Directed by David Platt
Written by Richard Sweren & Aaron Zelman
Judge Linda Karlin, nicknamed "Judge Dread" for her punitive sentences, even for the smallest crimes, survives an assassination attempt in which the shooter is killed by her bodyguard. The would-be assassin has no ID, but Briscoe and Greene are able to identify him as Frank Morris through the serial numbers of the gun, stolen from a retired New Jersey police officer. From there, they trace the hit to Randall Wiley: a short, squat white-collar criminal facing a fraud charge over illegally purchased and sold stocks. Though facing charges that average forty-five years in prison, he was offered a deal of two to four, which he accepted only to have Karlin reject it. When his wife went to the Cayman Islands to cash out an account to pay his lawyer's trial fee, the judge declared him a flight risk and remanded him.
Unable to find proof of a payment between Wiley and Morris, McCoy and Carmichael rely on the testimony of thief and arsonist Jimmy McGowan, who was assigned to watch Wiley when he was put on suicide watch. Karlin comes off very unsympathetic in court, while Wiley comes off as a victim of a hanging judge. After discussing with Lewin the possibility that Wiley was put in an unfair, impossible situation (agree to pay the hitman for McGowan, who hates Karlin as well, or risk his family being hurt) McCoy and Carmichael offer a plea of twelve and a half to twenty-five years in prison. Wiley initially balks, feeling he is the victim. He is reminded he didn't bother to tip off his lawyer, who could have passed on the information and stopped the attempt.
He accepts, outraging Karlin, who confronts Lewin. The DA justifies her decision by pointing out that Karlin's overzealousness caused the situation in the first place. Karlin proclaims she will give Wiley a harsh sentence on his fraud case, only to find out that case was covered in his plea as well. Later, McCoy notes Karlin is giving a victim impact statement at sentencing and he, Carmichael and Lewin discuss who the real victim was.
This episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Law: Angered by the plea deal Wiley gets, Karlin vows to give him a harsh sentence on his original charge of stock fraud, only to have Lewin reveal that case was covered by his plea. In real life, even if that charge hadn't been covered by the plea bargain, Karlin would be removed from the case due to the obvious conflict of interest.
- Character Title: Judge Dread is the nickname of the intended victim.
- Dirty Old Man: The middle aged landlord of Morris, the failed assassin. As the police search his place for clues, Briscoe discovers his porn magazine stash. The landlord asks if the police will be needing those, to which Briscoe hands them over. He begins looking through the top magazine immediately.
- Hanging Judge: Karlin, whose nickname "Judge Dread" comes from her harsh sentences and bags of drugs featuring her picture and that nickname on them distributed around Manhattan. She relishes the reputation, even if she isn't happy with her likeness being used on illegal narcotics. On the stand, defense attorney Danielle Melnick points out she doles out sentences in the hundreds of years, even in cases when the maximum is fifty.
- Never My Fault: While an attempted murder is certainly not justified, Karlin refuses to take any responsibility for what happened. To wit, she remanded small, meek Wiley to Rikers for something his wife did that wasn't even illegal (going to the Cayman Islands to cash out an account to pay Melnick's trial fee, a receipt she even provides to McCoy and Carmichael). It's no surprise he was bullied into paying a hitman. Even before that she rejected a two to four year plea deal, feeling it was too lenient. Even McCoy is surprised she would go so hard on a white collar criminal whose crime was relatively tame compared to large scale fraud that bankrupts innocent people. To top it off, she still delivers a victim impact statement at the plea hearing.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Karlin and her attempted assassination echo the real life assassination of Judge John H. "Maximum John" Wood Jr
by Charles Harrelson, whose son you may have heard of. Like Karlin, he earned a nickname that reflected his harsh penalties, especially in drug cases. - Sympathetic Murderer: In this case, indirect and failed murderer. Randall Wiley is given such an obscene sentence for a small, white-collar crime, followed by Karlin flipping out over Wiley's wife heading out of country to pay for the lawyer fees and expounding the problem further, it's entirely understandable why he'd try to get payback. The episode, and prosecution, end up siding more with Wiley by the end and giving him a plea bargain that at least makes his sentence livable, while calling out Karlin for having caused the entire sordid affair in the first place. It's likely only because his hitman failed that he retains any sympathy, however.
