- "10 days after Miss Stanley was murdered, your attorney struck down the injunction and your project went forward unopposed. So my question is; Senator Trucco, did you have Trisha Stanley murdered?"
- —Annalise Keating during her cross of Art Trucco[src]
Annalise submitted a petition to develop new facts of David Allen's conviction. This petition was granted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and as soon as Annalise found out she cancelled class and had the Keating 5 help on the case. The court gave Annalise 3 days to develop new facts before the emergency hearing. David was set to die by lethal injection in under two weeks from when Annalise was granted the petition.
Case[]
Research[]
Annalise received word that her petition was granted in the middle of class, so she cancelled it but asked the Keating 5 to stay. She explained to them how David Allen was convicted for murdering his girlfriend, Trisha Stanley, after he suspected she fell in love with her boss. She said despite there being nothing but circumstantial evidence to support this theory, David was found guilty and sentenced to death.
The Keating 5 started out by going over the trial transcripts, all picking a person and reading out everything they said in order. Michaela was Linda Morelli, Connor was George Gabler and Laurel was Judge William Millstone. It was during this that the group realised Asher's dad presided over the original trial. That evening, Annalise tasked everybody with different aspects of the case. Wes and Laurel were sent to speak with David's original attorney, George Gabler, to find out if there was any ineffective assistance of council. Michaela and Connor were sent to find out why the original prosecutor, Vince Travers, left mid-trial. Bonnie and Asher were sent to speak with the eye witness, Linda Morelli, to find out if she saw anyone else at the time she saw David.
Wes and Laurel found out that David had an alibi. Jason Watkins was apart of a volunteer program that David was in. He had a job interview coming up and David offered him one of his suits because he had nothing to wear. The two met at David's apartment and hung out for a few hours before parting ways and David traveling to Trisha's apartment, where he saw the police cars. Annalise asked Bonnie to find Jason, and she did, but he had died 18 months prior by overdose.
Michaela and Connor found out that Vince Travers left mid-trial because he received a tip about there being perjured testimony and the Judge did nothing after he brought it to him. This prompted Asher to look into his father. He found out that there was in fact perjury in the trial to satisfy state Senator Art Trucco. He needed David Allen to go down for the murder and successfully convinced somebody to lie on the stand as a result.
There was a brief struggle period where everybody was looking through files and coming up nothing, then Asher attempted to fight Connor and knocked over a box of files. He recognised a logo on one of the files and put together that the witness who lied lived in a building owned by Art Trucco.
Court[]
In court, Annalise called Linda Morelli to the stand and questioned her about why she was being evicted and pointed out that her eviction suit was suddenly dropped shortly after she testified to seeing David with the murder weapon. Linda never paid the rent she was owed and Annalise proffered it was because her payment was her testimony against David. Annalise then asked Linda if anybody connected to Art Trucco told her that the issues with rent would disappear if she testified to seeing David with the gun on the day of the murder. Clark Byers objects, saying that Linda cannot speak to the intentions of somebody else, causing Annalise to demand the court subpoena Art Trucco, to which they agreed.
When Art Trucco takes the stand, Annalise brings up the injunction that Trisha Stanley brought against Art Trucco's housing project. She was advocating for the thousands of citizens in low-income housing who would be displaced by the project. Annalise continued that 10 days after Trisha's death, Art Trucco's attorney struck down her injunction and the housing project went forward unopposed. She plainly asked if Art Trucco had Trisha Stanley murdered. Clark Byers objected and Chief Justice tried to silence Annalise as she began a dramatic monologue directed at Art Trucco. The court went into recess.
When court was back in session, Chief Justice reprimanded Annalise for her conduct, before saying that he no longer had faith in the eye witness testimony and had no choice but to vacate the judgement, conviction and sentence of death and prohibit a re-trial.
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" |