Sidney Blackmer, an important newspaperman, is crusading against the attorney general of the state who is sending prisoners to the electric chair by the dozen. Blackmer wants to prove that an innocent man can be wongly executed if condemned on a circumstancial evidence basis. He convinces his daughter's boy-friend, Dana Andrews, to appear as the ideal suspect of a crime which has just happened in the city. Together, they leave some clues implicating Andrews near the crime scene. Andrews is soon arrested. Unfortunately, Blackmer, the only one who can prove his innocence, dies in a car accident during the trial.