Briscoe and Green investigate when a woman named Martha Krasner is murdered while getting out of her car. The detectives find out that it was a case of mistaken identity and the intended victim was Kate Pierce, an investigative journalist. Petty crook Al Bonato hired a hitman to kill her over her reporting on a recent district senate race, where absentee ballots were tampered with and subsequently thrown out by a judge. It's apparent there is more to the story, but Pierce won't talk.
Carmichael discovers Bonato paid a technician to sabotage the voting machines in a particular location so that emergency paper ballots would have to be used. Senator Anne Benton, who won the election, was once Bonato's lawyer in a criminal trial. A judge refuses an order to force Pierce to disclose her source, but the DAs quickly figure out that around 2,000 ballots are missing in the relevant area. The voters there heavily favor Benton's opponent, and she ultimately won by less than 200 votes. Bonato takes a plea and reveals where the missing ballots are hidden.
The judge denies the defense's motion to suppress the ballots as evidence in the murder trial - but Benton's lawyer files a court order to stop the ballots being counted. McCoy convinces Pierce to ask her source to come forward out of respect for Martha's family. The source turns out to be Matthew Coulter, the chair of Benton's re-election committee. He testifies against her, but the outcome of the trial isn't shown. Meanwhile, Carmichael leaves for a new job at the State Attorney's office.
Tropes present in this episode
- Murder by Mistake: Martha Krasner was not the intended target. She was mistaken for a reporter with incriminating information on Senator Benton.
- Put on a Bus: Carmichael leaves the District Attorney's office after accepting a job at the State Attorney's office.
- Stupid Crooks: Marty Blatt is supposed to kill investigative journalist Kate Pierce. He ends up murdering a woman who drove a similar car.
