S02.E19: A Redemption

[MyAimIsTrue]

Bull helps Jim Grayson, a respectable family man who was arrested for changing his identity after being the unwitting getaway driver in a fatal robbery years ago. Bull hopes they can convince the jury that Jim has redeemed himself for his past misdeeds by living an upstanding life for years.

[Bobbin]

Now, are they going to get the older brother's sentence reduced, since it wasn't actually an armed robbery and the clerk's death was purely accidental?

Too much dragging out the outcomes for me:  the detective admitting that the George/Jim couldn't possibly have been the George Brown who bought the laptops, the DA dropping the murder charges (I doubt that his superiors would chastise him, since there was never a question that George even knew about the robbery), and the wife forgiving Jim/George.

IRL, in the 1920s a 12 year old Chicago boy was sentenced to die in the electric chair for being caught in the same situation (times and attitudes have changed, even if the law hasn't).

It's good to see Bull lavishing thanks and praise on his staff. A lesson learned? MGT 101.

[shrewd.buddha]

Eh. Bull & Co. is back to defending innocent victims, with the only hurdle being the detective work to prove their innocence. I suppose they  get credit for taking the case without first knowing their client was innocent - but as the case went along, he became more and more innocent of being an accessory to a murder committed during an armed robbery. 

...But what about his other, actual,  crimes? He took stolen money and bought a new identity. He was guilty of identify theft and evading the authorities for 18 years. The DA just forgets all that because he cannot get the bigger conviction? I doubt that.

The wife came around way too fast. Was their marriage legal? Are any of his business contracts, deeds, leases, etc., legal?  Where was the wife's family and support system? Are they okay with her not-husband's fake life? I guess all of that would have gotten in the way of the appearance of a happy ending. 

Bull is starting to get a bit pompous again - always the smartest person in the room. 
Why is Bull  allowed go into the judge's chamber?, lecture the judge and the DA about the law? ,  have meetings with the DA to discuss plea deals and dismissing the case?  Where is the actual lawyer, Benny?
 Why didn't Bull just get a law degree if he wanted to do so much of the lawyer-ing?  Doesn't Bull already have a bunch of degrees? He could have added one more. 

[Sarah 103]

1 hour ago, shrewd.buddha said:

...But what about his other, actual,  crimes? He took stolen money and bought a new identity. He was guilty of identify theft and evading the authorities for 18 years. The DA just forgets all that because he cannot get the bigger conviction? I doubt that.

He was on trial for robbery and murder-that's what he was charged with. I don't think they can suddenly add on new charges once the trial is underway (any lawyers/people more familiar with the legal system chime in if you feel like it). I think if the DA wanted to he could charge him with identity theft and a whole bunch of other stuff in a new/seperate trial. 

[HurricaneVal]

I think the brother was in prison for a different crime, not the fake robbery.  If that was the case, then I think Jim/George would have been popped and put on trial at the same time as the brother.

Perfect casting of the wife though, the expression on her face when she learned her husband, Jim Grayson, was actually this George guy was devastating.  Whoever does the casting for this show deserves an award, they get some great talent with interesting faces.

[LuvMyShows]

4 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

...But what about his other, actual,  crimes? He took stolen money and bought a new identity. He was guilty of identify theft and evading the authorities for 18 years. The DA just forgets all that because he cannot get the bigger conviction? I doubt that.

The wife came around way too fast.

I noticed their poor choice of words when they were defending him and said, "He is not a criminal".  Um, yeah he is, cause of the other criminal things he did.

For the wife, the part that was completely glossed over, was his lying about his parents/names/etc.  The wife even said that there hadn't been a need for that lie.  That's the part that would be very hard to move on from, and ever trust the person again, because if they could lie about something that made no sense whatsoever to lie about, then what's to stop them from doing it again and again?  It actually put me in mind of the "old" Will & Grace (prior to the reboot), where Grace finds out that Harry Connick Jr. (don't remember the husband character's name) cheated on her, and they try to make it work, but she finds that she just can't trust him again and they divorce (actually, a rare depiction of cheating on scripted TV where they don't show that it's all hearts-and-roses-forever when one spouse takes back a cheater).

[Aliconehead]

3 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I think the brother was in prison for a different crime, not the fake robbery.  If that was the case, then I think Jim/George would have been popped and put on trial at the same time as the brother.

Perfect casting of the wife though, the expression on her face when she learned her husband, Jim Grayson, was actually this George guy was devastating.  Whoever does the casting for this show deserves an award, they get some great talent with interesting faces.

No the brother was in jail for the murder and robbery. He called when he was arrested and told George/Jim to take the hidden money and take off. Which is the reason that G/J did not go on trial at that time. 

I am with the poster that said he hopes that the brother gets his sentence reduced and he can see and meet his brothers family and live with them. 

[JessDVD]

Well, I may have shed a few at the end of that, even though it's not the happiest of endings, those two still have a lot to work through. At the very least, they made some likable people this time around, which was an improvement from last week. They really should, at least with people like these who I actually care about, include a brief follow-up with them, like a 60 second scene where the couple tells Bull that they're in counseling and working through what is and isn't true, the DA decided to drop the charges for identity theft but he's been asked to pay back the stolen money, and his brother is in proceedings to get the murder charge dropped and his sentence reduced and it looks favorable. I will head "canon" this (for this one-shot set of characters that we'll never see again).

That Bull's people are the only ones that can check alibis, scrutinize security footage, look up phone records, etc, makes me glad this show is fiction.

I can kind of understand the guy using those names for the kids, but not telling his wife exactly why, just in the sense of, lies are tricky things and even if it wasn't exactly a needed lie, I can imagine when caught in a web of lies, that it's hard to both judge and keep track of what to say or not say. And if this were IRL, the guy probably wanted to tell her a million times but couldn't figure out how to do it. I guess I maybe wouldn't just give him a pass for it, but I wouldn't make it the hill I died on either.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, JessDVD said:

That Bull's people are the only ones that can check alibis, scrutinize security footage, look up phone records, etc...

And "hack" servers left and right to obtain evidence... don't they have to explain where they obtained this info when they present it in court?  

[Dowel Jones]

L&O did that case much better, especially when Briscoe & Logan showed up at a house for some unrelated matter, and Jerry Orbach did a perfect face drop when he recognized the woman as a long gone fugitive.  "Cuff her, Mike."

Some attorney is going to make a boat payment off of all the work he has to do, changing names on school records, deeds, permits, etc. 

Add interstate flight to avoid prosecution (a federal crime) to all the other state stuff that he did.  And the feds take that seriously.

With regards to the complicity in the original crime, Bull states that, since the store clerk was in on it, there was no robbery.  I don't think that's true.  The two of them conspired to rob the place, and one ended up dead, regardless of the fact that the robber tried to help him.  He can be charged with murder, I'm pretty sure.  In many cases, the driver of the getaway car is also liable for the crime.  I think they would have to put on a pretty good "I didn't know what was going on" defense.  I remember Patty Hearst barely got away with her life at trial when F. Lee Bailey successfully steered any testimony away from another bank robbery in the Sacramento area in which a customer was killed and she was (allegedly) the getaway driver.

15 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

Eh. Bull & Co. is back to defending innocent victims, with the only hurdle being the detective work to prove their innocence.

That was a classic moment when the wife said "We have money.  We can pay you."

[ChattyCathyLA]

I was disappointed they didn't resolve the brother's case or get him a new trial!  When it ended, I was like, well, what's gonna go on with the brother who was serving time for armed robbery and murder?  With all those extenuating circumstances, how did he get convicted in the first place?  It was just robbery, not really armed robbery and the "murder" was a horrible accident that the "victim" had consented to!  Eighteen years for robbery alone seems excessive ... he should have been released with time served or given a new trial or handed over to the Innocence Project or something!  I don't like it when plot lines are left unresolved ... it's sloppy!  Lazy writing ...

[hoopznyo]

I'm confused... if Benny knew about George's parents why didn't Chunk? The team didn't share notes/information?

[EtheltoTillie]

Another preposterous case where they are investigating while the trial is going on. If this had been investigated first there's would have been no trial. 

At the end Colon got the movie reference wrong. He was referring to Forrest Gump (chocolates) instead of A League of Their Own (no crying in baseball).  Why make such a silly mistake?  A poor attempt at humor?