Judd for the Defense Season 2, Episode 16: The Poisoned Tree

In a Puff of Smoke

Ray Elliott, an attorney who is well known for his advocacy against the draft, is charged with murder after a young man he was counseling immolates himself in public to avoid conscription, and prosecutors contend Elliott encouraged the young man to do it.

60 min

Transplant

Judd defends a doctor accused of murder after performing a heart transplant. The recipient is a young woman who the doctor has fallen in love with, and another doctor present claims that the donor was still alive when his heart was removed.

60 min

The Ends of Justice

Jady Crews is arrested on a minor charge when he tries to stop his black militant son's group from using a gun. Judd easily gets that charge dropped, but the arrest brings to light the fact that Crews escaped from prison years earlier in South Carolina, where he had been convicted of murder after a traffic accident. Though Judd is sure he can get the conviction overturned, Crews' son hopes to use his father's plight to bolster his group's claim that a black man can't receive justice through laws made by whites.

60 min

The Name of This Game Is Acquittal

A lady lawyer, accused of intentionally running down a woman in an alley, uses different ways to pressure Judd into taking her apparently shaky case.

60 min

The Sound of the Plastic Axe

Judd defends a rock entrepreneur who is charged with the murder of his wife, who died at a party he was hosting. Though she died of a heart condition, the man is accused of giving her the amphetamines which contributed to her death.

60 min

The Death Farm

A young woman begs Judd to defend her friend, an escapee from a prison farm, who claims he will be killed if he is sent back there. The man claims to have killed a convict/trustee who tried to stop his escape. But when Judd asks about this at the farm, the officials deny the man was ever killed. Soon Judd is determined to close the prison farm---if he can get the escapee to tell where the many murdered prisoners are buried.

60 min

Weep the Hunter Home

An old friend of Judd objects to his son's friendship with a young man whom he thinks is a homosexual. Later, when the father is shot in an altercation, the son's friend is accused of attempted murder.

60 min

The Gates of Cerberus

Judd defends a man who filmed a movie inside a mental institution, a project he began when he was a patient there himself. The institution does not want the film shown to the public, but the filmmaker and his backers---led by his wife and brother-in-law---believe conditions inside such places must be exposed. However, the institution argues that the film violates the privacy of its main subject, who has just been released.

60 min

My Client The Fool

Ben successfully defends a young man in a paternity suit by bringing out the names of other men who the baby's mother may have been with. But soon afterward he is arrested and charged with bringing the young woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

60 min

Punishments Cruel and Unusual

Judd defends an alcoholic woman who has been charged with hit-and-run even though she has not had a drink in years. It is soon obvious the evidence against her is flimsy, but the judge in the case denies every motion Judd tries to prove this. Judd soon decides to show that the judge is biased due to his own unsuccessful battle against alcohol.

60 min

Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live

A man removes his pregnant wife from a group of witches, who have convinced her that they could protect the baby. After she goes back again, he returns and this time accidentally injures the group's high priest, who tried to stop him from taking his wife back. Judd defends the man against a charge of assault, feeling that he genuinely feared for his wife and baby.

60 min

A Swim With Sharks

A longshoreman dealing with loan sharks who have taken over his union is charged with the murder of the union's steward, who he believed was assisting them in charging him exorbitant interest on a loan.

60 min

The Crystal Maze

A young woman whom Judd hasn't seen since she was a child names him as custodian for her baby after she kills her husband and then herself. Judd can't permanently take care of the child, but he finds that no one in the young woman's family is well suited for the baby either, and thus must consider adoption, if the family will agree to it.

60 min

Borderline Girl

Judd assists another attorney in defending a young woman who readily admits to killing the young man she considered her boyfriend, saying that she did it because he told her to.

60 min

Epitaph on a Computer Card

A man finds his job and reputation being destroyed by a minor mistake on a computer card, and in his attempts to do something about it he may be digging himself in even deeper.

60 min

The Law and Order Blues (Part 2)

Crossover with "The Felony Squad".

60 min

Between the Dark and the Daylight

A student who has been acting as an undercover agent for the police narcotics squad is accused by several students of raping a girl. Judd defends him but believes more is motivating him than just a desire to keep his fellow students off of drugs.

60 min

The Holy Ground (1) - the Killing

Dan Miles comes to Reverend Barnaby Cutler's spiritual retreat to take his wife home, but she refuses to go. Soon Miles is found dead, and Cutler is charged with his murder. His claim that he does not even remember the events of the day make it look even worse for him.

60 min

The Holy Ground (2) - the Killers

After a recording of a conversation at one of his sessions is played, the prosecution charges that Barnaby Cutler planned the murder of victim Dan Miles with the help of his lover, Miles' wife.

60 min

An Elephant in a Cigar Box

60 min

The View From the Ivory Tower

Judd defends a college professor who's job is on the line after he invited a black militant lecturer to one of his events.

60 min

Runaway

A friend of Judd's is shot and killed while with his rebellious daughter and her horse. The girl claims it was an accident, but though he agrees to defend her Judd has trouble believing her version of the event, as does her mother.

60 min

Visitation

A divorced man, fearful that his ex-wife plans to leave the country with his son, also learns that he has no legal right to stop her according to the divorce agreement. While trying to find them, he gets into an argument with his brother-in-law and accidentally kills him.

60 min