This episode is very atypical for several reasons.
First, Logan and Briscoe deal with several unrelated homicides while a clock is ticking down to the start of an evening basketball game for which Briscoe has been fortunate enough to acquire two tickets.
Second, there is really no "Order" part, since no case is ever brought to trial. The ADA's appear briefly in the course of debating whether they have enough evidence against the portly eyeglass-wearing chubby mama's boy who is an unlikely suspect in some serial killings, mainly because he resists disclosing his alibi, a homosexual tryst.
The "mama's boy" is ultimately cleared when his mother discloses this to Logan & Briscoe. The pair of detectives run down to Riker's with a release order for the man, only to discover that he was shanked to death in the prison by another inmate who evidently wanted his sandwich.
Briscoe shows a momentary "spasm" of anger at this injustice but shortly afterward joins Logan in shrugging it off as yet another part of a bad day which dragged on so long that they missed their ballgame.
This episode is troubling because even though law enforcement officials like Logan, Briscoe and Stone are depicted as "somewhat" concerned about prosecuting the wrong person, this doesn't prey on their minds all that much, especially considering that their errors led to this man being slaughtered while ostensibly in the "protection" of a holding cell while awaiting indictment. As much as I greatly enjoy L&O it does bother me that the show regularly depicts the detectives and the prosecutors as very willing to ignore or minimize clearly exculpatory evidence in their all-encompassing drive to complete an arrest and conviction. I'm not naïve enough to believe that law enforcement officials are purely dedicated to serving justice (as opposed to being focused on their rate of "case closure") but I would LIKE to think that having been directly responsible for the violent murder of an entirely innocent suspect, the detectives would be bit more upset about THAT than about missing a basketball game.
But L&O is about nothing if not "real life" so I suppose we should be afraid, very afraid, that this is often what "justice" is all about.
/brrrrrrr
First, Logan and Briscoe deal with several unrelated homicides while a clock is ticking down to the start of an evening basketball game for which Briscoe has been fortunate enough to acquire two tickets.
Second, there is really no "Order" part, since no case is ever brought to trial. The ADA's appear briefly in the course of debating whether they have enough evidence against the portly eyeglass-wearing chubby mama's boy who is an unlikely suspect in some serial killings, mainly because he resists disclosing his alibi, a homosexual tryst.
The "mama's boy" is ultimately cleared when his mother discloses this to Logan & Briscoe. The pair of detectives run down to Riker's with a release order for the man, only to discover that he was shanked to death in the prison by another inmate who evidently wanted his sandwich.
Briscoe shows a momentary "spasm" of anger at this injustice but shortly afterward joins Logan in shrugging it off as yet another part of a bad day which dragged on so long that they missed their ballgame.
This episode is troubling because even though law enforcement officials like Logan, Briscoe and Stone are depicted as "somewhat" concerned about prosecuting the wrong person, this doesn't prey on their minds all that much, especially considering that their errors led to this man being slaughtered while ostensibly in the "protection" of a holding cell while awaiting indictment. As much as I greatly enjoy L&O it does bother me that the show regularly depicts the detectives and the prosecutors as very willing to ignore or minimize clearly exculpatory evidence in their all-encompassing drive to complete an arrest and conviction. I'm not naïve enough to believe that law enforcement officials are purely dedicated to serving justice (as opposed to being focused on their rate of "case closure") but I would LIKE to think that having been directly responsible for the violent murder of an entirely innocent suspect, the detectives would be bit more upset about THAT than about missing a basketball game.
But L&O is about nothing if not "real life" so I suppose we should be afraid, very afraid, that this is often what "justice" is all about.
/brrrrrrr