User Reviews

This is the one L&O episode that gives an idea how interrogations really happen. TV by necessity truncates this process: The "perp" either fesses up or lawyers up in a few minutes of screen time. Here, James Rebhorn's character is subjected to intense, protracted interrogation, with an increasingly aggressive team of detectives pushing every button. Even Capt. Cragen joins the tag-team browbeating until Rebhorn breaks down and supplies evidence of his crimes. In later episodes Rebhorn would play Garnett, a shrewd foil to ADA McCoy. His performance here is marvelous in its subtlety.

Michael Moriarty turns in one of his finest performances as Stone, who must defend Rebhorn in civil court against his extradition to Connecticut- sparing him from a possible death sentence - so that he can prosecute him in New York. Moriarty thrives in these paradoxical scenarios. The interchanges between Moriarty and Richard Brooks, whose Old Testament values want Rebhorn to face ultimate vengeance, are excellent.

We're also treated to standout performances from Allen Garfield, as defense attorney Berg, and Barbara Barrie, as a grieving mother willing to commit perjury to avenge her daughter's death.

The nude body of a young woman is found atop an elevator in a New York apartment building. Serreta and Logan turn up two other cases with the same MO over the last six months. They do a comparative study of the victims, looking for a common link, and they find it in the accountant, James Rebhorn, who keeps the medical records for the gynecologist seen by the women. They further find in the accountant's storage bin photos of the victims before and after they were killed. Finally it turns out that he was convicted of a similar strangling in Queens years ago and spent five years as a model prisoner. There's no doubt about his guilt.

But the case against the accountant remains weak. A judge rules that anything the accountant revealed during interrogation is inadmissible because the police browbeat the guy for twelve hours before he let slip the incriminating information. Moreover, his wife is willing to provide him with an alibi for the night of the murder, although she's obviously lying.

It gets complicated when the last victim's parents attempt to have the case tried in Connecticut, the girl's home. Connecticut has a death penalty and they want the murderer dead. Robinet is pretty much for it. Let the guy hang. Stone wants to uphold the law of the state of New York and seek justice instead of vengeance.

It's an interesting episode. Of course most screen time is given to unraveling the murder case and convicting the accountant, but the exchange concerning the death penalty between Stone and Robinet raises important questions. Stone points out that it costs far more to try a capital case than to imprison somebody for life.

Yet, the argument doesn't quite click with Robinet. We can almost hear the wheels clicking as he thinks, "Well, why not reduce the cost of trying a capital case by eliminating all those time-consuming and expensive mandatory appeals?" A lot of people would no doubt endorse a speedier route to the gallows. But, then, if we eliminate the appeals process to save taxpayer money, why not eliminate the trial too? How about if the police officers themselves, if they're convinced of someone's guilt, carry out a summary execution on the street? Why can't experienced cops make up the law as they go along? It's not as if it weren't already being done in a dozen third-world countries.

Why should the law interfere with the natural human desire for vengeance? As Stone asks, rhetorically, why not burn down the houses of arsonists and sexually abuse rapists? As I say, fascinating moral questions are involved.

One performance deserves special mention. James Rebhorn as the serial killer and accountant. There are numerous ways Rebhorn could have rendered the character. Most people would have been tempted to put his evil foot forward, sneering, glancing slyly sideways -- that sort of thing. But Rebhorn -- a reliable featured player -- invests him with a kind of pathos. Not like Peter Lorre's child killer in "M," but like an accountant who has just spent too many hours straight at the job. Every movement is ennervated. He's just plain tired.

James Rebhorn, who usually plays good guy roles, plays a "good guy" who is actually a serial killer in Vengeance, from the second season of Law and Order. This controversial episode, which is New York v Connecticut in terms of the death penalty, also guest stars Rutanya Alda. All those years ago I thought Rutanya was related to Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame, but thanks to the internet I learned the truth. Rutunya is not related to Alan Alda.

Anyway, your attitude towards the death penalty will shape your perception of this episode, and in some ways this episode is ahead of its time.

I enjoy watching the early years of Law and Order, and hopefully the series can bring back Chris Noth.