The gun part always bothers me too.

I always thought it was strange, she's deep in conversation and paying attention to the trial too. I guess the writers thought it would show "what a smart cookie she was".

Also, I always thought, and I mentioned in another post, why it took forever and a day for them to hook up a wire tap on her phone? Yes the technology wasn't that great, but isn't it just attaching 2 wires?

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I always thought Margaret was passing by there and happened to meet columbo, without looking for him.

Agree about the strangeness of Margaret being able to find a gun and, like someone said, I also think they showed Leslie could focus on 2 things at once at the trial to make her look like a strong lawyer.