Condemned man Howard Epps is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in 32 hours for the murder of 17-year-old April Wright. Epps' attorney, Amy Morton, makes a last-minute appeal to Booth, the man who arrested Epps, to re-examine the case. Booth believes Epps is guilty, but acknowledges that the case had a few loose ends. He asks Dr. Temperance Brennan and her team of squints to review the evidence and confirm Epps' guilt. But when Brennan finds forensic anomalies in the case, and Booth turns up evidence that another man was with April Wright the night she died, they must race against the clock to stay the execution.
"A Man on Death Row" [SCENE_BREAK] (INT: FBI Building, conference room) (BOOTH and BRENNAN are sitting at a table) BOOTH: Name? BRENNAN: You know my name. BOOTH: Bones, you are making an official request to the FBI to be allowed to carry a concealed weapon. I have to follow protocol. BRENNAN: It's ridiculous. BOOTH: Fine, then we're done here. Do you wanna get some coffee...? BRENNAN: My name is Dr Temperance Brennan. BOOTH: Reason for wanting a gun? BRENNAN: To shoot people. BOOTH: Not a good response. BRENNAN: It's the truth. BOOTH: You know, I'm writing "self defence in the performance of my duties pursuing suspected felons as contracted out to the FBI." BRENNAN: So I can shoot them. BOOTH: Ever been charged with a felony? BRENNAN: Charged, or convicted? BOOTH: Charged. BRENNAN: You know I have. BOOTH: I have to ask the questions. BRENNAN: Bureaucratic nonsense. BOOTH: Nevertheless, name of the arresting officer? BRENNAN: You... Special Agent Seeley Booth. Do you need me to spell that for you? BOOTH: I can sound that out. BRENNAN: So when do I get the gun? BOOTH: You can't have a gun. BRENNAN: Why not? BOOTH: Because you were charged with a felony. BRENNAN: Write down that you were wrong to charge me. BOOTH: Oh, there's no space for that. BRENNAN: Why'd we go through all of this if you were never going to give me a gun? BOOTH: You have a constitutional right to apply for a weapon. I would never deny your constitutional right. BRENNAN: But I need a gun! BOOTH: Rules are rules. BRENNAN: Tell them that I shot a murderer who was going to light me on fire. BOOTH: Which is why you weren't convicted. But you did shoot an unarmed man. I... I can't ignore that. I swore an oath to protect society from people who shoot people. BRENNAN: It was only his leg, and he's in jail for the rest of his life, how much is he gonna use it anyway? BOOTH: You have the right to an appeal. BRENNAN: To whom? (off Booth's look) Cullen? I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me. BOOTH: Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right. (INT: FBI Building, outer office) BOOTH: Bones, you don't need a gun. If anyone needs shooting, I'll do it. BRENNAN: What if you're injured or dead, and someone still needs shooting? Well, I'm not hoping it'll happen, I'm just stating a possibility. BOOTH: Come on, you know what, Bones? You're a professor; you're not an FBI agent. Use your mutant powers... just talk people to death. (BOOTH sees AMY MORTON standing in his office) AMY: Am I interrupting? BOOTH: I told them not to let you in this building. I gave them your picture. AMY: Which is why I wore the tiny skirt. BOOTH: Very cute. AMY: Amy Morton. BRENNAN: Temperance Brennan. AMY: You work with Booth? BRENNAN: Yes, I'm a forensic anthropologist. AMY: I'm a defence lawyer. I tend to work against Booth. BOOTH: If it's all the same, I'd prefer you two didn't bond in any way. BRENNAN: Hey, I want to get back to the lab. You said I could fill out some gun reapplication forms. BOOTH: Yeah. Send it back by courier. No hurry. BRENNAN: (to Amy) Nice to meet you. BOOTH: What do you want, Amy? AMY: You remember Howard Epps? BOOTH: Not likely to forget him. AMY: He's scheduled to be executed tomorrow night. My job is to keep that from happening. BOOTH: Huh, best of luck. AMY: Howard Epps deserves five minutes of consideration from the man who put him on death row. BOOTH: I arrested Howard Epps, okay? It was the jury who sentenced him to die. AMY: They found a pubic hair on the victim at the crime scene. It didn't belong to my client. They never figured out whose it was. BOOTH: Blame the judge who disallowed it as evidence, and the judge who disallowed it on appeal. AMY: Epps was not well-represented at either trial. BOOTH: How long have you been on the case? AMY: Almost a week. BOOTH: Less than a week, huh? Two judges, two juries, two prosecutors that find Epps guilty, but yet it's me you come after. AMY: I'm asking, are you absolutely positive that Howard Epps killed that girl? BOOTH: Yeah. I am absolutely positive. AMY: You know in your heart the judges should have allowed the juries to hear that that victim was with another man that night. You know it. BOOTH: Epps still would have been convicted. AMY: Not if I'd been his lawyer. BOOTH: You weren't. AMY: I am now. When was the last time you looked him in the face? Cause you're a lot smarter than you were seven years ago. A lot less angry. You might want to check out the evidence again. (INT: Prison, visitation room) (BOOTH sits down across from HOWARD EPPS) BOOTH: I'd ask how you were doing, Howard, but I guess we both know the answer. EPPS: Agent Booth. Did you come to apologise? BOOTH: I'm not the one who beat a 17-year-old girl to death. Your attorney wants me to look you in the face. EPPS: Why? BOOTH: She thinks you're innocent. EPPS: She's right about that. I didn't kill anybody. Unlike you, the sniper. The girl who got murdered was smart, she was pretty, she was from a good family. Someone has to die for that, and I'm all they've got. BOOTH: Okay. I looked you in the face. EPPS: I read it can be hell. They say it's like going to sleep, but you're on fire. And you're paralysed so you can't scream. I mean, that's all you've got sometimes, you know? The scream. (INT: Jeffersonian, Medicolegal lab) (HODGINS and ZACK are racing beetles) HODGINS: What if they get mixed up? ZACK: I can tell them apart. That's Jeff, and that's Ollie. I win. HODGINS: What do you... what? That one was mine. ZACK: You had Jeff, I had Ollie. Ollie won. You owe me a buck. HODGINS: You want in on the action, Angela? ANGELA: No, thank you. I'm going to go have s*x. HODGINS: Have a good time. ANGELA: Okay. (She walks over to BRENNAN) Sure you don't want to come? Troy can call a friend. BRENNAN: I've been waiting months for these. It's a partial skeleton from southern France. The Institute... ANGELA: You know, the whole point of the week is the weekend. This is not the cabaret, my friend. Life is the cabaret. Come to the cabaret. It's like describing the moon to a mole. HODGINS: I demand another beetle, alright? Jeff's got a groin pull. ZACK: Arthropods do not possess groins. Pay up. (BOOTH walks in) BOOTH: Mmm, Angela. Looking good. ANGELA: And don't I know it. BOOTH: Okay, our tax dollars hard at work. HODGINS: Yeah, what's break time at the FBI? Book burning? (BOOTH places a beaker over one of the beetles) HODGINS: No! BOOTH: Hey Bones, what are you doing this weekend? BRENNAN: I have plans. BOOTH: Come on, I'm serious. BRENNAN: Between your girlfriend the corporate lawyer and the defence lawyer on the side, your weekend must be completely booked. What is your thing with lawyers? BOOTH: Look, seven years ago, a 17-year-old girl, April Wright, was found beaten to death in a federal park. Amy's just trying to stop the guy who did it from being executed. BRENNAN: So I guess we're not pursuing your lawyer obsession? BOOTH: No, Amy doesn't think he did it. BRENNAN: And what does this have to do with you? BOOTH: Oh, well, if Amy's client is deep-sixed and she doesn't turn over every stone... BRENNAN: And you're one of her stones. Do you think he did it? BOOTH: Yes. BRENNAN: What's her reasoning? BOOTH: There was a pubic hair that wasn't accounted for. BRENNAN: Pubic hair? Sounds like a job for the FBI crime lab. BOOTH: It's a weekend deal. Off the books. But if you have plans... BRENNAN: Wait. This is a personal favour you're asking? BOOTH: Not for me, for Amy. BRENNAN: Well, your personal favour would be for Amy, but mine would be for you, strictly speaking. BOOTH: Please do me a favour. Please? BRENNAN: Any remains withheld from burial? BOOTH: Not after the last appeal. BRENNAN: I'd need X-rays from the ME and the coroner. Originals, the copies are useless. Bone scrapings, lab results, tox screens. BOOTH: All the evidence will be here within an hour. BRENNAN: I'll ask the others, but I won't order them. They might have plans. BOOTH: It's Friday night, and they're racing beetles. BRENNAN: How much time do we have? BOOTH: Howard Epps will be executed in 30 hours and 23 minutes. (CREDITS) (INT: Jeffersonian, Medicolegal lab) BRENNAN: Let's start. Zack, pull up the first X-ray. Stress fractures on both tibias. BOOTH: What does that mean? ZACK: Pre-existing the assault, probably an old injury from dance or running. BOOTH: She was a cheerleader. HODGINS: The Chinese used to execute people by cutting small pieces of flesh off their bodies. Called it the death of 1000 cuts. BRENNAN: Compound fractures of the trapezium, scaphoid and the base of the radius. BOOTH: What's that mean? ZACK: When she was being beaten to death with a blunt instrument, she threw her arm up to defend herself. BOOTH: Well that's consistent with the defensive wounds in the autopsy report. HODGINS: In medieval Scotland, they'd tie a convict's arms and legs to two bent saplings. When they released the saplings, the trees sprang apart and the convicted felon was torn in half. Should I grab particulates from this? BOOTH: That's clean. It's a phone number we found on the girl - belonged to an old woman in a nursing home with no connection to anyone involved. BRENNAN: Extensive damage to the skull, smashed six to eight times with a narrow cylindrical object. BOOTH: The tyre iron was missing from April Wright's car. HODGINS: Autopsy showed she'd had s*x shortly before her death. BOOTH: Consensual. No assault. ZACK: The hair they found was never matched to anyone? BOOTH: No, the prosecution got it excluded from evidence both in trial and on appeal. BRENNAN: That's the basis of your lawyer's last-ditch attempt to stop the execution? BOOTH: Yeah, and whatever else you guys can find. BRENNAN: There are particles lodged between the left triquetral and the capitate. ZACK: The ME concluded that they were bone fragments dislodged by the tyre iron. BRENNAN: No, these radiographic shadows are too opaque for bone. BOOTH: What's that mean? ZACK: The prosecution's theory of the crime does not include foreign matter in the bone. BRENNAN: Let's see if these shadows are bone fragments or something else. BOOTH: Like what? BRENNAN: Let's pretend we're objective scientists and not indulge in conjecture. Zack, get a driver to take you over to Greenbelt Park. I want you to take pictures of the area where the body was found. Ground covering, paved areas. BOOTH: Why does he need a driver? ZACK: I can't drive. BOOTH: You're a genius who can't drive? ZACK: If you knew what I know about structural design, you wouldn't drive either. BRENNAN: Take the file. Get photos of the surrounding areas so that we can contextualize the materials we found. BOOTH: (answering cell phone) Booth. Yeah. Yes, I'll be right there. (to BRENNAN) That was April Wright's father. BRENNAN: A murder victim's dad called you? BOOTH: His wife's a wreck. They heard that Amy's angling for a last minute reprieve. HODGINS: Why did he call you? BRENNAN: Because Booth was the agent that arrested Howard Epps in the first place. BOOTH: You know, I'm pretty sure that that evidence is not in the file. BRENNAN: Earlier you said "it's a phone number that we found on the girl." HODGINS: Wait. You're trying to save someone you arrested for murder? BOOTH: Alright, you know, I think he did it. I think this scumbag bashed April Wright to death with a tyre iron. BRENNAN: We've found some anomalies in the prosecution's case. Do you want us to stop now before these anomalies become meaningful? BOOTH: No. Stay on it. I gotta get going. (EXT: Greenbelt Park) (ZACK takes pictures of the crime scene) (INT: Jeffersonian, Medicolegal lab) ANGELA: You guys are pathetic. It's Friday night. HODGINS: There's nothing pathetic about pro bono work on a death penalty case. ANGELA: Everybody, this is Troy. TROY: Hey, how you doing? ANGELA: Could you just wait here one second? TROY: Yeah. ANGELA: (to BRENNAN) Why did you call me in? Look at this guy. He's cuter than a monkey with a puppy. BRENNAN: Uh-huh. I really, really need you to do texture analysis on seven year old X-rays. ANGELA: But I am on a date. With Troy. He's a man. Wave. What's the big steaming gigantic rush? BRENNAN: A man is scheduled to die in 26 hours. I think he'd like the results of our findings before then. ANGELA: Good one. (to TROY) Troy, sweetie. I've got a few things to do around here. Do you mind just hanging out for a little while? TROY: Um, sure, no problem. Let me just call the restaurant and tell them we'll be late. What do you think, half an hour? ANGELA: You'd better make it an hour, minimum. TROY: Okay. HODGINS: (answering phone) Hodgins. ZACK: (on phone) Most recondite codes have a complex numerical cipher. HODGINS: (on phone) That's a fun factoid, Zack. Thank you. ZACK: (on phone) 12402510221. That's the number they found on the victim. HODGINS: (on phone) Yeah, you're the one with the photographic memory. I'm the one that's good with the ladies. ZACK: (on phone) It's not a phone number. (hangs up) (TROY wanders over to HODGINS' desk) TROY: Hey. So, uh, what exactly do they do here? I thought Angela was an artist. HODGINS: She is. We do mostly forensic identification and reconstruction of discorporated remains. My specialty's entomology and particulates. You ever seen maggots? I just got these in. ANGELA: Do not talk to him. Wait in the lounge, baby. It's up those stairs right over there. Don't talk to anybody. TROY: Okay. (INT: Jeffersonian, lab platform) HODGINS: What'd you find? BRENNAN: A shard of bone. How'd they miss that? HODGINS: They're not as good as we are. 40x magnification. Well, that's not bone. It's inorganic. Mineral, possibly quartz. ZACK: I was out taking the pictures you needed and there was a sign and numbers on the ground, and I thought 'why assume a quasi-randomly generated...' HODGINS: Zack. When you talk that fast, human beings can't hear you. ZACK: The number they found on the girl. 12402510221. Everyone assumed it was a phone number. But what if, instead of spacing the numbers like a phone number, you space them like this? I was in the park taking pictures, and I saw that the parking space was numbered. To get to picnic area 10, you go through gate 25. BRENNAN: Seems more than a coincidence. HODGINS: 1240, what do those represent? ZACK: The time. 12:40. It's when she was gonna meet whoever she was meeting. HODGINS: It fits with the timeline. He's weird, but he's smart. BRENNAN: April Wright was setting up a date. ZACK: Probably with the guy who left the pubic hair on her. BRENNAN: Good job, Zack. HODGINS: I got something. It's not quite so idiot savant, but it's aggregate gravel. BRENNAN: What if the rest of the shadows on the X-rays were also gravel? ZACK: There was no gravel where her body was found. It was all grass. BRENNAN: Then she was killed someplace else. We have to exhume our victim's body. (INT: Wright house, entryway / living room) MR WRIGHT: It's very stressful waiting for this all to be over, and now we hear Epps' lawyers are trying for a reprieve. BOOTH: I heard. DAVID: He got himself a young lawyer from the Innocence Project. They don't consider the families of the victims. MR WRIGHT: You remember our lawyer, David Ross. Agent Booth is the investigator who caught Epps. MRS WRIGHT: Is this ever going to be over? BOOTH: I understand how difficult this is, Mrs Wright. MRS WRIGHT: Epps killed my daughter. You believe that, don't you, Agent Booth? BOOTH: Yes ma'am. I haven't changed my mind. MRS WRIGHT: He deserves to die for what he did. MR WRIGHT: The jury thought so, the judge thought so. All these appeals... BOOTH: It's part of the process, that's all. DAVID: Each effort to stop his execution is more and more desperate. This one's not gonna work either. It's the third time they've launched an appeal, and it's gonna be the third time they fail. MRS WRIGHT: It's the last picture we have of April. MR WRIGHT: She wanted to be a lawyer. David was her role model. He gave her a job at his firm on the weekends. DAVID: She was a good worker. BOOTH: She was a beautiful girl. Excuse me. (answering cell phone) Booth. BRENNAN: (on phone) It's me, I'm with Amy. BOOTH: (on phone) I don't like the sound of that. AMY: We're going to see the judge. I'm going to try to get an exhumation order. BOOTH: (on phone) What? Why? BRENNAN: (on phone) We found evidence April may not have been killed where they found her body. You want details? BOOTH: (on phone) Um, it's not a good time. AMY: We need to look at April's remains. BRENNAN: (on phone) Zack decoded the phone number. BOOTH: (on phone) Who decodes phone numbers? BRENNAN: (on phone) It's not a phone number. April met someone in Greenbelt Park the night she was murdered. BOOTH: (on phone) So she met someone in the park. What does that prove? MR WRIGHT: Is this about April? BOOTH: (on phone) Let me get right back to you. (hangs up) MRS WRIGHT: What's happening now? BOOTH: Apparently some new evidence has surfaced. MRS WRIGHT: What kind of evidence? DAVID: Why don't you give me a few minutes with Agent Booth? Let me evaluate these new developments. MR WRIGHT: Let's get some coffee. DAVID: So this new evidence. Is this something they can bear to hear? BOOTH: Well, it concerns the person April had sexual relations with the night she was murdered. DAVID: The judge ruled that irrelevant. BOOTH: It's always hung there as a question. It's always the basis of the appeal. If we could just ID the guy, this whole issue would just disappear. DAVID: It was s*x in a car. It was probably another teenager. Some kid too scared to come forward. BOOTH: Nobody said anything about s*x being in the car. DAVID: It was a parking lot. I assume the s*x act took place inside a car. BOOTH: When April worked for your law firm on the weekends, what did she do, the filing? DAVID: That's right. BOOTH: Who was with her in the office? DAVID: Why do you ask? BOOTH: Well, a 17 year old girl. I'm sure you just wouldn't leave her in there all by herself. What? You can't remember? I'm sure the security logs will be able to tell us something. Refresh my memory, Mr Ross. Where were you the night that April was killed? Say around 12:30? DAVID: Now's the time that I ask for my lawyer, and say nothing. (INT: Car) AMY: So, are you seeing each other? BRENNAN: Who? AMY: You and Booth. BRENNAN: No. No, we're working together. AMY: Cause I'm picking up a bit of a s*x vibe. BRENNAN: No, that's tension. He has a girlfriend. AMY: Tall, blonde, beautiful? BRENNAN: A lawyer. AMY: Figures. Should've jumped him when I had the chance. BRENNAN: You're really interested in Booth? AMY: You aren't? BRENNAN: No. AMY: Well then why are you helping him? BRENNAN: Because he asked me. He said please. AMY: Come on. You think he's hot. BRENNAN: No. Not at all. This is a very interesting case. AMY: Booth did say you had some kind of mania for the truth. BRENNAN: Mania? As in maniac? AMY: I'm not sure he meant it as a bad thing. Which obviously is how you're taking it. [SCENE_BREAK] (INT: FBI building, interrogation room) CULLEN: You want to start, or shall I? BOOTH: I'm sorry sir, I... CULLEN: I'll start. I'm thinking of suspending you for freelancing on a death penalty case we cleared seven years ago. BOOTH: My intention was just to tie up a few loose ends. CULLEN: Do you disapprove of the death penalty on a principle...? BOOTH: No sir. I have no problem with the death penalty. CULLEN: Because I hear that you're working for a particularly attractive, idealist... BOOTH: Not true! I mean yes, she's young, she's an idealist, but I'm not working for her. No. Like I said, there was a loose end, and I arrested Howard Epps. I provided the evidence which led to the death sentence. CULLEN: That's your job. BOOTH: I need to be sure, that's all. This guy was her godfather. I believe he had s*x with a 17-year-old girl the same night she was murdered. A fact that the jury never heard, by the way. He's married. He's partners in a law firm. The guy's got everything to lose. CULLEN: If you want to question him, fine. Is that the end of your involvement, Agent Booth? BOOTH: Not exactly. They're moving to exhume the victim's body, sir. CULLEN: On whose recommendation? BOOTH: The young idealist lawyer... and Dr Brennan. CULLEN: Got the squints involved. Well, if she shoots anybody this time, I sure the hell hope it's you. (INT: Judge Cohen's house, living room) COHEN: These are not the robes I like to wear to work, Ms Morton. BRENNAN: Sir, if you could maybe tie your dressing gown? COHEN: It's one in the morning. Deal with it. So you found a piece of bone the size of a toothpick. BRENNAN: Yes. A shard from her left triquetral with gravel embedded in it. COHEN: Describe the implications. BRENNAN: The jury was told that these shadows here and here were bits of bone shattered during the attack. AMY: Through advanced digital X-ray techniques, Dr Brennan's team of scientists have found that the density of these fragments is not the same as the surrounding bone. COHEN: What are they? BRENNAN: The only way I can tell is by actually looking at them. COHEN: You want to exhume April Wright? AMY: Yes please. COHEN: Because of some shadows on an X-ray? BRENNAN: I don't see another alternative. COHEN: Dr Brennan, if those shadows turned out to be pieces of bone, I'd be extremely angry. BRENNAN: Thank you, Judge Cohen. COHEN: For making a veiled threat? BRENNAN: I thought you were threatening me because you'd decided to sign the exhumation order. (INT: Jeffersonian, Angela's office) EPPS: (in interview on TV) I did not kill April Wright. There are good people out there... you know, people who believe me. People who know I did not kill that girl because they saw the evidence. AMY: I honestly think he's innocent. Don't you? BRENNAN: I don't like to form any conclusions before all the evidence is in. ANGELA: April Wright's body just arrived. BRENNAN: (to Amy) You might be more comfortable staying here. (INT: Jeffersonian, lab platform) AMY: I... I can't. TROY: (from lounge) Oh, god! ANGELA: Don't look, sweetie. TROY: You're not an artist. You're a freak. You people are all freaks (he leaves). ANGELA: Uh, this job is so hard to describe online. ZACK: The left triquetral. BRENNAN: It's a match. For the record, do you concur? ZACK: I concur. BRENNAN: We've got several pieces of foreign material lodged in the bone. HODGINS: It's the same stuff we found in the shard. ANGELA: Which is consistent with the arm being dragged through gravel after the attack. BOOTH: I got a warrant to search the house of the guy April Wright had s*x with the night she was murdered. BRENNAN: What'd you find? BOOTH: Underwear. Can you run a comparison on the hair? (HODGINS and ZACK play scissors-paper-rock for it; ZACK loses) BOOTH: Is that April Wright? BRENNAN: Looks like she wasn't killed where she was found. BOOTH: Then where was she murdered? BRENNAN: We've got microscopic particles beaten into the skull. Were these ever ID'd? HODGINS: According to the autopsy report, no. ZACK: It's a visual match. BRENNAN: (to Angela) Will you backstop him on that? BOOTH: Where's Amy? AMY: I'm here. I can't... BOOTH: It's okay. Things can get pretty, you know, disgusting around here. ANGELA: I concur with Zack. We have a visual match on the pubic hair. BOOTH: Is a visual match enough to stop the execution? AMY: We need DNA to be sure. BRENNAN: Amy's right. This evidence isn't enough to stop the execution. AMY: And you've got nothing else. Nothing at all? BRENNAN: I don't know what else we can do. AMY: (to Booth) If you tell the judge you've changed your mind, that Howard Epps is not guilty... BRENNAN: Have you changed your mind? BOOTH: No. I have doubts that the guy should be executed, but... let's go see the judge. (INT: Prison, Epps' cell) (EPPS sits, waiting.) (INT: Judge Cohen's house, kitchen) COHEN: At my age, a man needs a good night's sleep. Lack of sleep clouds judgement. AMY: If you stay the execution, Judge, I promise you'll sleep like a baby. COHEN: Mr Carlyle, what does the prosecution think? CARLYLE: This is a waste of the state's time, Your Honour. Ms Morton is recycling old evidence, presenting it in a different way in a last ditch attempt to keep Howard Epps from being executed. She's an ideologue. AMY: That's true. But it doesn't mean I'm not right. This case doesn't add up. COHEN: You, brilliant scientist lady. Talk to me about this bone shard. BRENNAN: It indicates the body was dragged to the location where it was later discovered. That, plus the gravel... COHEN: Common gravel, I'm not convinced. What about the hair? BRENNAN: It's a visual match. That narrows the statistical probability to... COHEN: DNA? AMY: Ten days. We'll have it in ten days. COHEN: What about this man that the FBI's taken into custody? David Ross? Has he confessed to sleeping with her? AMY: No. CARLYLE: Even if the DNA says David Ross slept with the girl, it doesn't prove he killed her. COHEN: Let's stick with new facts, Ms Morton. AMY: Your Honour, at least give us time to find David Ross' car. There could be evidence of murder... COHEN: Could be? I can't stop an execution because there "could be" evidence. AMY: Judge Cohen, I have the arresting officer right here. The primary investigator. COHEN: Agent Booth. Have you suddenly decided that Howard Epps is not guilty? BOOTH: No. AMY: Booth! BOOTH: I think there are doubts, and when it comes to an execution, there shouldn't be any doubts. CARLYLE: He doesn't have doubts, he has cold feet. BOOTH: You think I won't pop you one just because we're standing in the judge's kitchen? COHEN: You see? You lose sleep, you get cranky. Judgement suffers. It's not enough. AMY: Your Honour, you can't dismiss this so easily. COHEN: Easily? I allowed you to exhume that girl's remains. Do you think I did that easily? We all feel the weight of a capital case, Ms Morton, but the law is clear. Unless there is proof of grievous incompetence by counsel, or a denial of legitimate and definitive factual certainties, my hands are tied. (INT: Car) AMY: I'll go out to the prison and tell Epps. BRENNAN: I'll take another look at the skull, see if we didn't miss something. BOOTH: Bones... BRENNAN: The particulates in the skull still haven't been analysed yet. AMY: This is so barbaric. When are they gonna put a stop to the damn death penalty? BRENNAN: I believe in the death penalty. AMY: What? BRENNAN: There are certain people that shouldn't be in this world. The people who hacked hundreds of innocent children to death in Rwanda, beheaded them at their desks at school. The people who did that? They should be executed. AMY: So why do you care about Epps? BRENNAN: Because the facts have to add up. Drop me at the lab, please. (INT: Prison, Epps' cell) EPPS: Last meal. I can't decide. What's the last taste that I want? AMY: Howard, I am so sorry. BOOTH: Dr Brennan is still working on a few ideas. EPPS: You see the truth. You know I'm innocent, right? BOOTH: I know there's a chance you're not guilty. EPPS: Well that's good enough for me. BOOTH: A chance, I said. Alright? A chance. (INT: Jeffersonian, Medicolegal lab) HODGINS: These are slivers of metal found on the skull. ZACK: Probably from the tyre iron. BRENNAN: Is that blood? HODGINS: It's silt. I'm breaking it down. It contains traces of two chemicals. ZACK: Anthracene and fluoranthene. ANGELA: I've scanned in all the X-rays and built a 3-D model. Troy would have liked that. b*st*rd. BRENNAN: I've found some more material in the fractures along the sagittal suture. HODGINS: It's pollen. (INT: Jeffersonian, Angelator) HODGINS: The pollen is from Spartina alterniflora, more commonly known as smooth cord grass. AMY: I'm sorry, what does pollen tell us about April Wright's murder? BRENNAN: Angela? (the Angelator changes pictures) The murder weapon collected pollen from the surrounding flora. When she was struck, pollen from the murder weapon was deposited in April's skull. HODGINS: Spartina alterniflora is only found along Chesapeake Bay. ZACK: The pollen and silt both showed traces of complex chemicals. BOOTH: What does that mean? BRENNAN: April Wright was killed in a marsh near a chemical plant. AMY: (answering cell phone) Amy Morton. Thanks. (to everyone) They've moved Howard Epps to the imminent room. ANGELA: What's that? BOOTH: It's where he has his last meal and says goodbye to his family. We need the location of that marsh. (INT: FBI Building, interrogation room) BOOTH: Look, the hair that we found proves that you had s*x with April Wright. You're going to be charged with statutory rape. LAWYER: But not by you. Statutory rape is not a federal crime. So I'm left to assume that you're here to get my client to confess to murder. BOOTH: It adds up. It tracks. ROSS: I didn't kill April. BOOTH: You met April in the park, but she was killed somewhere else... near a chemical plant? ROSS: I don't know anything about that. BOOTH: You had s*x with her. She threatened to tell her family. You couldn't let that happen. ROSS: No. BOOTH: You'd lose your business, your professional standing. ROSS: No. LAWYER: Do not engage with him, David. BOOTH: You had motive, you had means, you had opportunity. ROSS: I didn't kill her. BOOTH: Then why aren't you helping us? ROSS: What? BOOTH: By not admitting that you were there that night, by not confessing that you were with her, you're clouding the issue. ROSS: So what? Epps will still be in jail for the rest of his life. LAWYER: We are not discussing the events of that night, Agent Booth. BOOTH: You are the only person who can tell us what happened that night. Do you care at all about what happened to her? ROSS: Okay, look, I went there that night just to talk, okay? That's all. LAWYER: This interview is over. ROSS: No, I... just to talk. I'm not proud of what happened, alright? I could tell you exactly why it happened, but I'm not proud of it. I shouldn't have let myself get pulled in. I didn't know it was her first time, I didn't know she'd get so upset. She ran off. BOOTH: Are you telling me you left her in that park? ROSS: No, I looked for her. I waited for her for over two hours. Finally I figured she called somebody to come get her. BOOTH: Was her car still there when you left? ROSS: Yes, it was. BOOTH: What time was that? ROSS: I guess after 2AM. BOOTH: Did you see anyone else? ROSS: Yeah, there was traffic, there was some traffic. It was all teenagers. After 1AM, there was nothing. Look, maybe it is my fault that he got to her. You know, maybe I should got to jail for that. (INT: FBI Building, conference room) CULLEN: He admits to having s*x with her? BOOTH: Yes sir. CULLEN: Did he kill her? BOOTH: Well he's either telling the truth, or he's setting up his defence. CULLEN: So April Wright met David Ross for a sexual liaison. He took her to a second, unknown location, beat her to death, and deposited the body back at the park. That's sketchy. BRENNAN: Which is why we have to find the murder weapon. CULLEN: Find a tyre iron in a marsh after seven years? That's a long shot. BRENNAN: That's why we need metal detectors and GPR. BOOTH: And a dozen or so agents, sir. CULLEN: And if you find this tyre iron, you can positively identify it as the murder weapon? BRENNAN: It's possible we can match the traces we found in April's skull. CULLEN: Possible? No. Howard Epps' lawyer should present this argument to the judge and let him decide. BOOTH: Sir, without the murder weapon, he will not stay the execution. CULLEN: Way out on a limb here, Booth. BRENNAN: He's just trying to find the truth. Why should he be penalised for...? CULLEN: Take the equipment and the men you need. BOOTH: Thank you sir. CULLEN: She can't have a gun. BOOTH: No gun. Absolutely not. No gun. Thank you, sir. (INT: Car) BRENNAN: (on cell phone) We have GPR, and more agents will meet us out there. We'll have a total of four devices so we'll be able to cover a lot of ground. (INT: Jeffersonian, Medicolegal lab) ANGELA: I'm plugging in all the data from the area to get the location with the closest match. HODGINS: Given the chemicals in the soil and the pollen, I'd say we're looking for a spot near the Rock Hall processing plant. BRENNAN: (on speakerphone) We'll have video relay when we get to the bay, and I need pictures of the type of grass we're looking for. HODGINS: Okay. (EXT: Chesapeake Bay) BRENNAN: There are four areas that have Spartina alterniflora. HODGINS: (through computer video relay) It's a muddy area. Knee-high grass. Okay, go back one screen. BOOTH: It's just off that service road. (Agents are searching the area with metal detectors) AGENT: We got it. We got it. AGENT #2: Let me know what you pull up. AGENT: We've got the tyre iron. AGENT #3: Over here! There's something else here. BOOTH: Here. I got something. It's more than a tyre iron. Is that what I think it is? BRENNAN: I need a shov... BOOTH: Bones. I need a shovel! She's digging here. AGENT #4: Right away, sir. AGENT #5: Ma'am (hands her a shovel). Agent Booth. BRENNAN: (digging) Are you gonna help? BOOTH: Well I would, but this is a $1200 suit. BRENNAN: Are you kidding me? I haven't slept in 48 hours and you're worried about your suit? Get over here. BOOTH: Fine. Can I get a shovel? Thanks. BRENNAN: Dig gently. Small layers at a time. What would you usually be doing? BOOTH: What? BRENNAN: If it were a normal weekend. BOOTH: You want to discuss this now? BRENNAN: Compared to you with your multiple s*x partners... BOOTH: You know, that's none of your business, okay? I'm not having s*x with Amy, and I have never ever cheated on any woman that I've ever been with. Never! BRENNAN: I just asked what you'd normally be doing. BOOTH: I'd be at a movie, dancing... being with somebody that I care about. You? (BRENNAN and BOOTH both uncover skulls where they're digging) BOOTH: Okay, what the hell's going on here? BRENNAN: (observing skeletons laid out on the ground) Female, approximately 17 to 25 years old, blunt trauma to the skull. Also female, same approximate age, same type of injury. BOOTH: This doesn't fit with Ross. If he killed April, it was a panic murder - personal, not serial. BRENNAN: Both these victims have been dead for at least five years. BOOTH: Maybe more than seven? BRENNAN: Yes. BOOTH: Epps. It was Epps. He snatched April from the park after she ran from Ross, and brought her here to his killing grounds. BRENNAN: Why did he take her back to the park? BOOTH: He watched them have s*x; he saw them argue. Epps knew suspicions would fall on Ross, and he took her back. BRENNAN: And stole her car. BOOTH: We got played. BRENNAN: What? How? BOOTH: Either way, Epps wins. We find Ross, the execution is stopped. We find these bodies... BRENNAN: The execution is stayed until these murders are investigated. BOOTH: If I don't make this call, he's gonna be dead in half an hour. BRENNAN: But these women, they deserve to be heard. It's what we do, Booth. The rest... BOOTH: Lawyers. BRENNAN. Lawyers. BOOTH: (on cell phone) Amy, it's Booth. I think we got you your stay of execution, but you're not gonna like it much. (INT: Prison, visitation room) EPPS: Thank you. All I can say is thank you. BOOTH: What's that, Howie? Practising to get jury sympathy? EPPS: I did not kill anyone. (sits down across from BRENNAN) Thank you. I mean it. BRENNAN: We found the tyre iron. You'll be found guilty of these murders. EPPS: Well, I need a good lawyer. These murder investigations take a long time. Then there's the appeals. And since I should have been dead half an hour ago, it's all gravy from now on. AMY: We gave him everything he wanted. EPPS: Who knows if there'll even be a death penalty then? I mean, that's your dream, isn't it? We want the same things from life. (AMY leaves the room) EPPS: And I owe you too. I read your book. When I read you were working with Booth here, I knew you were just what I needed. (EPPS reaches for BRENNAN'S hand; she slams his wrist down on the table, breaking it.) BRENNAN: You gonna arrest me for assault? BOOTH: From what I saw, purely self defence. BRENNAN: Maybe I shouldn't carry a gun after all. BOOTH: Hell, you can have mine. (INT: Sid's) SID: What's the matter with you two? BOOTH: Bad day at work. SID: Well that's what you get for working on weekends. You ever hear about taking some time off, having a little fun? BRENNAN: Why, what'd you do? SID: I'd be breaking about six different laws if I just told you how I manoeuvred on my Saturday nights. But I will bring you some food. BRENNAN: I'm not hungry. BOOTH: No use arguing with Sid, Bones. BRENNAN: Are you in trouble with your boss? BOOTH: I'm sorry for wrecking your weekend for nothing. BRENNAN: No, not for nothing. BOOTH: Come on, you know what I mean. You know, all that running around, it didn't change anything. Epps was guilty. He was always guilty. BRENNAN: There was doubt. We had an obligation to respect that doubt. We all share in the death of every human being. BOOTH: Very poetic. BRENNAN: No, very literal. We all share DNA. When I look at a bone, it's not some artefact that I can separate from myself. It's a part of a person who got here the same way I did. It should never be easy to take someone's life. I don't care who it is. What? What? BOOTH: You know, you've been practising your Nobel prize speech just a little too much. SID: Scallops in Szechwan sauce, duck fried rice. WAITRESS: Here you go. SID: Apple pie, hot cup of joe. To simple pleasures, my friends. Simple pleasures. (They toast) (CREDITS)
A Man on Death Row