Uncertain Justice (Season 3, Episode 3)
Premise: A mother convicted of killing her baby is murdered days after winning bail, and the detectives look hard at the expert who helped convict her.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 3
- Starring
- DS Henry Graff (Aden Young), DS Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe), Insp. Vivienne Holness (Karen Robinson), DCA Theo Forrester (K.C. Collins), Mark Yohannes (Araya Mengesha), Dr. Lucy Da Silva (Nicola Correia-Damude)
- Guest stars
- Raoul Bhaneja as Victor Plath, Nicolette Pearse as Cara Melville, Evan Buliung as Tate Melville, Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. Plath, Chelsea Russell as Maxine Shuter
- Director
- Jordan Canning
- Writers
- Jillian Locke
Summary
The Case
“Uncertain Justice” begins in prison, where Cara Melville, serving time for killing her six-month-old daughter, Izzy, insists in prison therapy that she did nothing, then is jumped in a tunnel. After a year inside she is granted bail pending appeal, because a blonde hair seen on Izzy in an ER photo was never disclosed. Soon after, a motel manager finds her dead in the bathtub with a hairdryer, the power cut at 8 p.m. A cut on her head and a wiped doorframe tell Graff and Bateman she was knocked out first, and skin under her nails suggests she fought.
Her ex-husband, Tate, admits she scratched him during an argument that night, but his alibi holds. He says Cara claimed to have more than the hair and was gathering proof on a drive that was stolen at a library. Library footage shows a blonde young man taking it: Christian Brodeur, who, Tate’s daughter Audrey finally admits, was secretly with her the night she babysat Izzy. ER doctor Damian Garvey says the hair was tangled in Izzy’s fingers and that her injury could have come hours earlier than pathologist Victor Plath allowed. Christian was at community service when Cara died, and the drive holds files on another jailed mother, Maxine Shuter, whose daughter’s autopsy by Plath overlooked a hereditary disease.
The Interrogation
Plath visits the squad and mentions a reading series as his alibi, but its organizer cannot vouch for the whole evening. Maxine says Plath ignored her family history, and a review of 20 of his recent autopsies finds errors behind the convictions of 12 parents, all mothers. Forrester calls Plath at Christian’s preliminary inquiry, where Plath dismisses the hair as a contaminant, then calls Da Silva, who testifies that Plath was biased and that his other autopsies fall short. The Chief Coroner opens an inquiry into his work.
After the hearing Graff confronts Plath in front of his mother. Graff has been to her house and found the missing hair, which Plath took from Izzy’s body and kept. He recounts the childhood injuries she explained away and says he too was abused as a child. She insists she was a good mother who sometimes had to use a firm hand; Plath says she hurt him. He then admits he went to Cara’s room to find her evidence, struck her when she heard him, pushed her into the tub and threw in the hairdryer.
The ending
Spoiler: The judge agrees to a mistrial, so Christian can be tried afresh once the hair is tested, which may bring justice for Izzy and, with Plath’s record exposed, perhaps for Maxine and Cara. Graff and Bateman trade a P.D. James line about the limits of justice.
Suspect’s fate: Victor Plath, other or unclear.
Why it stands out
- Innocence Canada, the real wrongful-conviction organization, is named as the group that reviewed Cara’s file and found the undisclosed hair.
- Graff reveals that he was abused as a child, telling Plath that his own hiding place was under the stairs.