- A man who has spent 25 years as a patient in a mental home is released - only to be arrested on a charge of murder dating from before his confinement, and scheduled to be executed.
- Victor Fergusson is in the office of the head of a mental hospital begging not to be discharged. He says that if he is discharged some men will take him away and kill him. The doctor says there is nothing wrong with him anymore and he must be discharged. Fergusson leaves the office and just as he predicted two men in black appear. He backs into a corner and suddenly one of the men slaps handcuffs on him. It turns out that Fergusson and an accomplice robbed a grocery store in 1936 and the storekeeper was shot to death. Both men were found guilty but upon hearing the verdict Fergusson suffered a mental breakdown and became catatonic. He has been in the mental hospital for 25 years. His partner was executed. Fergusson must now be sentenced to death. He cannot remember anything about the robbery. The Judge has asked the Prestons to find some way to get Fergusson off of the "treadmill to death". The younger Preston goes to see the Governor's chief of staff and ask for clemency but is rudely turned down. The storekeeper's 10-year old daughter became an orphan when her father was murdered and she was sent to an orphanage. The elder Preston visits the orphanage and is told by a secretary that the records he is looking for were destroyed in a fire 9 years earlier. The younger Preston searches the public records and comes up with a list of names and addresses for the orphan. The elder Preston spots one name and checks it out - it's the secretary at the orphanage! When he confronts her she swears she'll stick by her story that she saw Fergusson and his partner running from the store. As expected, Fergusson is sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing. The Prestons ask for a new trial on the grounds of newly discovered evidence. At the hearing, the elder Preston hammers away at the shopkeeper's daughter until she admits that she only saw Fergusson's partner leave the store and maybe did not hear two shots in succession. Preston explains to the Judge that he is trying to prove that Fergusson was not in the store when the fatal shot was fired and therefore cannot be guilty of first degree murder. Fergusson takes the stand and is put under hypnosis. He tells what happened that night in 1936 and it turns out that he was too frightened to fire the gun in his hand so his accomplice grabbed the gun and shot the storekeeper. When the wounded storekeeper tried to run away, the accomplice chased him and killed him. Based upon what Fergusson has just revealed, Preston changes his argument to one that the original jury may have recommended leniency if they knew Fergusson did not fire the gun and that he had a spotless record before the crime. The Judge grants the Motion for New Trial. Fergusson is relieved to know that he didn't kill anyone.
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