This week’s episode of Bull was simultaneously the show’s most outrageous yet, and at the same time the first to deal meaningfully with one of the most pressing issues facing criminal justice: the explosion in plea bargaining. It opened with Dr. Bull and his team organizing a mock jury for a mundane commercial dispute. While the team is explaining the process to the participants, one of them, named Laurel, becomes increasingly anxious. Suddenly, a bomb explodes! When the dust settles Laurel is holding a gun and demanding that Dr. Bull help release her supposedly innocent husband from prison. Dr. Bull, with literally a gun to his head, agrees to listen.
The woman explains that she and her husband owned and operated a small pharmacy. The government accused him of being involved in an opioid-dealing scheme, instigating a turf war, and ultimately murdering another drug dealer. The only evidence of the murder, however, was the testimony of an unidentified, undercover agent. Without seeing the evidence against him, and faced with the dramatic penalties that accompany murder charges, Laurel’s husband accepted a plea deal. In exchange for pleading guilty, he received a discounted 15-year sentence. Dr. Bull surmises that Laurel feels disenfranchised by a legal system that denied them the opportunity to face the accuser before a jury. While emergency services race to remove rubble, Dr. Bull holds a mock trial of the husband’s case in order to satiate Laurel.
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