‘The Night Of’ episode 3 preview: What presumption of innocence is really worth

Through two episodes of HBO’s “The Night Of,” what we have really seen is a steep decline in the treatment of young Nasir. During the opening minutes of the premiere, he was a seemingly-normal young man living in New York City, ready to go somewhat out of his element by attending a party. Now, he finds himself at Rikers Island, preparing to be tried for a crime he claims he did not commit.

So what does “innocent until proven guilty” really mean for a man like him? You can get a slight sense of that in the promo below for Sunday’s new episode, but the reality here is that it seemingly does not mean much at all.

Instead, what we are finding out here is that the public is already doing their part to condemn him, and his arrest is taking at least some publications by storm. Also, the treatment of him at Rikers is going to be far from favorable, with the final seconds of this preview being particularly chilling. While he awaits trial, Naz could be forced to deal with the worst days of his life, and he has not even received his proper day in court just yet.

Unfortunately, the trouble here for his attorney in John Stone is rather easy to spell out: He has to figure out some other angle to this case in the wake of overwhelming evidence. Given that so much points to Naz as the killer, he needs to cultivate some sort of ulterior explanation if he cannot find a concrete suspect. Anything will do, even if it is as simple as making it clear Naz is not that kind of person.