count of the indictment,
murder in the second degree,
how does the jury find?
We find the defendant not guilty.
( yelling )
Quiet in the court.
( yelling continues )
My father is convinced everyone is motivated by fear.
Mine thinks it's greed.
What do you think?
That Isaac fell victim to both.
( gunshot )
( woman screams )
WOMAN: Oh, my God.
Captioning sponsored by NBC/Universal
Captioned by access.wgbh.org oup at WGBH
( wolf howls )