January 26, 2004
Vengeance
In this episode (2.16), Logan and Cerreta track down a serial rapist/murderer who strangles a woman and leaves her on top of an elevator. Old fashioned police work leads to the discovery that the women's ob/gyn's gynecologists each used the same bookkeeper. This bookkeeper has served prison time for a previous murder. He becomes suspect #1, and Logan and Cerreta lean on him hard -- for 12 hours -- until he reveals the location of a storage facility. A search of the facility yields Polaroids of his victims. Unfortunately, a judge determines that the interrogation lasted too long, and all the fruit of that poisonous tree must be thrown out. That makes convicting him extremelely difficult, but Stone is determined.
Robinette is not so sure, however, especially after the Connecticut DA's office steps in and tries to take over the case, on the premise that the victim was "lured" from CT to NYC on false pretenses, which makes it a kidnapping in Connecticut. Stone rejects this argument, and a judge reluctantly agrees with him. So the burden falls on Stone to prove the man's guilt, but Robinette argues the man has a better chance of being convicted and -- importantly -- executed in CT. Stone and Robinette have a really great conversation about the nature of justice, punishment, and the law. Stone argues steadfastly that justice must be found through the proper application of the law, but Robinette argues for a more instinctive sense of justice. The discussion is one of the most well-thought-out debates on the topic I've seen. It also serves to highlight and important difference between Stone and his successor, Jack McCoy, who as I've said before, is far more willing to bend the law a little bit to exact a justice based on instinct rather than law. In his position, Stone is similar to Atticus Finch, the lawyer from To Kill a Mockingbird, who will seek justice through only the law. Although I think McCoy has a lot of Atticus in him, in some ways, Stone's single-minded devotion to the law makes him more Finchian.
The title of the episode refers to the desire of the victim's family to find vengeance against their daughter's killer, and it calls to mind the differences between justice and vengeance.
Posted by adm at January 26, 2004 11:10 PM