Conviction

- Hey, over here. Miss Morrison, please! - Miss Morrison.

Can we get a comment?

To your right, Hayes.

- Miss Morrison. - Miss Morrison.

Hayes... Hayes, your thoughts

on your mother's surge in the polls.

The people of New York State recognize

what a wonderful senator my mother is going to be.

Some are saying the bump is connected to your success

as the new head of the Conviction Integrity Unit.

I'm not surprised. Hayes is doing a fantastic job.

Why wouldn't New York want more of the Morrison women's mojo?

Man: A picture together?

You look amazing, as always.

You look like the second oboe player

in the Garden State Philharmonic.

D.A. Wallace, did the Innocence Project

inspire you to start the CIU?

No. Their sole focus is getting people out of prison.

The CIU's job is to review convictions.

Our clients could be innocent. They could be guilty.

Our job is to make sure the system got it right.

- That justice was actually just. - Mm-hmm.

Which is basically lawyer speak

for you get good guys out of jail.

- Good, bad isn't the issue. - Thank you.

Debating moral/legal distinctions with the press.

You know better than that.

They're reducing the CIU to a noble-cause sound bite.

Only you would be bothered by that.

D.A. Wallace, how did you know that a former First Daughter,

someone who grew up with so much privilege,

would do such a great job running CIU?

If you'd known Hayes Morrison as long as I have,

you would know that describing her as a former First Daughter

is selling her short.

She's passionate. She's tenacious.

She's a brilliant defense attorney.

And a bit of a party girl

who's had a few brushes with the law.

Unless that's all behind you now.

Have you reformed or lost your edge?

I don't know about that.

That's all in the past.

Why do you think I hired her?

You're looking at the new Hayes Morrison.

[Mother Feather's "Living, Dreaming" plays]

I'll call security.

About time you slackers got here.

Ohh.

Were you sleeping under there?

Ohh. Just a quick catnap.

Our new case.

Rodney Landon?

I was hoping for a Charles-Manson-type

with new DNA evidence,

but he's the closest I could find.

You really want to spend the next five days on this?

The Veteran's Alliance submitted it.

A pretty solid argument the prosecution rushed to judgment.

Because allegations against law enforcement

are always true.

Landon's an insane bigot.

He gave speeches calling for a "new crusade

to confront the Muslim infection."

I'm sorry. Did I sleep through the repeal

of the First Amendment?

Being a hateful jackass isn't grounds for four life sentences.

No, but celebrating the 10th anniversary of 9/11

by bombing a mosque is.

Four people were killed, including the imam.

A terrible crime. Whoever did it should die in prison.

I'm just not sure it's him.

You said you wanted poster boys. Landon's a long way from...

Sometimes, I like poster boys.

Other times, I like tattooed bikers who pull my hair,

especially when everyone is expecting me to show up with a poster boy.

The CIU is here to save

anyone who was shafted by the system,

bigots included.

And in the process,

we will challenge the cops,

prosecutors, the scientists,

and the bleeding hearts.

Anyone who isn't down

to fight like hell for the unpopular causes

as well as the popular ones...

don't let the door hit you in the ass.

Get the crime board ready.

I need to take a quick shower and change my underwear.

Kidding.

I never wear underwear.

I was in prison with guys

whose lawyers slept through trial.

Here we are defending some degenerate bigot.

You really okay with this?

Am I annoyed that Hayes picked this case

just to piss people off? Yeah.

She does love a reaction.

If I got riled over every bad guy

who said something racist, sexist, or just plain stupid...

The guy's either guilty or not.

The thoughts in his head don't matter to me.

They should. They matter to the law.

Hate crimes aren't just an attack on an individual.

An entire group is terrorized.

If he actually backed his words with violence.

So you don't think he's guilty?

What I know is our job requires an open mind,

our boss wants to work the case,

and the law guarantees bigots a fair trial.

So, let's go hear this bigot's side of the story.

Landon: I'm not a bigot.

I'm a professor, a political activist,

and I had nothing to do with that bombing.

You were seen on the exterior security cameras.

Walking my dog. It isn't a crime.

But casing a bomb target is.

You served in the military,

Special Forces, explosives training.

I risked my life,

saw my friends lose their lives to protect freedom and justice.

And then I get home and have my freedom of speech assaulted.

You're not in prison for what you said.

I was arrested an hour after that bombing.

They didn't have fingerprints.

They didn't have me on camera inside the mosque.

All they had was my history of speaking the truth

about Muslim extremists.

You mean when you referred to Muslims as terrorists,

a threat to our way of life.

Islam is not a religion of peace.

It's a militant movement to create a global caliphate

by any means necessary.

ISIS recruits 1,000 new members every month,

and each one of them would gladly blow themselves up

to kill as many Americans as possible.

The Crips and Bloods kill way more Americans than ISIS.

So do drunk drivers, backyard pools,

and killer bees.

See, this is a healthy debate, which we're allowed to have

because our Constitution wasn't written by a Muslim.

Your case isn't about freedom of speech.

My speech put me in the police cross hairs,

and once I was there, they didn't look at anyone else.

The forensics team didn't collect your words.

They collected bomb fragments

and matched the bomb you blogged instructions on how to build.

Maxine: And the cops picked you up an hour after the attack

with explosives residue on your clothes,

so explain that, Professor.

Maxine: The Counter Terrorism Unit

did not frame Rodney Landon.

They're the most prestigious unit in the NYPD.

The best of the best.

Remember when I talked about challenging the cops?

With a totally unfounded allegation?

We don't know that until we fully investigate his claims

that CTU planted the explosives residue.

Huh.

Brown really looks good on you.

Maxine: So you disagree with Landon's views,

but you'll trust him over the cops?

No, this is not about trusting him

or his views, which I find repulsive.

It's about investigating his claim.

And what happened to not caring what's in a perp's head?

I don't.

I care about what comes out of his mouth, which is a lie.

- The residue wasn't planted. - Fine. Prove it.

Hey.

Frankie.

Good to see ya.

You too, Professor Shaunessy.

Thanks for helping us out. My colleague Tess Larson.

Professor Shaunessy was my Bomb Scene Investigation instructor.

Taught me everything I know about explosions.

Oh, he taught me a few things, too,

like how to hot-wire a car.

Let's see if we can't sort out your nitrogen oxide problem.

So, I built this site

to replicate the crime scene where the bomb went off.

Shouldn't we be doing this inside?

The bomb went off in the imam's office.

All we need is the residue from the device once it detonates.

This way, no structures get destroyed,

which can ruin some of the fun.

And what's the nitrogen oxide problem?

The bomb used at the mosque was structurally identical

to the one Landon described how to build in his blog,

but the analysis of the debris post-explosion

indicated a slightly different mixture of explosive chemicals.

Doesn't that suggest Landon didn't build the bomb?

Well, it's a possibility,