- "So guess what? Guess what?! You go to jail and I'm the shoddy lawyer who put you there."
- —Annalise to Gina
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Sadowski, more commonly known as the Aspirin Assassin Case is the first case that Annalise picks up at the start of the new semester at Middleton University. Arthur Kaufman went into anaphylactic shock after his medication was switched out for an aspirin pill of which he is allergic to. His brain was deprived of oxygen for 7 minutes. Once he was resuscitated by his assistant, it was clear that he had permanent brain damage and subsequently required round the clock care. Following this, charges were brought against Gina Sadowski for attempted murder. After Gina got attorney Annalise Keating on her side, she managed to get Gina acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Case[]
On Gina's last day at the office, she returned from her lunch break to find paramedics and she quickly learnt that Arthur had ingested aspirin, a medication he was allergic to. Annalise had her students prepare a defense strategy for Gina and present it to her before the trial to see if anybody could come up with a better idea than her. Nobody did.
On the first day in court, Linda Tanner took the stand. She explained that she was Arthur's first assistant for 21 years, so seeing him lying on the floor when she found him was horrible. She described that he wasn't breathing and his skin kept getting more and more blue. Linda apologised to Agnes, who was sitting at the prosecution desk with her almost vegetative husband. The prosecutor, Henry Williams, assured Linda that she did everything she could. Meanwhile, as Michaela rushed to the courthouse, Annalise began her cross. She pointed out that Linda didn't like Gina, and after getting a file from Bonnie, she listed off all the things Linda had called her. Linda tried to shrug them off as lies, but before she can finish, Michaela rushed into the courtroom and whispered something to Frank.
The entire room went silent and Annalise asked the judge, Kathy Powell, for a moment. Michaela then whispered something to her too. With fresh information, Annalise asked Linda to confirm if she saw a pill on Gina's desk the day of the accident. Linda confirmed this, so Annalise asked her to confirm it was a yellow pill like the colour of prosecutor Williams' shirt. Linda confirmed that it was, shocking the room, as his shirt was blue. Annalise asked if Linda was colour blind. She bitterly confirmed that she was. Linda insisted that she knew what she saw and that Gina was acting nervous, however Annalise simply asked if it was possible the medication she saw on Gina's desk was her anxiety medication and Linda said yes.
Lionel Bryant had a meeting with Arthur on the morning of the poisoning to discuss moving Gina to the accounting department to avoid any sexual harassment claims. She the then had Lionel read a private email that he wrote to Arthur, causing Williams to object that it wasn't apart of discovery. Annalise had Bonnie explain but Williams continue that the email must have been obtained illegally. This was true as Connor had asked Oliver to hack to find it. Judge Powell sided with the defense because Lionel had written the email, so it was admissible. Annalise then accused Lionel of being the one to swap out Arthur's medicine to gain sole ownership of the company, which caused Williams to object again and Annalise to finish her cross.
The next day, detective Gill testified to how CCTV footage that was about to be presented to the court was found. Williams then played it for the court and it showed Gina purchasing soloxaore, a brand of aspirin, the night before the murder attempt. During recess Annalise flipped out at Gina and her team for not preparing her for that but by the time court was back in session she had an idea. She called Nate Lahey to the stand, and blackmailed him by asking where he was two nights prior. He was at her house having sex, cheating on both Sam Keating and Nia Lahey. He said he was at a friends. Annalise then asked him point blank if he'd ever known of CCTV footage being altered to support the prosecution in getting a conviction. Williams objected but the judge allowed it. After a brief pause Nate said that he was aware of such instances. Later, Gina was found not guilty.
See also[]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
| Season 1 | |||||||||||
| "Pilot" | "It's All Her Fault" | "Smile, or Go to Jail" | "Let's Get to Scooping" | ||||||||
| "We're Not Friends" | "Freakin' Whack-a-Mole" | "He Deserved to Die" | "He Has a Wife" | ||||||||
| "Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me" | "Hello Raskolnikov" | "Best Christmas Ever" | "She's a Murderer" | ||||||||
| "Mama's Here Now" | "The Night Lila Died" | "It's All My Fault" |