It's only when she almost dies in an accident behind bars that the
authorities find out Ginny Smith (Joan Camden), a woman accused of murder,
actually has a daughter. This prompts public defender Matthews (Reed
Hadley) to investigate (though it escapes me why) and he finds out that
Ginny years ago accidently almost killed her daughter due to heavy
drinking and was then divorced from her husband Tom (Coulter Irwin) - and
for her daughter's sake, she kept away from her as well. Later, she was
accused with the murder of the owner of a boarding house (Jesslyn Fax),
who really died in her hands - but only because she was gravely ill
already, and the excitement Ginny caused her simply killed her. Public
defender Matthews sees to it that Ginny - who has long been alcohol free -
is pardoned and reunited with her family. And her husband even agrees to
marry her again. A very boring episode of Public Defender
that seems to be undecided which story to tell - that of a murder that
turns out to be an accident, that of a reformed alcoholic or that of a
family torn apart by alcoholism - and then only succeeds in ruining all
three, first and foremost by its lead character, the public defender,
whose arguing constantly seems off-mark and whose notorious do-gooding
gets annoying, especially since he - as played by Reed Hadley, less than a
good actor - seems totally self-absorbed during the whole episode.
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