A Murder of Crows

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look who's here, boys.

F. Lee Bailey.

Hey, shyster! Welcome to hell!

What happened?

Your lawyer screw you?

Not even Jesus can save youse lawyers.

Lock down number 7.

Nothing makes people happier

than a lawyer going to prison.

And who could blame them?

Lawyers represent the victory

of reason over righteousness.

It's very easy

to lose faith in the system

where the strong tread on the weak.

Trust me. I know.

It started on fat Tuesday.

Show your tits!

Show your tits!

Show your tits!

Show your tits! Show your tits!

I was having a bad night.

I'd just been introduced

to my conscience.

First impression, I can't say

that I liked him very well.

The bastard wouldn't go away.

I was trained in the law.

One of the first things they teach you

is that morality is

a private and costly luxury.

My father used to say

that jurisprudence wasn't equivocal

as long as you kept in mind

that truth is the highest law.

Judge banning, please.

Lawson Russell.

Tell him it's urgent.

This better be good, Lawson.

I'm less than a dance away

from getting my dick sucked.

Sir, I have a problem.

I'm going to recuse myself from the case.

Are you drunk?

Cold sober.

Have you informed your client?

Yes.

And his reaction was...

He was unhappy.

I should think he would be.

Do you know how this

will look to the jury?

You've got the case won,

for Christ's sake!

You're out of your f***ing mind!

Do you know that?

This is a monumental mistake

you're making here, son!

I cannot successfully

serve the needs of my client

at this time.

It is my duty...

To withdraw.

I'll have the paperwork on your desk

at 8:
00 tomorrow morning.

And I'll be in at 10:00 to rip it up.

I'll see you in my chambers then.

Judge?

Son of a b*tch!

Your lawyer is losing it, thurman.

Why didn't you call me?

It was a monumental mistake,

professional suicide.

My client was thurman parks III.

I grew up with thurman.

His daddy was a former

mayor of New Orleans

and one nasty son of a can of human cur.

But thurman was even meaner.

He was on trial for

the brutal rape and murder

of a lap dancer from Lafayette.

She died of asphyxiation,

her panties stuffed down her throat.

I love juries. They're all the same.

They think they've come

to judge guilt and innocence.

In the end,

they vote for whichever side

has the better lawyer.

So I hammered them.

I made them look at that photo

until it was meaningless.

It was working.

Dang.

You are good, boy.

Have you looked over the questions

I'm going to ask you tomorrow?

I have them memorized.

We're going to win, aren't we?

You bet your ass we are.

I told that b*tch I would walk.

That reporter.

You know the one.

Yeah.

I know the one.

I guess I always knew thurman was guilty,

but we trained ourselves

not to think about that.

We're supposed to be impartial,

unaffected, passionless.

I didn't know it at the time,

but that sudden act of

conscience had saved my life.

A penalty, violation of...

You're questioning my ethics?

Anything unethical... it's

your whole argument.

Now shut the f*** up,

the both of you!

Wiley, he obviously knows

that this bastard is guilty.

Now I wanna know if there's

been suppression of evidence.

You know, you may have

been a great quarterback,

Billy ray, and very popular

with all the girls,

but let me give you

a little piece of advice:

You do not wanna cross

swords with me, do you?

No, judge.

Leave us.

Don't get religion on me now, Lawson.

We're too far down the road.

Now you f*** this up

between thurman Jr. and me,

you won't have a future in this state.

Now, I'll fix it

so that you never practice the law again.

And you know I can do that, don't you?

Now you get back in there

and you finish this case.

Oyez, oyez, oyez.

This court is now in session.

All rise

for the honorable wiley banning.

I had represented a lot of rotten people

in my career, gotten them off,

and never given it a second thought.

Innocent until proven guilty.

And if you have enough money,

proof is mighty hard to come by.

Mr. Russell, are you ready to continue?

You have to be rich

to get away with murder.

And thurman was.

Filthy rich.

Mr. Russell.

Are you ready to continue?

I'd like to say

I answered to that... Higher law.

The truth of the matter is...

He never should have smiled.

Mr. Russell!

Are you ready?

Yes, sir.

I am.

The defense calls thurman parks III.

You swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

I do.

Thurman, tell the court where you were

on the night of June 17th.

I was in the silver garter dance club.

Where you met and had

drinks with jeanie brussard.

A drink.

A drink.

What did you talk about?

No, this isn't one of

the questions that we prepared.

Tell the jury what you talked about.

Tell the jury what you talked about.

We... talked about...

Football.

Football.

Was that before or after

she danced naked on your lap?

Mr. Russell, approach the bench.

Was that before or after

you drove her down to the batcher

and dragged her up onto the Levy?

That's enough, Mr. Russell.

You are out of order!

Is that before or after

you stripped her, sodomized her,

strangled her...

You are in contempt, sir. Bailiff!

Bailiff! Remove Mr. Russell

from this courtroom!

Must have been a one-sided conversation

what with her panties

being stuffed down her throat.

Remove him from this courtroom!

Escort him out of my courtroom

and detain him for custody!

The jury will disregard

the outrageous outburst

of defense counsel.

It was declared a mistrial,

and I was fired by thurman parks III.

I never could stand him anyway.

The bad news was the disbarment hearing.

They threw the book at me.

Felt like the guy

who went into the hospital

to have his leg amputated

and had the good leg cut off by mistake.

And, of course, they had

to cut off the bad leg.

The court ruled in favor of the doctor.

Seemed I didn't have a leg to stand on.

It is the judgment of

the Louisiana supreme court

that as of this date,

Lawson Russell, esquire,

be disbarred from

the practice of law for life.

I made a mistake.

Should have hired

one of those good old boys

down at the country club.

None of them would represent you.

Right.

Lawson, do you know what the odds are

that a woman will be raped

or molested in this country?

1 in 12.

How 'bout a man who kills a woman

actually appearing in a courtroom?

1 in 3.

I should be proud of myself.

Is that what you're saying?

He's gonna be retried, pope.

And he's not gonna be convicted.

Yep. I wrecked my career for nothing.

No, not for nothing.

You stood up for a basic moral principle:

To protect the innocent

and punish the guilty.

Your daddy would have been proud.

Of what? I broke the law.

Disregarded my sworn duty.

Ruined my life.

Your life's not over.

They took your license, not your balls.

There's so many things you can do.

I hear they're hiring at the winn-Dixie!

No, come on. Listen. I'm serious.

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