After a woman's body is found in a subway station, a suspect is arrested, but the resulting case concerns the lack of medication supplied him while in prison.
The detectives investigate the murder of a young violinist whose fellow musicians resented her rapid rise to fame, in a trial that results in threats exchanged between Lewin and the presiding judge who has a history of bias against McCoy.
Under pressure from the department's top brass, a 20-year-old murder case, initally investigated by Briscoe's now retired boss, is reopened involving the slaying of a teen-age girl with the spoiled son of a politically connected family as the prime suspect.
An assistant manager at a jewelers discovers four bodies at the store, leading to the prosecution of an amiable murder suspect who insists on representing himself, and winning the admiration of a female juror.
The beating death of a restaurant owner leads Briscoe and Green to thrill-seeking teenagers; McCoy and Lewin are forced to decide how young is too young for the death penalty.
When a gay man is beaten to death during the abduction of his adopted infant son, Detectives Briscoe and Green suspect that ransom from the murder victim's wealthy partner may have been the motive for the crime. But as more is learned about the child's birth mother and homophobic biological father, Assistant D.A.'s McCoy and Carmichael find that what appeared to be a botched kidnapping might be more accurately prosecuted as a hate crime.
When a pregnant loan officer is found in the trunk of her car with fatal gunshot wounds, Detectives Briscoe and Green at first suspect a carjacking or the woman's fiance and co-worker. But as the woman's premature baby clings to life in the hospital, the investigation turns to professional basketball player Cris Cody, whose ties to the dead woman may extend beyond the loans she approved for him--and may include reason for him to want her and her unborn child dead.
When a participant in a TV reality show is murdered, McCoy goes after the producers and network executives for deliberately fomenting hostility among the participants to boost the ratings. All too appropriately, the outcome of the case hinges on a videotape made by a hidden-camera.
When a woman is found strangled to death with a large quantity of the drug Ecstasy in her handbag, Detectives Briscoe and Green have difficulty gathering sufficient evidence for an indictment of their prime suspect, drug-dealer Francis 'Taz' Partell. But when they question one of his former associates, they discover new evidence indicating that Taz is responsible for the earlier murder of a bouncer in Bronx county.
When the dead body of Karen Hall, an investigator with the State Attorney General's Office Criminal Division, is found in a Manhattan river, Detectives Briscoe and Green find that her boss, Frank Conroy, had written off her disappearance as a random kidnapping from an Albany train station. But as more is learned about Conroy's controlling relationships -- with the dead woman, with his wife and with a long-term girlfriend -- he quickly becomes a suspect.
When a couple is found dead in their apartment, Detectives Briscoe and Green follow the trail of drugs and money, which leads to Caryn Wyman, the wife of a U.S. Army Major responsible for the country's anti-drug efforts in Colombia. Despite the evidence linking Caryn to the drugs, she is fearful of cooperating with the police--until A.D.A. McCoy convinces her and her husband that she has no choice but to risk her life to catch the killer.
When an hispanic male is found dead from a severe chest trauma, Detectives Briscoe and Green discover that he and two other illegal immigrants had been in a staged automobile accident. As evidence mounts linking numerous similar car crashes with the same employer, chiropractor, insurance adjuster, and lawyers, A.D.A.s McCoy and Carmichael must determine who is ultimately responsible for the man's death, from which so many others profited.
Briscoe and Green discover a murdered businessman may have been the target of a well-known criminal , but the investigation stumbles when the FBI acts as the suspect's alibi.
An attempted murder of a tough Judge leads Briscoe and Green on a wild goose chase to track down the inimical criminal. When the perpetrator is found, Carmichael and McCoy have a difficult time making a case.
A woman's murder leads the police to discover the actual target was a reporter who did a story about improprieties in a recent senatorial election. Carmichael can't get the reporter to reveal her sources for a story that contains allegations that the vote was fixed and ballots tampered with, even though the reporter's life is at risk. Without the source, McCoy and Carmichael have a difficult time making a case against the Senator, who they believe has ties to the mob and ordered the hit on the reporter. The case hinges on 2000 missing ballots from the vote that were stolen by the mob. Once the ballots are found, there is a big court battle about whether or not the ballots should be counted. McCoy believes that the ballots will show Benton's motive for ordering the hit, but an appellate court won't allow it, so their case is virtually dead. In the end, McCoy is able to convince the reporter to reveal her source and have him testify against the senator.
