How Larry David's sitcom saved a Death Row prisoner

Curb Your Enthusiasm saved a Death Row prisoner from being executed.

Juan Catalan was arrested for the murder of 16-year-old girl in 2003 – but continually maintained his innocence.

His alibi was that he was at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game on the night of the crime, but he could remember little about it, except for the fact they were filming 'something' at Dodgers stadium.

His lawyers - who were facing a prosecutor who had never lost a case eventually figured out it was The Car Pool Lane episode of Curb that was being shot there.

In that story, Larry David took a prostitute to a baseball game just so he could use the express freeway lane for cars with more than one occupant.

Defence attorney Todd Melnick painstakingly went through the footage, including outtakes, scouring the faces of 56,000 people in the crowd. 'I looked at tape after tape,' he said – until he eventually spotted Catalan, with his daughter, eating a hot dog – proving his innocence.

Now the story is to be told on a Netflix documentary, Long Shot, to be released on September 29.

Published: 1 Sep 2017