Plot summary

In Los Angeles in 1963, police officers Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell stop a car with two suspicious looking men inside. The two, Greg Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, are in fact small-time hoods who rob liquor and convenience stores for relatively small amounts of cash. The hoodlums take the two policeman prisoner and drive them out to an onion field in Bakersfield California. There, Campbell is killed while Hettinger escapes. Greg Powell is quickly arrested and blames the shooting on Jimmy. There begins a legal saga that will stretch out over many years. Although originally convicted and sentenced to death, both Powell and Smith successfully appeal leading to re-trial after re-trial. Karl Hettinger meanwhile feels that he was somehow responsible for his partner's death and should have been able to do more. He's an emotional wreck and begins to shoplift eventually being caught and forced to resign. Based on true events.—garykmcd