In the late 1980s, a low level gangster named Jackie DiNorscio defends himself in court in what became the longest criminal trial in American judicial history.
The mobster Jackie DiNorscio is shot by his own cousin at home while on probation but survives. Later he is arrested dealing drugs and sentenced to thirty years in prison. The prosecutor Sean Kierney proposes a deal to Jackie, immediately releasing him if he testifies against the Lucchese family and other mafia families but Jackie does not accept to rat out his friends that he loves. When the trial begins, he asks the judge Finestein to defend himself without the assistance of a lawyer.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A drama based on the longest Mafia trial in U.S. history, mobster Jack DiNorscio, faced with a series of charges, decides to stand trial instead of ratting out his family and associates. A wrench is thrown into the system when DiNorscio opts to defend himself.—IMDb Editors
In the mid-1980s, New York has declared war against Organized Mafia.Mafia soldier Jackie DiNorscio (Vin Diesel) and 19 of his peers have been waiting a year for their federal racketeering trial to begin under The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). While out on bail, Jackie is shot by his drug addict cousin Tony Compagna (Raúl Esparza). Jackie was in his home, sleeping, when Tony entered via the front door, walked up to Jackie's bedroom and pumped 4 bullets into him. But Tony was so nervous that his aim was all over the place and Jackie survives.At the hospital, Jackie refuses to name Tony to the cops as the shooter. He claims that he never saw anything.
Afraid of being killed by the extended mob family run by Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco), Tony agrees to be a government witness for district attorney Sean Kierney (Linus Roache). Shortly after, Jackie is arrested and sentenced to 22-30 years in prison after being set up in an unrelated drug sting by the DEA.Kierney tries to pressure Jackie into cooperating with the government against his co-defendants in order to get an early release date, but Jackie flatly refuses.
Upset over the results of his previous trial, Jackie fires his lawyer (who had already charged him $250,000 for his last trial and had already spent $60,000 on the RICO case) and decides to represent himself. Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco) is the most senior mafia figure on trial, which includes Carlo Mascarpone (Frank Pietrangolare) (undereboss of Lucchese crime family in New Jersey), Gino Mascarpone (Paul Borghese) (Ran day-to-day operations of gambling, extortion and loan sharking for his boss Nick), Danny Roma (Family soldier and enforcer), Alessandro Tedeschi (Nick Puccio) (loan sharking and gambling), Tino Bellochio (numbers and gambling), Dominic Crespi (gambling) and Jackie (cocaine distribution).
This adds to the burdens of the court, already having to deal with 20 defendants and their lawyers. Judge Sidney Finestein (Ron Silver) strongly advises against it but lead defense attorney Ben Klandis (Peter Dinklage) agrees to assist Jackie.Both Klandis and Kierney recognize Jackie's ability to charm the jury, but his arrogant, vulgar behavior eventually starts irritating everyone. The defense lawyers in particular believe that Jackie is ruining their chances by defending himself at the trial. Klandis still believes that Jackie was able to get the jury to laugh and a laughing jury is not a hanging jury.As revenge, Kierney arranges for Jackie to have all of his prison privileges revoked. Specifically, Jackie's lounger is taken away, and he cannot sleep as he needs to be half sitting due to his bad back, to get any kind of sleep.Jackie even gets Ben to get him permission to have lunch with the fellas at the court. No one is more upset than Nick, who believes Jackie will cost them the trial and threatens to sever himself from the case. Nick tells Jackie that he is only sucking up to the jury so he can walk and tells Jackie he doesn't trust him one bit. Nick won't allow Jackie to have lunch with the family.
As weeks turn into months, the court case evolves into a marathon affair. Jackie badgers an FBI agent who claims that he saw Nick at an Italian restaurant with Italian males, kissing his ring and he is the boss. Jackie gets aggressive to prove that there was no way that the agent knew that all males in the restaurant were Italian. The judge warns Jackie multiple times, but he continues to speak his mind. The Judge fines him $10,000 for contempt of the court.Kierney wants Jackie kicked off the case, but Judge Finestein reluctantly agrees to keep the trial going.Jackie realizes he has gone too far and apologizes to the judge.
Agent McQueen (Domenick Lombardozzi) testifies that he worked undercover as a mafia soldier at the New Jersey sea ports for 2 years. He testifies that he witnessed Tony hand over $7000 to Nick as his cut from a drug deal, and Nick accepting the money. Nick's lawyer gets McQueen to accept that the payment could have been for an outstanding loan that Tony owed Nick. Jackie cross questions McQueen and establishes that he was responsible for Jackie's brother's death, by giving him access to alcohol, even though he knew that Jackie's brother was an alcoholic.
Wanting to remove the possibility that even one defendant gets acquitted, Kearny offers a final plea deal to all the defendants. In return for pleading guilty, they will all get shorter sentences than they would be facing if found guilty. Jackie tells his co-defendants that he refuses to take a deal even though he is already serving a long sentence for drug trafficking. This convinces Nick and the others to turn down the deal too. The final witness is Jackie's cousin Tony. Klandis is able to use Tony's heavy drug use to discredit him as a witness and Jackie emotionally cross-examines his cousin and asks why he betrayed his love for him.
After 21 months of testimony, the trial concludes with closing arguments. The prosecution and defense teams return to their homes expecting the jury to deliberate for at least a week. However, after only 14 hours of deliberation the jury returns a verdict of not guilty on all charges. While the rest of the defendants leave the courtroom with their families, Jackie returns to prison to finish his sentence. He receives a hero's welcome at the correctional facility, where fellow prisoners chant his name and reach out to shake his hand.
The end title cards explain that the real Jackie DiNorscio served 17 and a half years before being paroled in 2002. He died of natural causes.
