Trial and Error

 ((Fri. (15), 9:30-10 p.m., FBC))

By TONY SCOTT

Filmed by Adam Prods. Exec producer, Robert M. Myman; co-exec producer-director, Fleisher; producer, Lorna Soroko; co-producers, Alan Bardsley , Stephen J. Herzberg; writers, Fleischer, Lou DeCosta, Soroko.
 
Host-narrator: Daniel J. Travanti.
 

Another slant on reality-based TV looks at the aftermath of courtroom procedures when the verdict may have been wrong. Listing several cases, fingering two in particular, one-shot "Trial and Error" has the impact of putting a viewer in the accused's spot. It's an unnerving experience.

First case involves a young man accused of robbing a deli and killing the owner even though the accused has a witness who says he was with him until five minutes or so before the deed.

The state insists it has the right man in prison, though an eyewitness has confessed he lied and a truck driver now in jail has told fellow prisoners he committed the murder.

The prosecutor remains adamant.

More timely is the case of the Virginia miner accused and found guilty of the rape and murder of his wife's sister. Roger Coleman, slated to be electrocuted Wednesday, states flatly he's innocent, and the evidence shown does seem flimsy. What isn't told is what crime he committed years ago; it could cloud his assertions.

A woman has testified that another man assured her he had killed the victim, but the state isn't interested in reopening the case, any more than it's interested in Coleman's attorney's failure by one day to file for an appeal.

The program is played coolly as Daniel J. Travanti calmly gives backgrounds and facts. And statistics. The two prisoners speak out; the defense and state attorneys give their views. The convicted men's side may be loaded, but it does make for absorbing and disturbing TV. That's what reality's all about.

Camera, Bryan Duggan; editors, Rick Blue, Joseph Kleinman, Phillip Terrence; sound, Miles Ghormley; music, Don Grady.