Only Ann Knows
Script
124 Pages
By Baird Smart
Broadcasting to a worldwide audience from an undisclosed location, a network news anchor interviews Juror #6 about how the jury on which she served reached their controversial verdict. Juror #6, in silhouette and voice disguised, explains that to understand the jury's decision, the audience must first know the events that lead to the verdict.
Her account begins with the delivery of an AK-47 to the headquarters of the American Rifle Society and the circumstances that led ARS executive, Ann Miller to deliver that assault rifle to her boss at a meeting in an executive boardroom. Before Miller enters the boardroom, all ARS security cameras shut down and the fire alarm sounds with a deafening, continuous, blare. She enters the boardroom carrying the assault rifle and closes the door behind her. Over the loud high pitched, jarring sound of the fire alarm, one member of the meeting screams that the safety is open. Moments later, two pops of a handgun ring out, followed by fifty assault rifle explosions and the tinny ping of empty shells hitting the linoleum floor.
First responders, Fairfax City Police Officers, Martinez and Honegger discover 13 mutilated bodies around a conference table with Miller huddled on the floor clutching the AK-47, shaking uncontrollably with severe shock. Tom Reynolds, Executive Director of the NRA stands over Miller with a handgun trained on her. Reynolds mysteriously threatens Martinez, Honegger and their families if they tell anyone he entered the crime scene before them.
The FBI assigns two agents to lead the ultra high-profile, mass shooting investigation. Senior Agent Tucker Brown, an outspoken, Vietnam Vet who prides himself on never having failed to deliver evidence for a conviction, oversees the crime scene and weapon probe. Responsibility for investigating Miller, the perpetrator and sole witness, falls on FBI Agent Richard Smith who is up for a promotion and raise he desperately needs to pay for his daughter's medical treatment.
Miller, a single mother, lost her only child in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage. She willingly admits to shooting her colleagues but claims it was an accident, a self-defense response when someone shot at her.
An army of FBI agents investigate Miller, the assault rifle, shipment of the weapon, the security camera shutdown and fire alarm activation but fail to discover any evidence to prove Miller's ARS shooting was premeditated. Convinced Miller planned the massacre, Brown becomes increasingly frustrated. Torn between the lack of evidence and intense political pressure to prosecute, the Commonwealth Attorney for Fairfax County indicts Miller on 13 counts of first-degree murder.
Despite the trial progressing heavily in the defenses favor, Miller disregards the advise of her attorney and testifies, apologizing for the horrible accident and emphasizing the danger of assault weapons. Under cross-examination, the prosecution accuses Miller of purposely eliminating all witnesses except herself. Miller reveals her boss routinely video recorded meetings so she may not have been the only witness. When pressed by the prosecution about the absence of any camera or video found during the investigation, she refers them to Tom Reynolds who was first person to enter the boardroom after the shooting. Despite renewed threats from Reynolds, Martinez confirms Reynolds was the first in the crime scene. Reynolds cuts his loses and surrenders the camera.
The massacre video confirms Miller's claim that someone shot at her first but since she positioned herself and the AK-47 outside the video frame, the video fails to determine whether she provoked the gunshot at her. For Brown, the video relieves his fear the FBI would be blamed for not providing evidence to prosecute Miller on his final case before retiring. Smith's impartiality throughout the investigation and trial gains him an important recommendation for promotion from Brown, a Senior Agent, who had been brutally critical of Smith for his open-minded approach dealing with Miller during the investigation. With the prospect of acquittal and realization of the hatred her freedom and infamy will create, Miller's spirits sink but revive with an unexpected gift from an adversary, Brown.
At the undisclosed location, Juror # 6 reveals to the live broadcast cameras that the jury split evenly. For half the jurors, the video of the massacre proved to be evidence enough that Miller was acting in self-defense. For the other six jurors, the video failed to convince them the shooting was not premeditated. They felt the incredible set of coincidences, Miller's politically motivated testimony and a strong motive of revenge, all pointed to a brilliantly planned act of revenge, a massacre of 13 people to make a dramatic social statement about assault weapons.