After a jewelry theft Tommy Lane can hardly free. His girlfriend Kristen has less luck and is arrested. She's sentenced to jail in an ill-reputed female prison in Oklahoma. Tommy doesn't let her down; he manages to get into the prison - on the other side of the bars - to force the ruthless director to let her go.

A gambler, a Texas ranger and an FBI agent are investigating a series of vigilante murders.

Ellen, a happily married young teacher is raped and beaten by a man who threatens her and her husband if she goes to the police. She is admitted to the hospital and reports the rape to the police. The police in turn go after a suspect, Lewis Snow. Meanwhile, Ellen finds out that she is pregnant, however, she doesn't know if it's her attacker's baby or her husband's.

The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.

A Louisiana governor becomes a controversial political kingpin during the Depression.

A law student's theory about the recent deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a far-reaching web of murder, corruption, and greed.

A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.

Based on a true story, this made-for-cable film tells about Barry Seal, a pilot who was a drug smuggler for the infamous Medellin cartel out of Colombia. He was caught by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and decided to turn over and help the DEA break the cartel. However, he got caught in the middle of the Reagan/Bush administration efforts to topple the Nicaraguan government in the '80s, in which Nicaraguan rebels called "contras" were allowed to smuggle cocaine into the US in exchange for their fighting against the leftist Nicaraguan government. Eventually Seal was murdered by his former Medellin employers, and some critics say it was with the tacit, if not implicit, connivance of the US administration.

A motorcycle riding lawyer fights to save the life of a mentally retarded man on death row. His own mother is ready to let him go.

Made especially for the HBO cable network, this well-wrought feature is comprised of three short stories by three noted black American authors, each of which is directed by a respected black director.