Down to One

The place: America’s Queen City...Charlotte, North Carolina.

The event: A nationally-televised trial involving MIA DE LOS SANTOS...a 15-year-old girl accused of murdering her child-abusing mother, a thief who taught Mia to be violent.

It all comes down during a hot November day at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse...where, if you take part in jury duty, you get...free popcorn.

But before our TWELVE JURORS can treat themselves to that salty snack, they must decide Mia’s fate.

If the six men and six women of the jury have any reasonable doubts, the twelve must acquit her. If not, and Mia’s convicted, it’s Lethal Injection Time.

And what a jury!

After professional clown SUNNY TIU gets her fellow jurors to put their John Hancocks and Betsy Rosses on name tags, high school journalism teacher-assistant girls’ basketball coach SABRINA MCCLOUD takes over as the supervisor. Dogged, no-nonsense Sabrina wastes no time in calling for a vote...and finds the count eleven to one in favor of putting Mia on death row.

The holdout: LAWANDA TAYLOR...a gentle, thoughtful New York City native who runs a recording studio in her adopted burg.

Lawanda believes her fellow jurors should give Mia some of their time and discuss the details of the case...definitely not music to the ears of EARLENE CULPEPPER, the resentful office manager at a Charlotte megachurch. To this self-righteous bully, Mia’s is an open-and-shut case.

Two more staunch foes emerge on Lawanda’s radar: JOHN WAYNE NEWTON, a man so hate-filled he’s a member of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers; and stuck-up, outspoken VANNA LEE HASLAM, a pinball-loving ex-Carolina Panthers cheerleader who wants the trial to end so that she can get home to watch that NBA game between the Charlotte Hornets and the Denver Nuggets.

And then there’s MADONNA MALDONADO, a TikTok-Instagram-YouTube influencer who comes off as shallow...but she’s sure Mia’s guilty. (Madonna’s also sure of getting a selfie with Court TV’s Vinnie Politan.)

All twelve deliberate in one of the plushest, most unusual jury rooms you’ll ever find...and each deliberation reveals something big about the case.

The place even has a mini-arcade in the upper level...Heaven for Vanna Lee.

Discussion of the testimony of an old woman who claims to have heard Mia shout “I’m gonna kill you” and had seen her run from the house after the killing, plus that of a middle-aged man across the street from the De Los Santoses’ house who claimed he saw the murder through the front window of his abode, lead Lawanda to questions, thoughts, or just plain doubt.

Lawanda wonders if the old woman, a basement tenant in Mia’s house, could’ve picked out Mia’s voice over the sound of loud music next door. With perky Sunny shooting video, Lawanda uses the stairs between the two levels to demonstrate that the old woman couldn’t really have left the basement quickly enough to see Mia leave.

This calls the old woman’s testimony into question...and juror CALE SHOUSE, a fun-loving mechanic, joins Lawanda in Club Not Guilty. Cale points out that the old woman maybe needed the court’s attention...badly enough to skew her perspective.

After all, the trial’s on TV.

Lawanda, Earlene, and Co. discuss Mia’s alibi...which seems flimsy because she said she was watching a football game at a sports bar when the murder happened...yet couldn’t remember the game’s highlights.

Football plays another role in the deliberations when Lawanda interrogates fellow juror HEATH HAZELTON, the tactful son of 1960s-1970s hippies, about an NFL game he and his wife watched the previous Monday. When Heath strains to recall some of the game’s details, other jurors conclude that Mia’s alibi could be valid.

Personal biases come out the longer the jurors discuss the case: Earlene talks about her estranged daughter, who took boxing lessons from Earlene after walking away from a fight...Vanna Lee states that people from low-income neighborhoods commit all the crimes, an accusation that incenses juror LESHON FRANKLIN, a mechanic at a local Jiffy Lube who came from a low-income area...John Wayne shows he doesn’t give a rip about the judicial process. He just wants Mia to die.

All through the discussion, more and more jurors switch their votes to not guilty. The converts include ANWAR ABDELWAHAB, a quiet prof at UNC Charlotte; and witty, wisecracking JUAN TRUJILLO.

Things turn around when Lawanda asks to see the murder weapon...a gray-handled Swiss Army Knife that boasts a five-inch blade. Supposedly a one-of-a-kind weapon, Lawanda produces a copy that she bought at a hardware store close to Mia’s place...and concludes that maybe someone else did the murder.

Cale notices Heath’s face shows indentations from the latter’s use of reading glasses...and remembers similar marks on the second witness’ face. Conclusion: The second witness wouldn’t have had his glasses on...making it unlikely he would’ve clearly seen the killer of Mia’s mother.

It all adds up to an angry Earlene standing alone for Mia’s execution...but even Earlene caves in.

It doesn’t stop Leshon and Vanna Lee from trading phone apps in the end...and doesn’t stop Lawanda and Earlene from becoming friends.

But...Madonna doesn’t get her selfie with Vinnie.