


Willy points out that, now that Jennifer is dead, he can prove his scenario by getting the bullet from her brain and matching it to Nunally's gun. Thus, it is Crawford's unfired gun that is seized as evidence, while Nunally's gun, the actual murder weapon, goes back into Nunally's holster and is carried out the door. When Nunally arrives to negotiate and they both put down their guns, Crawford quickly switches them back while Nunally is momentarily distracted, having just seen Jennifer lying on the floor. He describes a scenario where Crawford switches their guns on the day he went to their hotel room then later shoots Jennifer with Nunally's gun. Willy tells him that, even though it's too late now, he just noticed that both Crawford and Nunally had the same types of guns. He drives to Crawford's house where Crawford is packing for a vacation. While in the office going over his papers, he and Detective Flores ( Cliff Curtis) have a moment where Flores places his cell on Willy's desk then picks up Willy's phone by mistake. Because of the Double Jeopardy Clause, however, he knows that, regardless of any new evidence he might find, Crawford cannot be tried again for Jennifer's attempted murder.

With no solid evidence in the case, it looks like Crawford is going to walk and Beachum's career is in jeopardy, but that doesn't stop him from digging further into the case.Īfter failing to stop Crawford from "pulling the plug" on Jennifer, Willy is still dissatisfied. Ballistics finds that the supposedly "smoking" gun has not been fired, and Crawford retracts his confession on grounds that it was obtained from the police detective who was sleeping with his wife. When Crawford waives his right to defense counsel and asks to defend himself, Beachum is doubly convinced that this case is easily going to bolster his record of a 97% conviction rate.until the evidence before him starts to crumble.

It looks like an open-and-shut case, so hotshot District Attorney William "Willy" Beachum ( Ryan Gosling) has no qualms prosecuting, even though he is preoccupied with his new appointment as corporate lawyer to Wooton & Simms, a high-paying private civil law firm. Crawford promptly confesses his crime to Nunally, and the police take the gun into possession. Ted Crawford ( Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy aeronautical engineer in Los Angeles, shoots his wife Jennifer ( Embeth Davidtz) after learning that she is having an affair with Police Lieutenant Robert "Rob" Nunally ( Billy Burke).
