Conviction

Former first daughter and current head

of New York's new Conviction Integrity Unit

Hayes Morrison is embroiled in yet another scandal.

Morrison was arrested for cocaine possession.

And sadly today, another scandal looms over the Morrison family.

Broady: Instead of being punished for her crime,

Wallace rewarded her, making her Chief Director of the CIU.

Eddie: We're posted up outside Hayes and Jackson Morrison's

apartment, and from the looks of it,

it's pretty good being the president's kids,

especially if you're caught with blow.

"Coke head Hayes Morrison put in charge of DA's flagship unit."

- That's TMZ. - We've been through worse.

Buzzfeed has me at the top of their list

for White House train-wreck relatives.

Dad schtupping that ambassador's wife.

I'm ahead of Billy Carter.

He took a whiz in front of the press corps.

You getting expelled from boarding school for drinking.

Ahead of all the Kennedys with rap sheets.

We survived all that, and we will survive this.

Promise?

Yeah.

You ready?

- Woman: Here she comes! - Oh, my God, there she is!

Hayes, Hayes, how do you feel about DA Wallace getting you out of jail?

Do you think it's fair you got special treatment?

- That's enough. - Hey, Hayes, are you a drug addict?

- Are you a drug addict? - Please, one more.

- Can we get one comment? - Hayes. Hayes.

It's called recreational use, people.

Guillotine season already?

May I?

I just came from the Department of Investigation.

Am I fired?

No, I managed to persuade them not to pursue legal action against either of us.

- So you're fine. - Yes.

- But I'm fired. - Not yet.

But since you got caught with coke in your purse,

and in return, landed a highprofile gig, you need to do damage control.

I'll call Cary Weiss at the Times.

He's always been a friend of mine.

No, no, no, no, forget the print mea culpa.

This is bigger than that.

You're booked for an interview with Dan Harris in four days.

Face a firing squad on national television?

Apologize, shed a few tears,

say I've been a bad girl and that I'll never do it again.

If you want to keep this job, yes.

I spoke with Jackson.

He's one of the few people with a black belt

in Hayes-handling.

- He'll prep you. - Ha.

I'm sorry we were interrupted the other night.

Probably for the best.

Frankie: It's everywhere.

You really think the counter terrorism unit

is behind the leak about her coke bust?

That's the gossip around the NYPD water coolers.

Payback for trying to implicate them in the Landon case.

Anything fun in the news today?

- Are you okay? - Never better.

Who's got a pitch for our next case?

I didn't know we needed one.

If you were getting fired.

More likely, Wallace would force you to resign.

Who takes over if that happens? You?

Not fired, not resigning, not hearing that pitch.

This is Penny Price.

She'd be our first female client.

I've gotten pretty good at hiding the bruises

with concealer, but you can't cover this up.

Yeah, I'm pretty much scared all the time,

never knowing when he's gonna lash out,

shove me down the stairs.

Penny is serving 20 years in Bedford Hills

for second-degree murder by poisoning.

Women commit 11% of violent crimes

but only make up 6% of exonerations.

And because they're usually convicted of murdering people

close to them... lovers, family members...

they can't be exonerated by DNA.

The DNA's all over the crime scene, guilty or not.

On top of that, 67% of female exonerees

are convicted in cases where it's ultimately discovered

no crime has occurred.

So because Penny Price didn't poison her husband, no one did?

Not her husband.

But it's not like I can leave

'cause as scared of him as I am, he's, uh...

he's my everything.

I love him. He...

He's my baby boy.

Penny was convicted of murdering her 12-year-old son, Owen.

She was being beaten up by her own son?

He was severely autistic, flew into rages,

especially with his mom.

Penny didn't cry on the stand.

She came across as cold and un-emotional.

The jury found her guilty in under an hour.

Mom didn't play her part, didn't act the way

everyone thought she should, so the system reamed her.

Time the system got equal treatment.

We have our next case.

So, Owen's having a rough day.

Um, earlier in the car, he grabbed me

from the back seat and started to choke me,

- so I had to stop the car. -

- - Eduardo, is that you?

Eduardo: Yes. Just taking out the trash.

Okay, thank you.

- - Uh, we put chimes on the door

so we know if Owen is making a run...

- - Owen: I want it!

Owen, no!

- I want it! - No, no, honey, no.

- I want it! - You have to be patient.

- I want it! - Owen, you must be patient.

- I want it! - You must be patient.

- I want it! -

Mom, I want it!

No, no, please don't, Owen!

I want it!

- Owen. - I want it!

I want it!

I want it!

Sometimes I just want to kill him.

This was filmed September 20, 2010,

a week before Owen Price died.

- How did Penny supposedly do it? - Sodium overdose.

The prosecution claimed

she force-fed him an entire bottle of soy sauce.

But her kid was beating her up.

How could she have convinced him to drink it?

The defense brought that up, but the jury didn't bite.

Also, Owen was prone to excessive eating and drinking,

sometimes even inedible substances.

The prosecution suggested she might have just

handed him the bottle.

Which still amounts to murder.

Penny says Owen got ahold of the soy sauce on his own.

He ingested it sometime after they finished lunch

around 1:35 P.M.

Owen started seizing at 2:40.

He was rushed to the hospital

and died of organ failure later that night.

Who else was in the house that afternoon?

Owen's father, Greg, was at work,

but his 11-year-old sister, Emily,

and home healthcare aide, Eduardo Peligro,

were both there.

Neither one of them saw or heard

Penny giving Owen the soy sauce.

Would either of them have motive?

No, neither one of them were targets of his outbursts.

But I'm not suggesting that Owen was killed

by someone other than Penny.

I really think that his death was accidental.

If that's the case, then Penny being in prison

only compounds the tragedy.

Frankie: That's a big if.

Penny's attorney hired Dr. Jane Soto

as a medical expert.

She's, like, a rockstar toxicologist.

Wait, that's a real thing?

They didn't put Dr. Soto on the stand.

Suggests she found something that didn't look good for Penny.

See what super doc has to say.

The case against Penny is still very circumstantial.

Accidents happen, even with non-special-needs kids.

She called her son "Mother's Little Burden."

That's the title of her vlog,

in which she admitted to wanting to kill her son.

Every parent has said that, myself included.

The two of you make up one unbiased investigator.

Go talk to Penny. Get her side of the story.

_

What happened?

A lot of moms in here.

They don't care for child killers.

We can see about having you moved into protective custody.

Um, I'm glad you guys are taking a look at my case.

But this I, uh... I deserved.

Because you killed your son?

No, because a mother's job is to keep her kids safe.

No matter how much Owen hurt me,

he was my responsibility, and I failed.

How do you think he got hold of the soy sauce?

We had a routine after every meal... clean up then lock up.

There were locks on all the cabinets

so that Owen couldn't get into them.

You know, he could have hid it while we were cleaning up.

I don't... I...

What did you do after lunch?