The BEST episodes of American Justice
Every episode of American Justice ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Justice!
Outstanding Documentary focusing on Crime in America, and the American Criminal Justice System.
#2 - Jonestown Massacre
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/7/1992
The 1978 mass suicide of followers of Rev. Jim Jones, a cult leader who founded Jonestown in Guyana for the work of his People's Temple. Also: the murder of Rep. Leo J. Ryan, who was investigating allegations made by temple members.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - The Rosenbergs
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 11/17/1993
The trial and executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted in 1951 of conspiracy to commit espionage. Included: footage from a mock trial held by the American Bar Association; comments from Rosenberg attorney Marshall Perlin.
Watch Now:Amazon#4 - The Erin Brockovich Story
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/14/2001
A profile of Erin Brockovich, whose involvement in the landmark legal battle with the Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation was the basis of the film starring Julia Roberts. Included: interviews with Brockovich, lawyer Ed Masry and plaintiffs in the case.
#5 - Murder in a College Town
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/22/2000
Recalling the 1990 killings of five students at the University of Florida in Gainesville. All five were murdered within a 48-hour period, and their killer, Danny Rolling, was convicted in 1994.
#6 - The Atlanta Child Murders
Season 10 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/7/2001
A look at the “Atlanta Child Murders,” in which 29 blacks, mostly boys, were slain between 1979 and '81. Also: controversy surrounding the conviction of Wayne Williams for the murders.
#7 - William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw
Season 10 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/4/2001
Profiling William Joyce, the former deputy leader of the British Union of Fascists, who fled to Germany to work for the Nazis until he was captured in 1945 and hanged.
#8 - A Family Secret: The Death of Lisa Steinberg
Season 9 - Episode 25 - Aired 12/19/2000
A look at the 1987 case of Lisa Steinberg, a 6-year-old who died as a result of abuse from her adoptive father, Joel Steinberg, who is serving a prison sentence for the crime.
#9 - Dr. Buck Ruxton
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 12/10/2000
An examination of a 1935 murder case in Scotland involving Dr. Buck Ruxton, who killed and dismembered his wife and maid and was executed for the crime.
#10 - Dangerous Medicine
Season 9 - Episode 23 - Aired 11/28/2000
The case of Dr. Bruce Rowan, who killed his wife in 1998 but was found innocent by reason of insanity.
#11 - Murder on a Reservation
Season 9 - Episode 22 - Aired 10/17/2000
The case of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Oglala Lakota Indian reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D.
#12 - DeFeo and Benson: Inheritance Killers
Season 9 - Episode 21 - Aired 10/1/2000
Two cases in which money was the motive for the murders of family members: the DeFeo case in Amityville, N.Y., and the Benson case in Florida.
#13 - The California Killing Field
Season 9 - Episode 20 - Aired 9/20/2000
The prosecution of California serial killer Charles Ng is recalled. Ng avoided prosecution through legal loopholes for over a dozen years, but was later convicted of murdering 11 people.
#14 - Free to Murder Again
Season 9 - Episode 19 - Aired 8/16/2000
A look at convicted Texas killer Kenneth Allen McDuff, who was sentenced to death for murdering three people, later paroled, then sent back to death row and executed for killing again.
#15 - When a Child Kills
Season 9 - Episode 18 - Aired 8/9/2000
“When a Child Kills.” A report on Nathaniel Abraham, who at age 13 became the youngest American to be tried as an adult for first-degree murder, a crime he committed at age 11. Included: an interview with Abraham's mother.
#16 - The Wife Who Knew Too Much
Season 9 - Episode 17 - Aired 7/5/2000
Recalling the 1992 murder of Sara Tokars, a young mother whose husband, Fred, hired a hit man to kill her, allegedly to prevent her from testifying against him regarding a money-laundering scheme.
#17 - Kill Thy Neighbor
Season 9 - Episode 16 - Aired 6/21/2000
Recalling the case of a Florida man convicted in 1991 of the poisoning death of a neighbor, with whom he'd been feuding. George Trepal, an amateur chemist, had injected the family's soft drinks with a lethal substance.
#18 - Donald Hume
Season 9 - Episode 15 - Aired 6/11/2000
The case of Donald Hume, notorious British double murderer. After serving a sentence for being an accessory in a 1949 killing, Hume committed a murder in Switzerland that earned him a life sentence.
#19 - The Killer Within
Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 6/7/2000
The case of Kathy Bonney, a Virginia woman murdered at the hands of her father, Tom Bonney. Bonney was found guilty in 1988, but his conviction was overturned in 1992 on appeal, pending a competency hearing.
#20 - Oil, Money and Murder
Season 9 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/24/2000
The case of Cullen Davis, a wealthy Texan acquitted of two murders after an alleged 1976 shooting spree. He was later found innocent on a separate murder-for-hire charge. Included are comments from Davis, his former wife, Priscilla, and his defense attorney, Richard Haynes.
#21 - Deadly Magnolia
Season 9 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/10/2000
A look at the crimes of Patricia Allanson, whose desire to lead an upscale life led to the murders of her husband Tom's parents (a crime for which he was wrongly convicted) and the attempted poisonings of his grandparents.
#22 - The Trial of Louise Woodward
Season 9 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/19/2000
A recap of the 1997 trial of Louise Woodward, the British au pair accused of causing the death of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen. Woodward was initially convicted of second-degree murder, but the verdict was later changed to involuntary manslaughter.
#23 - Dancing, Drugs and Murder
Season 9 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/12/2000
The case of Michael Alig, the infamous Manhattan party promoter who in 1997 was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Angel Melendez, one of Alig's “club kids.” The documentary recalls how Alig kept the body in his apartment for a week, then dismembered it and threw it into the Hudson River.
#24 - The Life and Death of Teena Brandon
Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/29/2000
Recalling the 1993 rape and murder of Teena Brandon, a Nebraska teen who, it was revealed, had been posing as a male named Brandon Teena. Teena's story was told in the 1999 film “Boys Don't Cry.”
#25 - The Witness and the Hitman
Season 11 - Episode 10 - Aired 6/19/2002
Recalling how murder witness Bob Lowe's life changed when he testified and the accused, Harry Aleman, was acquitted.