The Ledger

14.16 Can I Get a Witness

In this episode (14.16), McCoy and Southerlyn have trouble keeping their witnesses alive as a string of drug offenders and murders protect each other by intimidating and killing the witnesses against them.

The episode begins with a drive-by shooting on a bicycle. Witnesses say they saw a cloudy-eyed shooter kill their young friend "Big Boy," who it turns out, is a small-time drug dealer, or perhaps just a "mule" who carries drugs from one place to another. Briscoe and Green discover that the shooter's cloudy eye is actually a glass eye that hasn't been properly maintained. They check with local clinics to get a list of kids who have glass eyes, and eventually hone in on a young man named Foster Keyes. Through the help of some very young boys hanging out in a stairwell (including a very good child actor), they learn that Keyes is hiding at his girlfriend's place. When Briscoe and Green go there, they find him hiding in the closet.

Keyes quickly lawyers up with a man named Wills, who seems a little creepy, and Briscoe and Green try to shore up their eye-witness case against Keyes. They have two witnesses, both young: Jimmy and Shana. Jimmy is eager to testify against the man he saw kill his friend, and shows a great deal of courage, even when Southerlyn tells him how much danger he could be in. Shana, meanwhile, does not want to testify, and must be co-erced by everyone involved in the case, but she still resists.

At the trial, Jimmy does great on direct examination, but is killed by a mysterious shooter before Wills can cross-examine him. This comes as both a legal and person blow to Southerlyn, who seems to have been inspired by this young man's courage. But, without any witnesses, they don't have much a case. Wills moves to dismiss, and the judge dismisses the charges against Keys.

McCoy and Southerlyn then set about showing that a conspiracy existed to kill Jimmy, so they charge Keyes, his drug-dealing cousin, and another associate who apparently actually killed Jimmy. The cousin has a history of intimidating witnesses, and he attempts to intimidate some witnesses in this case through various means, including bribery. Even Wills seems to have been somehow involved in the intimidation, sitting in on meetings between his client and the witnesses.

In the course of all this investigation, the investigators revise their theory of the crime: Big Boy was killed not because of a drug feud, but because he was involved with one of the defendant's girlfriends.

Shockingly, the verdict comes back not guilty, and all three defendants walk free: no one is held responsible for the deaths of Big Boy or Jimmy. Southerlyn and McCoy are shell-shocked.

The episode is mainly notable for the tweaked emotional responses of both Green and Southerlyn. Both seems particularly in-tune with the other characters in the episode, and Green's reactions are more colorful than usual. Southerlyn, meanwhile, is deeply emotionally affected by the courage shown by the witnesses, particularly Jimmy.

The episode's title, I believe, comes from a Public Enemy song of the same name.

Posted by adm at March 16, 2004 10:38 PM

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