Forgiveness (Season 3, Episode 3)
Premise: A college student is bludgeoned the night before she leaves for Italy, and her boyfriend confesses but says he cannot remember the attack.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 3
- Detectives
- Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Luis Antonio Ramos as Tommy Beltran, David Leary as Curtis Milgram, Laurence Luckinbill as Cyrus Weaver, Luke Reilly as Father Gregory, Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Ripped from the headlines
- Reportedly derived from the Bonnie Garland murder case.
- Director
- Bill D'Elia
- Writers
- Story: Robert Nathan; Story & teleplay: Ed Zuckerman
Summary
The Investigation
“Forgiveness” begins when a couple finds Manhattan College junior Beth Milgram beaten to death on a vacant lot after a farewell party; she was due to leave for an art program in Italy the next day. The killer struck her repeatedly with a heavy pipe and left it behind, and nothing was taken. Her boyfriend, Tommy Beltran, a Mexican-American scholarship student from Texas, tells the detectives they were engaged and that Beth’s father once hit her.
Curtis Milgram, who holds a $250,000 life insurance policy on his daughter, becomes a suspect until a speeding ticket places him on Long Island that night. A friend of Beth’s reveals that she told Tommy that day to see other girls. A resident of the homeless shelter where Tommy volunteers saw him enter the confessional with Father Gregory hours after the killing. A search of Tommy’s room turns up a bag whose fibers match one snagged on the pipe, and before he can be arrested, Tommy arrives with Father Gregory and confesses.
The Trial
Father Gregory urges a light plea so Tommy can join a religious order, and Stone refuses. Defense attorney Cyrus Weaver gets the bag suppressed because the warrant rested on weak probable cause, though the confession stands. Weaver then pleads mental defect, arguing Beth’s rejection set off a rage rooted in Tommy’s childhood poverty. Dr. Olivet testifies that Tommy knew what he was doing and acted out of anger, not illness.
The prosecutors trace the pipe to plumbing work at the shelter, though the defense shows the same type was used at a building a block from the crime scene. Tommy testifies about his mother’s death in a migrant shack and says he cannot recall the attack, and Stone presses him on why he cannot remember picking up the pipe. Stone offers 10 years, but Tommy chooses to take his chances with the jury.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Tommy Beltran guilty of second-degree murder.
Why it stands out
- The story was reportedly derived from the Bonnie Garland murder case.
- Laurence Luckinbill guest-stars as defense attorney Cyrus Weaver.
- A suppressed piece of evidence and a mental-defect defense nearly turn a confessed killing into a lesser verdict.