Directed by David Platt
Written by Richard Sweren & William N Fordes
When a couple goes missing, their landlord is initially suspected - but he too has disappeared. Another suspect named Ben O'Dell reluctantly implicates his brother Matt; who, Ben believes, is severely mentally ill and needs treatment. Ross promises that if it's true, Matt's mental health will be taken as mitigating evidence. After a private conversation with Matt, Ben gives the address of a warehouse, where the bodies of all three victims are found. With all evidence showing Matt to be the killer, McCoy pushes for the death penalty. Matt denies any form of mental illness and refuses to be examined. Danielle Melnick takes his case.
A devastated Ben yells at Ross for breaking her promise, then helps Melnick get all evidence from the warehouse suppressed. He also tries to influence the jury by leaking medical records of Matt's time in psychiatric hospitals. McCoy gets the jury sequestered and they convict. Ross wants to honor her word to Ben and can't, since legally her hands are tied. But McCoy makes an excuse to be absent from the sentencing so Ross will have to take over. She frames her questioning of Ben to get him to tell the jury about Matt's psychiatric history; this causes Matt to have a breakdown, proving how unstable he is. The jury takes this into account and he is given a life sentence. Schiff warns Ross and McCoy not to take any more "liberties."
This episode contains examples of:
- Amoral Attorney:
- Once again, Danielle Melnick toes the line as close as one can, and YMMV on if she does here. In her quest to win, she uses what is almost certainly perjured testimony to suppress evidence that proves her client's guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. A client who committed three kidnap/murders, left a young boy orphaned and will almost certainly kill again if freed. Even if she truly did believe Ben was telling the truth, she had to ethically know how flimsy such an argument was and was very lucky to win. McCoy rightfully calls her out for this.
- The lawyer Ben O'Dell hires to broker a deal for his brother refuses to give any information about the killer, despite the fact he is a dangerous maniac threatening to kill more people. Briscoe and Curtis quickly get a search warrant for his clients to cut through his B.S.
- Ben O'Dell comes to believe McCoy and especially Ross are this, for seeking the death penalty against his baby brother. Ross only promised to take Matt's mental state into consideration and Matt himself refuses to plead insanity. At one point, she tells McCoy he has to go to the 2-7 precinct next time they call.
- Artistic License – Law: Even in the Law & Order universe, which loves to suppress evidence that nails the accused in order to increase the suspense, it is pretty egregious in this episode. Not only does McCoy tear apart Ben O'Dell's lies about his brother asking for a lawyer on the stand, the idea that Ben was acting as a proxy for the police is absurd, since they agreed not to listen in and did. Furthermore, given this is a triple homicide, any such suppression would be immediately appealed. It only serves to show how desperate Ben is; the trial itself is hardly shown and Matt is quickly convicted, making the successful suppression pointless.
- Blatant Lies: Ben O'Dell is full of these. He lies to the police about Matt being his "acquaintance" as opposed to his brother and leads them and a SWAT team on a wild goose chase before finally giving up his real location. It is made clear that he commits perjury about his brother asking for a lawyer and then leaks his brother's mental health records to taint the jury, denying that as well.
- Death Seeker: Matt O'Dell would rather get the death penalty than admit his psychiatric history as evidence.
- Insane Equals Violent
- Loophole Abuse: Matt's defense isn't allowed to mention his mental health, but that doesn't mean Ross can't ...
- Ripped from the Headlines: Loosely based on the Ted Kaczynski case and Kaczynski's brother's involvement in turning him in, complete with a deal that the death penalty would not be sought. Unlike this episode, the deal was never contested and Kaczyniski was instead sent to a Super Max in Colorado for life. Also based on the story of Camden Sylvia and Michael Sullivan
, a New York City couple who vanished from their apartment in November of 1997 following a dispute with their landlord, though in this case, the landlord was almost certainly their killer, rather than being a victim himself as in the episode. - Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Comes up at least twice - Matt against Ben, and Ben against Ross.
- Villainous Gentrification: Matt claims to have committed the murders as part of a crusade against this. note
