Spanning 25 years, AMICUS is based on the true story of Lawrence Horn, a former record producer and Motown Records exec who is currently serving a life sentence in prison for hiring Detroit-based hit man James Perry to murder his wife, quadriplegic son and the wealthy family’s overnight nurse at their suburban home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Horn’s son was the victim of medical malpractice and as the result of a subsequent lawsuit, had a trust worth nearly $2 million, which his father stood to inherit in the wake of his death.

Detectives discovered that Perry, who was sentenced to death in 1995 for the brutal crime, used how-to book “Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors” as a guide to execute the murders. The families of the victims went on to file a class-action lawsuit against the Colorado-based publisher Paladin Press.

The attorneys representing the families then hired Smolla, a First Amendment attorney and professor at William & Mary Law School, to consult on the historic case, which took five years to settle amidst a series of shocking and bizarre developments.