A skeleton found on Roosevelt Island turns out to be the victim of a murder prosecuted by Stone wit years earlier. The only problem is that the body is nowhere near the location Stone's prime witness said it had been buried, and the cause of death is different. Enter Philip Swann (Zeljko Ivanek), the Wall Street manipulator Stone prosecuted eight years before, seeking a new trial, just as the evidence supporting the conviction starts to disappear.
This episode stands out as one of the best of Michael Moriarty's last season on the show, establishing yet one more case that puts Stone's undying faith in the justice system to the test, with this case as the most personal yet. Ivanek is superb as the slick defendant, who has an answer to every question, and takes an almost sociopathic glee in building the walls around Stone; Moriarty is every bit his equal, subtly conveying the growing frustration with being headed off at every proverbial pass by Swann's machinations. Steven Hill nicely rounds the performances out, as Schiff's amazement at the effectiveness of Swann's plan counterpoints Stone's growing desperation.
***SPOILER*** While the episode is, for the most part, extremely well written, it does have two glaring plot holes (at least, from the perspective of this lawyer) that prove critical to the plot and, specifically, how Stone draws the connection fhat enables him to finally trip Swann up. While Swann's lawsuit against Stone is believable (given the character's ego), Swann's comment in deposing Stone that, because he was acquitted in his second trial, Stone was somehow legally precluded from arguing in his own defense that the key witness in the first trial was testifying truthfully, is simply wrong as a matter of law (something both Stone and Kincaid should pick up on). Further, contrary to what Kincaid states, the names of "jailhouse lawyers" don't normally appear on the briefs filed by inmates in court documents -- thus, the clue that leads Stone to be able to prove Swann's fraud upon the court is nothing more than a contrivance -- perhaps a minor point, but one that kind of what mars an otherwise elegant and wickedly clever episode.
This episode stands out as one of the best of Michael Moriarty's last season on the show, establishing yet one more case that puts Stone's undying faith in the justice system to the test, with this case as the most personal yet. Ivanek is superb as the slick defendant, who has an answer to every question, and takes an almost sociopathic glee in building the walls around Stone; Moriarty is every bit his equal, subtly conveying the growing frustration with being headed off at every proverbial pass by Swann's machinations. Steven Hill nicely rounds the performances out, as Schiff's amazement at the effectiveness of Swann's plan counterpoints Stone's growing desperation.
***SPOILER*** While the episode is, for the most part, extremely well written, it does have two glaring plot holes (at least, from the perspective of this lawyer) that prove critical to the plot and, specifically, how Stone draws the connection fhat enables him to finally trip Swann up. While Swann's lawsuit against Stone is believable (given the character's ego), Swann's comment in deposing Stone that, because he was acquitted in his second trial, Stone was somehow legally precluded from arguing in his own defense that the key witness in the first trial was testifying truthfully, is simply wrong as a matter of law (something both Stone and Kincaid should pick up on). Further, contrary to what Kincaid states, the names of "jailhouse lawyers" don't normally appear on the briefs filed by inmates in court documents -- thus, the clue that leads Stone to be able to prove Swann's fraud upon the court is nothing more than a contrivance -- perhaps a minor point, but one that kind of what mars an otherwise elegant and wickedly clever episode.
