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From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
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Subject: Re: Stupid tv I'm watching Law & Order "Castle in the Sky" 5/2/2024 (spoilers)
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In article <v11q33$bpld$1@dont-email.me>,
 "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> Slightly ambitious script does a lousy job exploring castle doctrine,
> homelessness, and [sic] "squatting" in a case in which the twist
> is claimed to be self defense.
> 
> Of course the script did a shitty job exploring the legal issues with
> the emphasis entirely on the sob story.
> 
> Too bad RichA isn't here as his head would have exploded with the
> story's "victim" (that would be the perpetrator), making him the white
> father of a deaf girl.
> 
> Some rich developer is getting a humanitarian award; interim DA Baxter
> is a long time friend. Baxter witnesses a fight he has with his
> drug-addicted son.
> 
> The son is the murder victim, found in one of his father's developments
> with the son supposedly managing construction. There's a security guard
> who claims to be good buddies with the victim. He doesn't work nights
> and the son had turned off the security system, to meet another friend
> of his, his drug dealer.
> 
> Now, we see the gunshot wounds, which sure looked like they were fired
> from a distance of at least a few feet, penetrating the chest
> perpendiclar to the body. This plot point will be dropped during trial.

This show rarely gets into any kind of forensics at trial because that 
sort of testimony takes hours and can't typically be summed up in the 
two questions each side is apparently limited to by the court.

> Then the STOOPID begins. The security guard is a hard-luck guy, so the
> script piles it on and tries to force the audience to sympathize. I
> mean, it's only murder of a rich asshole's entitled drug-addicted son.
> As we learned from Maroun several episodes back, we should not prosecute
> a murderer to the fullest extent of the law if he can be a witness for
> the prosecution for a worse crime like rape.
> 
> Well, the guard is a widower. (We learn later that his wife died of
> ovarian cancer and he was left in massive medical debt.) Also he has an
> adorable daughter who is deaf and attending private school.
> 
> Lt. Dixon can read and sign! Her adult son is deaf and teaches at that
> school!
> 
> Getting to the castle doctrine bit now.

You totally skipped the massive Miranda violation that occurred when the 
cops showed up at the guard's work and forced him to come to the station 
with them, even after he said his child was there. They made him come 
anyway, saying they'd provide supervision for the girl at the precinct 
while they talked. It was quite clear the guard was not free to go.

Cops + custody + questioning = Miranda required.

Except they didn't read him Miranda until after extensively questioning 
him and eliciting several incriminating admissions from him and only 
when he said, "I think I need a lawyer" did Riley tell him to stand up, 
put cuffs on him, and start reading him Miranda.

His lawyer runs into court hysterically bleating about how the apartment 
in which he was trespassing was his home and should therefore have 4th 
Amendment protection (which she amazingly won, against all law and 
common sense) but she never says a thing about the huge honkin' Miranda 
violation that occurred at the precinct.

If I'm ever arrested in New York, I'm going to have my lawyer demand a 
Dick Wolf judge for my trial. They seem constitutionally incapable of 
ever making a ruling in favor of the prosecution.

> But then, Dixon goes with her son to see the daughter, briefly being
> cared for by another parent at her school. Dixon sees the discussion
> between the daughter and her son.

That's the great thing about being able to sign-- you can eavesdrop on 
conversations from a great distance. A lot farther away than with spoken 
words. I wonder if there's legal precedent about that?

I thought the son was going to announce he would let the girl live with 
him and take care of her if the father was convicted... or something 
equally insipid.

> Her own son lies about understanding the implications of what the
> daughter just told him but Dixon gets the daughter to confess that she lied in her direct testimony. Her father
> had bought the gun for protection as they were homeless.
> 
> Dixon is torn by her, well, ethical responsibility to not hide evidence.
> That would be a felony. She tells Riley. Riley, being an enormous moron,
> doesn't urge her to immediately present the evidence to Price. He tells
> her he'll conspire with her to hide it if she so chooses. Dear ghod.
> 
> What will Dixon do? She waits till the very last moment, just before
> Price enters the conference room at his own office to offer the plea
> bargain to the defense. Price tells the defense he won't offer the plea
> after all. Price puts Dixon on the stand to rebut the girl's testimony.
> 
> Dixon feels just terrible and doesn't think it matters that the
> murderous father of the year had his daughter give false testimony.
> Think of the children!
> 
> Conviction

And as the defendant is pulled from the courtroom signing "I love you" 
to his crying daughter, we fade to black on tears brimming in Eleanor 
Frutt's eyes.

<vomit>