Beyond a Reasonable Doubt 2009

As reporter C.J. Nicholas (actor name) navigates the Louisiana landscape as a TV journalist in Shreveport, he seeks to revive his career by spearheading an investigative unit alongside colleague Corey Finley. The award-winning documentary that launched Nicholas’ career had shed light on the tragic story of a pregnant teenage prostitute who lost her life in Buffalo, New York, following the stillbirth of her baby.

Nicholas’ dogged determination to expose corruption has him convinced that District Attorney Mark Hunter is tainted by impropriety. A former police detective with gubernatorial ambitions, Hunter has built his reputation on a string of convictions based on last-minute, circumstantial evidence. Nicholas’ pursuit of truth leads him down a path of intrigue as he becomes romantically involved with Assistant D.A. Ella Crystal, despite his lingering distrust of her boss.

In his relentless pursuit of the truth, Nicholas secures a crucial videotape that suggests Hunter has been using his former partner on the force, Lt. Merchant - lead detective on all of Hunter’s successful cases - to obtain DNA evidence from suspects in custody and plant it to support a conviction. Although Nicholas cannot prove how the evidence was planted, his findings are met with skepticism by his boss, prompting the cancellation of his investigative unit due to budget constraints.

Undeterred, Nicholas devises a daring scheme to frame himself for a prostitute’s murder using circumstantial evidence. Finley accompanies him as he gathers incriminating objects that will link Nicholas to the crime, which he records on video with Nicholas holding a newspaper, demonstrating the date to be after the murder. The original footage is safely stored in Finley’s desk drawer, with a backup copy stashed away in a secure safe deposit box.

Nicholas then orchestrates his own arrest for driving under the influence by contacting police Lt. Nickerson, while carefully wearing his falsified circumstantial evidence like a badge of shame. He is subsequently charged with murder, but Merchant requests that the case be transferred to him to pilfer credit from DA Hunter, much to Nickerson’s dismay.

As Nicholas’ plan unfolds, he waits patiently for the prosecution to rest its case before introducing the documentary evidence that will expose the truth. However, Hunter instructs Merchant to destroy the incriminating video evidence, and Finley discovers his desk ransacked in the aftermath. In a desperate bid to salvage the situation, Finley attempts to retrieve the backup copy, but is brutally killed during a high-speed pursuit with Merchant, leaving the back-up irreparably destroyed.

The stakes are higher than ever as Nicholas’ scheme hangs precariously in the balance, and the truth teeters on the brink of being buried forever.

As the truth begins to unravel, Nicholas’s elaborate ruse is laid bare in court, with dated receipts serving as the sole evidence for his fabricated claims. However, Hunter skillfully casts doubt on Nicholas’s story, highlighting the lack of concrete proof linking him to the crime. The jury delivers a guilty verdict, and Nicholas is sentenced to death.

Undeterred by the outcome, Crystal embarks on her own inquiry, fueled by her unwavering belief in Nicholas’s innocence. Unbeknownst to her, Hunter has been monitoring her every move, keenly aware of her romantic entanglement with Nicholas. Meanwhile, Merchant takes it upon himself to tail Crystal, his presence a constant reminder of the danger that lurks in the shadows.

Hunter pays a visit to Nicholas on death row, revealing that Nicholas’s phone calls guiding Crystal’s investigation have been recorded, casting further doubt on his claims of innocence. As Crystal delves deeper into the case, she obtains crime scene photos from Hunter’s past convictions and takes them to expert photographers for analysis. Their findings confirm that each object containing the suspect’s DNA was digitally inserted into the images after the fact.

In a desperate attempt to clear Nicholas’s name, Crystal turns to the authorities, only to find herself in the crosshairs of Merchant, who attempts to silence her permanently with his vehicle. Nickerson intervenes, taking down Merchant and revealing that he had been tracking him as part of his own investigation.

The scandal surrounding Hunter’s compromised photo evidence sparks a public outcry, ultimately leading to his arrest and the re-examination of his past convictions. Nicholas is released from prison, his case declared a mistrial, and he becomes an unlikely media sensation while Hunter faces the consequences of his actions.

As Crystal revisits Nicholas’s documentary, she discovers the shocking truth: the prostitute’s hands in the film are identical to those found at the scene of the crime for which Nicholas was originally convicted. She deduces that Nicholas had hired the woman to reenact the role in the documentary and, when she later attempted to blackmail him, he saw fit to silence her permanently.

When Crystal confronts Nicholas about his actions, she is met with a chilling defense of his plan, as he attempts to rationalize the murder as a means to expose Hunter’s corruption. The revelation leaves Crystal reeling, appalled by the callousness of Nicholas’s actions. As she prepares to leave, she delivers a scathing indictment of Nicholas’s motives, revealing that his true aim was not to bring justice to others but to protect his own life of deception. With her words, “How can I love a lie?” Crystal departs as the authorities close in on Nicholas, their arrival marking the end of an era of deceit and chaos.