01x03 - The Female Charles Manson

[bunniefuu]

[sirens wailing in distance]

[Harmon] The whole state
and country was looking for her.

I was chomping on the bone for every day
of every week of every month,

'cause I wanted to catch her.

[director] You've not caught her.

I know, but I'm not giving up either.

I haven't caught her.

But guess what?
Sometimes they don't want to be caught.

Oh, without a doubt, law enforcement
was under incredible pressure.

The prison that let her go
was embarrassed by this.

We didn't know what she was gonna do,
kinda like a caged possum.

If you push them in the corner,
they're gonna bite you.

That was our urgency in finding her.

-[♪ suspenseful music playing]
-[bell rings]

[whirring]

[Harmon] And… And then, you know,
all my bosses are talking to their bosses

and talking to their bosses in Washington.

I was informed by my supervisor,

and he had been in communication
with America's Most Wanted.

[operator] Everyone ready?

[Harmon] That wasn't my call,
it was your call,

but at that point,
I had nothing else to lose.

Here comes the roller coaster again.

Good evening.

[smacks lips] Now, our first story
tonight is about "an artist."

Everybody was at the TV
to watch this segment.

[news anchor 1] Some artists can
take a block of clay

and manipulate it and mold it
into anything they can think of.

She manipulates people instead of clay.

And I remember thinking, "that's not me."

And even when she was sent off to prison,
she never stopped working her craft.

They don't have a clue.
They don't know who they're looking for.

Everyone around her was putty
in her hands.

[♪ ominous music playing]

[presenter 1] Rockville Correctional
Facility, Rockville, Indiana.

A place more than 1,000 women call home.

[Pender] Tom and I were in a hotel room,

and we watched
what America's Most Wanted aired.

[presenter 1] One of those women
was Sarah Pender.

This is her entertaining some
of her fellow prisoners.

[Pender] The longer
I watched myself on TV…

the worse it got. [sighs]

I mean, I'm not stupid.
I knew what they were doing.

[cheering on TV]

[presenter 1] But behind her angelic
good looks and endearing persona,

former Marion County
Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells

says Sarah Pender is a woman to be feared.

She has a Charles Manson-like ability
to manipulate people

to act as surrogates for her
in committing crimes.

Everything

you know on America's Most Wanted

that wasn't the person I saw.

That wasn't the person I knew.

That wasn't the person I talked with.

All that stuff sort of ramped up,

um, the scrutiny and the pressure
and the fear of her.

Not just in Indiana,

but obviously since it's been
on America's Most Wanted…

…everyday normal civilian people
are going to be looking out for her.

[Harmon] Sarah's a convicted m*rder*r.

She's a con. She's a convict.

She did con some cons to help her.

Since she's been out, she's flushed them
down the toilet as she flushed

the two bodies
in the back of a dumpster.

But manipulation is a story.

I hate to say it…

[♪ tense music playing]

…but it's very common for a man
to blame a woman for their actions.

Men will point the finger
and say the woman made me do it.

[presenter 1] Pender is like a chameleon.

We know she's manipulative.

And she probably is already working
her charms on someone new.

Let's put Sarah Pender back
behind bars tonight.

[Harmon] When America's Most Wanted,
uh, had got involved,

um, it generated a ton of leads.

You know, "She's at a truck stop
right now in Nebraska,"

or, "She's in Oklahoma. We saw her."

You know, it's just like…
Tips were all over the country.

[siren blaring]

From Minnesota,
California, Florida, Texas…

I mean, there was no nexus
to these locations.

So, you couldn't let these tips
lay dormant. You had to go.

So, it was a trade-off, but I knew though
that it was not favorable for her.

It just keeps on putting the pressure

on any movements that she may be trying
to make or not be able to make.

Was I obsessed with the hunt?

Uh… um…

That's a… That's kind of
a crazy word to use.

I guess I was a little obsessed.

[keys tapping]

[Pender] After
America's Most Wanted aired,

friends that I turned to
whenever I needed help,

now they were gone.

Every moment was tainted with knowing

that just a glance,
or someone that I had been in prison with,

or someone with a great memory
was going to spot me.

[faucet running]

And of course, again, I dyed my hair.

And I bought colored contacts,
changed my eye color to hazel.

I went to the eye doctor.
I bought glasses.

I did not know how long my relationship
with Tom was going to last.

[♪ somber music playing]

I felt like it was important
for me to keep moving.

So Tom had arranged for me to stay
with the niece of a friend of his.

And it just happened

that a friend of hers was looking
for an estimator

for a construction company
that his dad owned.

And I got on the bus, and I just pretended
that everything was fine.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[Harmon] A couple weeks later,

it was a little like ferreting through
a bunch of leads from all over the country

-that were absolutely crazy leads.
-[phone rings]

I mean, I had stacks, the stacks of stuff
that came in from America's Most Wanted,

I'm like, "I don't have time
to go through…"

I mean, these were just, like,
nutty people, but it's what it was.

It was leads,
but it was just not very tangible leads.

[phones ringing]

And then all of a sudden,

I had a call from an internal affairs
investigator at Rockville,

and he was… [stutters] …my eyes and ears
internally in the prison.

Now, the Department of Corrections,

I wasn't aware of this,
but they have an email system set up

where anybody can send messages
to and from the offenders.

[Harmon] They got an email.
It was directed to this inmate…

[♪ ominous music playing]

…her name is KP.

She used to have
a relationship with Sarah.

[Harmon] They thought
that Sarah may be trying to contact KP

using, uh, another offender's log in.

Is she going to be that stupid
to use a log in of another person

and try to communicate
with her former girlfriend inside?

We couldn't ignore it.

-[helicopter whirring]
-[radio chattering]

We surrounded the house
where Pender was maybe using this account.

America's Most Wanted crew were there

with the anticipation of,
"This could be it. This could be the one."

We were ready to rock and roll
with what we call shock and awe,

you know, waking people up.

[pounds on door]

We got a search warrant. Come on out.
You know what is this about?

-[resident 1] No, I don't have a clue.
-[Harmon] we're searching for a girl.

-What girl?
-[Harmon] Sarah.

It scared him to death
when they all came to the door.

She's got 110 years
over her head. You don't.

She could have been there.

[presenter 1] Unfortunately, daybreak
revealed Pender was nowhere in sight.

[Harmon] They said it was true
that an offender is reaching out to KP,

nothing more than that. Uh,
Sarah had nothing to do with that.

But the best thing now,
I'm gonna back up out of here,

let the dust settle for a couple of days.

[director] You know is there a feeling of

embarrassment a little bit
that there you are

on national television

-coming up empty handed?
-No. No. No.

I don't give a sh*t about what
America's Most Wanted put it with me.

I didn't care about whitewashed…

They were doing
their Hollywood sh*t, okay?

Did it keep the light on Pender?
It kept the light on Pender.

DAY 77

[♪ sinister music playing]

[Pender] Being on the run,

I had no idea
what I was really getting myself into.

But Chicago was very convenient.

I felt like I could blend in.

Each day I went to work,
and I felt like a normal person.

[♪ melancholy music playing]

[Pender] I would put my high heels
in my backpack, put on my tennis shoes.

Listening to the sound of my footsteps on
the pavement as I walked up to get lunch.

I don't know if I ever forgot
that I was a fugitive,

but there was not a time that I did not
enjoy experiencing new things.

I met this guy on the corner,
walking his two dogs

and chatted him up about,
"Where did you get your dogs?"

And he had rescued them from someplace,
and it was just…

it was the most normal, beautiful thing.

And I… And I thought, "This is real life.
This is real life."

[♪ ominous music playing]

Those were the times that…

Those were the times
that being a fugitive didn't matter.

[presenter 1] Pender is on
the 15 Most Wanted fugitive list,

but she might not look like this.

Police say she has cut her hair,
colored it multiple times,

added a nose ring and a tongue piercing.

[Harmon] They've got 15 they're profiling,
and she's the only woman on there.

It's individuals that the US Marshals
at the federal level

feel are the most dangerous people
that they are actively hunting.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

It was really odd to see
that I was on this top 15 list.

I knew that I wasn't dangerous.

I know that I'm not a threat to the
community, but they don't know that.

I have a strong belief
that she hasn't left the state of Indiana.

If she has,
it's just been for a short stint.

I'm real dangerous

with my charming smile.

[laughs]

I'm sorry.

[Harmon] When Sarah was elevated
to the US Marshals' top 15 poster,

with that came a $25,000 reward.

And all that is… is to get people
to drop a dime on her.

[Pender] I was hoping that eventually
the US Marshals would just give up

and find something else to do,
more important.

[Harmon] She may think
she knows her capabilities,

and she was good,

but I wouldn't want to be her right now.

[Prosser] I worried about Sarah every day.

I lost my daughter
because she has to be on the run.

I don't know how to explain it.
It messes with your mind, you know?

To… To not know for sure
what's around the corner.

Thanksgiving,
it's a time of being thankful.

Knowing that she was still alive,
I was thankful for that.

But it's hard not to have your family
together sitting at the table.

[Pender] On Thanksgiving Day,
Tom left to see his family.

And so, I walked down
to the Denny's down the street

and picked up a traditional Thanksgiving
meal with two pieces of pecan pie.

Yeah, it was lonely.

When I was sitting in my apartment,
I had bought a guitar.

Just a cheap acoustic guitar.

And I had to go in my room to play it

because I was afraid that my next-door
neighbor would hear me

playing and singing,

and that was one of the things that
they had put on America's Most Wanted,

is that I like to sing and play guitar.

And I thought, "I have to hide this.
I have to hide this part of me."

I couldn't be myself because then
I would be too much like Sarah Pender.

It was emotionally exhausting.

I just wanted to resume my normal life.

[presenter 2] Investigators say,
"Sarah Pender is on the loose

and dangerous."

[investigator 1] You know, we received
numerous tips and calls,

but here lately they have…

Since dried up and…

[Harmon] Wanted fugitives.

They're usually on the run for, you know,
days, maybe weeks.

Very rarely are they months.

When I was hunting Sarah, though,
she was all-encompassing in my mind

from when I went to sleep
until I woke up.

And a lot of times if I'm watching TV
with my daughter or my son and my wife…

[phone buzzes]

…and my phone will ring.

I mean, from state police detectives

to internal affairs
to America's Most Wanted.

They were all trying
to get information to me.

Every lead I went to,
everything I went and checked out.

You have hope and you have… you have

what-if.

[door opens, closes]

So I was gone… [stutters] …all the time.

And I was coming up empty-handed.

And then I… I fell down the deep hole of…

of… I-I started drinking too much.

I would decompress in the evening
with-with Absolut Vodka

and wake up with a headache
in the morning.

I suffered, chasing her a*s
for four or five months.

Yeah, I take ownership. I wasn't around.

So that's all I want to say
about my personal life.

[inhales]

The fear is not about returning to prison,

because I know what prison is.

[Pender] The fear
was that I would lose my freedom,

not that I would go back to prison.

One thing is punishment.
And the other one is loss.

I had started packing my things
because I was moving

in a couple of days to a new apartment.

It kept me on the move to avoid detection.

And then…

[pounds on door]

It was a loud knock.

It's eleven o'clock at night,
and he says, "Maintenance."

And I shuffled across the parquet floor
in my little pink slippers.

And I remember looking out the peephole.

And I see these four strapping men.

I think a couple of them had on,
you know, bulletproof vests.

My initial reaction is, grab my go bag,
go out the back.

There's a back stairwell, my escape route.

And I paused.

This was it. You got me.

The universe let me out of prison,

and now the universe is telling me
it's time to go back.

And I opened up the door.

Just let me get my shoes.

[♪ wistful music playing]

[Pender] And here are four men escorting
me out of the building in handcuffs.

Just walking to the car.

Like…

Nothing else is different in the world.

[♪ ominous music plays]

[Harmon] I-I remember I was
in the car driving with my family,

going to see my in-laws.

And I got a phone call saying
that Pender was apprehended in Chicago

by an anonymous tipster.

That's how I found out. Merry Christmas.

December 2008.

Would have been nice to be the one
to track her out and put the cuffs on her.

Yeah, but guess what?

She didn't outwit us.
She's put back in the cage.

I turned my family around.
I went to Chicago.

When I finally got to meet Sarah,
the first thing she said,

she goes, "You know what,
you're much better looking in person."

He didn't

strike me as someone particularly special.

Basically, Ryan had been obsessed
with finding me for four months.

Ryan talked to me like I knew him,
like he knew me.

[Harmon] There was a relief.
She was happy to see me.

I was happy to see her
'cause she's tired of running.

She told me she was tired.

She wasn't the only fugitive
that I've caught who was just like,

"Here, I'm tired of running.
I'm tired of looking behind my back."

[producer] Does Ryan Harmon know you?

[chuckles] Pfft.

[smacks lips]

Ryan Harmon knows me
as much as you know me.

And we got in the car
to take her back to Indianapolis.

We had US Marshals undercover
following us out of Chicago.

I was in the back seat with her,
and I put a digital recorder in my pocket.

I hadn't known… I didn't know anything
about who helped her

while she was on the run.[

[Pender] I had plan A, B, C & D, you know

and my friend's like
you are really gonna like this guy

he's older, he's in his 50s.

He's very clean cut.

[Harmon] What was his name?

[Pender] His name was Tom.

[Harmon] That's when she first divulged
to me that her friend, Thea,

had introduced her
to a guy by the name of Tom Welch.

[Pender] Tom is someone who is

he's a sex addict

and so he spends a lot of time
and money in strip clubs

and what have you.

So, basically in the beginning

it turned into an arrangement.

He's the one that sent her to Cincinnati,
and back to Chicago,

and gave her a phone, and gave her money
and all for getting your nuts off.

But, man, I didn't expect
to hear what I heard.

[Harmon] And I was
so g*dd*mn close to getting her.

If he hadn't entered the picture,
I mean, she was choked.

[reporter 1] Law enforcement pull
into the Indiana Women's Prison

in this maroon Taurus.

Sarah Pender in the left back seat.

Pender now with red hair,
wearing a Purdue sweatshirt.

They escort her inside the prison.

News everywhere outside the prison.

I mean, it was… I walked into
a guillotine of like a… It was crazy.

[reporter 2] Sarah, how does it feel
to get caught?

[Harmon] And then…

I g-gave my life for that hunt.

But I lost a lot.

I lost my marriage,
my children right after this capture.

I didn't know…

that was gonna happen.

Didn't surprise me when it happened,
but it happened.

Because of her.

[director] Was it worth it?

Big question there.

Was it worth it?

I don't know.

[Harmon] The date is January 8th, 2009.

The time is approximately 1:30.

I'm present with Tom Welch

reference the Sarah Pender matter.

Tom, if you could just start me
at the beginning, once upon a time.

[Welch] First time I met her
was at the hotel there at Speedway.

We were literally six, eight, ten hours

of just sex, just…

you know.

And so, uh, I hate to say it

I started to have feelings
after about the third day.

I mean we're dating.

We are freaking dating.

It's not like "Oh, there's a cop!"

There was none of that.

[Harmon] She's on the run.

She's a US Marshal's top 15 fugitive,
and you're carrying on a relationship

like you picked her up off of Tinder.

[Welch] I wasn't hiding anything.

I just got into a love thing.

And then when I saw that she was captured,

that's when my world came apart.

Not only that you were gonna
or somebody was gonna talk to me

but my wife.

He told me his story with an attorney
present because the prosecutor agreed

to give him a proffer statement,

which means you give him a cleanup
statement, he won't prosecute you.

Well, I listened
to what he had to tell me.

He should get 24 years.

[Pender] When I was returned to prison,

they told me that I was sentenced
to one year in solitary confinement.

That was an administrative move,
which certainly… we have that latitude,

oh, if we feel like somebody's
still a danger

to other inmates to the… Whatever.

If they're a danger,
we'll keep them locked up.

I was told by officers, by staff,

"You embarrass
the Department of Corrections.

Therefore, they're going to keep you
in solitary confinement."

Solitary confinement is cold.
Nothing but steel and concrete.

There's a concrete slab with a thin mat
with a steel toilet and a steel sink.

And that is it.

All you have is your mind,
and it just ravages you.

And you think about all the things
that I had done.

All the things that I didn't do.

[breaths heavily]

It just eats… eats at you
in this cycle and…

And you can't get it to shut up.

In my mind, I thought I was getting out
at the end of the year.

But I was told
that I would not be released.

And when they told me it was indefinite…

my mind started,

like, winding down almost.

So I was sitting on the floor,
and I was trying to play solitaire.

But the numbers
didn't make any sense to me.

[♪ eerie music plays]

I see things, but I don't know.

Something is happening,
something is happening.

I don't know what's happening.
Something is happening to me.

Literally in my mind.

And I'm just ripping apart
and just this part of me just floats away.

And then nothing. I have no thoughts.

I have no feelings, nothing. It was just…

Shh. Like white noise.

Whenever I would think about…

the future…

[Pender] I couldn't see it.

And there was just this darkness.
There was this abyss.

I just kept sliding.

And I was afraid.
I was very afraid to lose my mind.

[Prosser] I knew… I knew
that it was taking its toll on her.

But I didn't know how to help her.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know,

you know, where to go? What… what do I do?

[phone rings]

It was close to Mother's Day.

And I get a phone call
around eight o'clock. It's in the evening.

It was Larry Sells, the prosecutor.

And he says, "Bonnie…

I've done 72 m*rder cases
and one was a mistake and that was Sarah."

And she started crying, said, "Bonnie…

you may not believe this.

But it's my opinion based
upon what I know now

that your daughter, Sarah,
did not receive a fair trial."

After Sarah was rearrested,

an author by the name of Steven Miller

decides he's going
to write a book on the case.

So he asked me if I'd go
to homicide department with him.

To help him look at the homicide file.

So I got it out,
and we were going through it and…

I recollected most of the stuff was there.

But there was a file there
that said Floyd Pennington.

He testified against Sarah

that she admitted to him that she got
Rick Hull to commit these murders.

And inside the file,
there were two legal-size sheets of paper.

And I saw what it was.

And I said, "Oh, sh*t."

[♪ dramatic music plays]

There was a whole list
of violent criminals,

drug dealers,

criminal gangs,

and even somebody named Pennington,
a relative of Floyd's that was there.

I called it a snitch list.

And it was a list of people

that he would turn in
to get a better deal.

It was like a rat
crawled up out of the sewer

to try to gain some advantage for himself

and convince me that he was
telling the truth about Sarah Pender

maybe because I wanted to be convinced.

I mean, I should have had that.

I don't know why
they didn't give it to me.

But it made me realize that

there was more to the Sarah Pender case.

[Ryckaert] In 2013,

when I was a reporter
for the Indianapolis Star

and Larry had called me

and said, "Look,
I have some problems with this case.

I need to tell you about them."

One thing that…

especially after the trial,
years after the trial,

I recognized was something
that should've been considered

even more than it was at the time…

was the letter identified
as being written by Sarah

where she confessed to the murders.

[Prosser] I knew in my heart
that she didn't write this letter.

And I thought, "There's no way.

What? You know,
where do you come up with this?"

I had five handwriting experts
that all said the same thing.

That she did not write that letter.

The circumstances around how that
letter was delivered to prosecutors

was always a little bit suspect.

It was not found by the guards.

It was handed over
by Rick and his attorney.

[Sells] Well, Rick Hull,
he'd… had a cellmate

…oh, name is Steve Logan.

Rick asked him,
"I want you to do me a favor."

Rick gave him the letters
Sarah had written in the beginning,

and Steve copied her handwriting.

[Sells] Steven Logan had made
an affidavit

admitting that he wrote
that confession letter.

Rick Hull had him write it,
made him write it.

There was a, uh,
letter that was used at the trial

that, um…

was manufactured.

You know, I didn't write it.

Uh, somebody else did.

So that… I mean,
that just… [clicks tongue]

Hit me like a… you know, a load of bricks.

This is what happened.

I allowed myself to be set up
both for Pennington

and the phony letter.

The prosecutor who called this woman
"Female Charles Manson"

is now saying,
"I was wrong. She's not that."

[interviewer 1] If you had
had this at trial,

would you have
prosecuted Sarah for m*rder?

Absolutely not.

[news anchor 2] Larry Sells is working
with Pender's new attorney

to present the evidence
to the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.

Pender's attorney is still waiting
to meet with prosecutor Curry's office

about the case.

[Pender] I had been in solitary
for over five years.

And when they told me they were going
to let me out into the transitional unit,

and they were going to put me
on close observation,

it felt really good just to hear them say,
"Well, we're gonna try letting you out."

I know that Larry Sells found new evidence

that changed his mind about my case, and…

I believed that I was going to go home.

I always believed that if you
had new evidence to prove,

you know, you're innocent,

that… that was what you do,
and they fix it.

Now we have something
that, uh, the authorities will…

you know, will pay attention to.

I just knew I was going home.

I knew it would take some months,
but I just knew I was going home, and…

being so happy
and imagining all these things

that I wanted to do with my family.

[♪ gentle music playing]

By the time that I received the "no"…

[inhales] I had grown enough to know that…

that it would absolutely devastate
my parents if I k*lled myself.

[♪ somber music plays]

[sniffles]

And I have not
told people that. [chuckles]

[inhales, exhales]

But I also know that it's
my only shot at freedom. [sniffles]

[Tankleff] I know what it's like to be
in prison where you don't belong.

And who better to represent
somebody like Sarah than me?

[judge] How do you find as the defendant,
Martin Tankleff, m*rder, second-degree?

[defendant] Guilty.

[spectator screaming] No!

I was in prison for almost 18 years
until I was exonerated.

And when I got out,

I made a conscious decision
to go on to law school

and represent people

who I believe were wrongfully convicted
or people who were abused by the system,

and I really think Sarah fits
into both those categories.

[Delaney] Even with the evidence
out there,

unfortunately, there's no possibility
of just exonerating Sarah.

The track we're on is asking for mercy.

Now in session.
Honorable James K. Snyder presiding.

All right, be seated. Good morning.

[Delaney] Because to put her
in solitary confinement

for five uninterrupted years

so outstrips the crime she committed,

and I believe that some of it lends itself
toward modifying the sentence.

We're going to try to convince the judge
that I'm worth letting go.

[Snyder] State of Indiana
versus Sarah Pender

shows she is present in by counsels

-and the state is chaired by Mr. Cicchini.
-[Cicchini] Yes, Your Honor.

Judge, we are here
for a modification hearing,

but that is because of the brutal murders

of Tricia Nordman and Andrew Cataldi


Their lives were cut short at young ages,
and as evidenced by the letters

that their family members
submitted to the court today,

they continue to grieve their losses

and it continues to impact their lives
on a daily basis.

And there's been a great deal of scrutiny
about Ms. Pender's role in the crime

and-and what she did or did not do.

[inhales] While we're not here
to relitigate that judge… [exhales]

…uh, we have to recognize
that the prosecutor on the case

who sought and obtained
the 110-year ex*cuted sentence

has recently changed his opinion
about both the veracity of that conviction

as well as the justness of that sentence.

And that is leaving the court
with the difficult task of what to do

with Ms. Pender's sentence and to hand
down a just decision in this matter.

-Thank you.
-[Snyder] Uh, it is the defense motion,

so I'll hear any, uh, witnesses
and evidence you have to present.

[Delaney] The defense calls Roland Pender,
Your Honor.

[defense member] Has she matured
since she's been in prison?

Oh, very much, yes.
Very much, she's matured.

She, uh… I, uh… [stutters]

I-I seek advice from Sarah.

[Prosser] You can't make up for time lost.

And I've lost 25 birthdays.

Twenty-five Christmases.
Twenty-five… everything.

[crying] I pray that I can have
the rest of my life with my daughter.

To hug her every morning.

Yeah, today is one of the biggest days
of my life.

[crying] Because I'm asking for the chance
to be free and to not die in prison.

And I know that I deserve to be punished
for what I did wrong.

And for what I did not do right.

To Drew and Tricia's families,

I want to tell them… [sobs, sniffles]
…that I am so sorry

for the terrible loss
that you've suffered. [sniffles]

And for the role
that I played in it. [whimpers]

I have paid for it ten times over
with 25 years in prison.

And five years, a month,
and 12 days in isolation.

But, Your Honor… [exhales]
…today I'm asking for your mercy

that if you grant my petition, I promise
that you will never see me again.

I want to go home and keep working to make
myself and the world a better place.

Thank you. [sniffles]

[Snyder] Thank you, Ms. Pender.

[Delaney] She has reformed,
and if you strip away that reformation,

all that we have left
is vindictive justice.

Now our petition, Your Honor,
is to trim count two

to run concurrent with count one such that
Sarah is eligible for immediate release.

-Thank you, Your Honor.
-[Snyder] Thank you, Mr. Delaney.

Uh, so what I am going to do, uh, first,
I'm going to hold this under advisement.

I-I want time to, uh,
contemplate this decision.

All right, so thank you, uh,
all for your advocacy here today,

uh, and I'll have… like I said,
I'll have my ruling in due course.

-[person 1] Thank you, Your Honor.
-All right, thank you all very much.

[person 2] Sorry.

[Prosser] I have a room waiting for Sarah.

It's all ready for her.

I'm hoping that…

that she can actually see the outside.

And…

enjoy what life she has left.

[director]
And what will happen if she doesn't?

[sniffles]

I really have a hard time
thinking about that. [inhales]

I know that…

it would k*ll her.

It really would.

And…

she might not make it.

[inhales] When I think of freedom,
I think of all the tiny choices

that I want to make.

Whether I want to leave
the toilet seat up or down,

whether I want a hot or cold shower,

all these things that I haven't been able
to choose over the last 25 years.

Freedom means autonomy,

but mostly it just means
being with the people that I love.

-[sniffles]
-[director] Cut, please.

[♪ melancholy music plays]