After a homeless man is convicted of murder, his lawyer files an Fourth Amendment appeal claiming an illegal, unwarranted search of his personal property.After a homeless man is convicted of murder, his lawyer files an Fourth Amendment appeal claiming an illegal, unwarranted search of his personal property.After a homeless man is convicted of murder, his lawyer files an Fourth Amendment appeal claiming an illegal, unwarranted search of his personal property.
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- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on the 1987 David Mooney case. In August 1987, Mooney--who lived under an on-ramp to Interstate 91 in New Haven, Connecticut--was arrested for the murder of Theodore Genovese. Genovese, a supervisor in the radiology department at Yale-New Haven Hospital, was found strangled with an electric cord in his home. Evidence led police to Mooney, and he was picked up for questioning. Mooney's girlfriend led the police on a search for the spot beneath the highway where he kept his belongings and he slept. In a cardboard box, the police found a 38-inch belt matching the waist size of the victim. In a duffel bag, they found a pair of bloody trousers. Mooney was later released due to homeless rights advocates: during Mooney's trial, they raised the question of whether the privacy of homeless people is protected by the Fourth Amendment. They pointed out that Mooney had an expectation of privacy, and the police had no search warrant to look into his belongings.
- GoofsIrving Metzman is credited as Judge Strozzek, but his character sits on the judge's bench with his name tag in full view as "Hon. Robert Streebie".
- Quotes
Miss Elsie Hatch: And night before last, there was a naked man with a crossbow running up and down West 74th Street.
Det. Mike Logan: Where did he keep the arrows?
Miss Murdoch: How come every freak in the country lives in New York? Why don't some of you people move to Nebraska?
Sal Violet: [a man dressed in drag] I'm from Nebraska, sweetie. How do think I got this way?
- ConnectionsReferences The Dating Game (1965)
From personal opinion, "Asylum" is an outstanding episode and despite "Confession" being rated higher there is a marginal preference for this. One of the standouts of Season 2 easily, showing signs of the season starting to settle, and of the early seasons. As good as the best of Season 1 and perhaps even better. Like much of 'Law and Order' in its prime, it fascinates from a moral perspective and benefits too from a great story and two of the season's, and show's even, guest stars.
"Asylum's" case is always absorbing with enough turns in the plot to stop it from being too simple or obvious. Turns that also avoid being convoluted, so one is kept on their toes and guessing while not having an issue following what goes on. The writing is concise and thought-provoking, leaving one likely to think long and hard on the issues raised. The moral dilemmas when the case goes to trial intrigue too without being confusing or simplistic.
Cerreta and Logan's chemistry gels more here and has more oomph that understandably wasn't quite there in the previous three episodes. Particularly in the truly attention grabbing interrogating of Lemonhead. Paul Sorvino had a lot of pressure replacing George Dzundza and did so admirably throughout the season, he fares well here as does Chris Noth (though not as good as he was in "Confession"). Michael Moriarty is the regular cast standout, he has juicy material as usual when playing Stone and he gets a lot of mileage out of it.
Where the acting shines even more though is with two of the season's, and early seasons in general, guest star turns. One is Stuart Rudin, his glaring alone (though the whole performance is chilling) is enough to make one feel genuinely uneasy. Even better is an astonishing Matthew Cowles as has been said already, shining especially in his rapport with Moriarty.
It is a slick looking episode and is scored with just about the right moodiness without being overused or over-the-top. The main theme is one of the franchise's better ones.
Summing up, outstanding. 10/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Feb 10, 2020
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