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The victim this week is a police detective - always an emotionally charged issue for the show. Detective Jake Kearsey was found dead outside the door of the apartment of a woman who worked for Lateef Miller at the Riverside Action Project, an organization aiding tenants who face eviction. The crime scene unit determines that the shots that killed Detective Kearsey came from inside the apartment and that both individuals were standing when the shots were fired. Miller's prints are also in the apartment, and, most damaging of all, Detectives Briscoe and Green learn that Miller checked his voice mail from Watts' phone half an hour before the killing. However, the police find no witnesses to the shooting, and no murder weapon.

Miller is arrested at his mosque, but doesn't raise the issue of sanctuary. Instead, at his arraignment Miller makes a statement claiming that the court lacks jurisdiction over him because, as an ex-Black Panther, he is a political prisoner under the Geneva Convention. This claim is without merit, as Miller was not arrested on the basis of his political beliefs or his past association with the Black Panther party. He was arrested because of the evidence implicating him in a cop killing. The writers of the show were wise not to devote any further time to this argument.

At trial, the defense attempts to portray Kearsey as a racist due to his membership in the Emerald Society, a fraternal organization for Irish officers. His partner is questioned about Kearsey's use of force against black suspects. Although I don't want to be too picky, there was an interesting slip-up in the partner's testimony. The following colloquy was exchanged:

Q: "Did Detective Kearsey have six excessive force complaints against him?"

A: "The ones I know about were dismissed."

Q. "What about the one that was sustained, where he put a young black man in a chokehold?"

A: "That guy was a PCP freak resisting arrest."

Thus, it seems that the partner did indeed know about at least one incident that was not dismissed.

At this point, all of the evidence is very circumstantial. Miller's trail basically ends at the phone call to his voice mail. However, Detective Green realizes that Miller's initial instinct after killing a cop might have been to contact his lawyer. Sure enough, Briscoe and Green manage to find a cab driver who clearly remembers picking Miller up outside the apartment and dropping him off at his lawyer's office. Jack McCoy seeks to add the cab driver to his witness list, which is allowed by the judge. Whether this decision is correct is debatable; the general rule is that once trial begins you cannot introduce any newly discovered evidence, unless it can be shown that there was no way to obtain the evidence in a more timely fashion. Here it seems obvious that the cab driver could have been found sooner; the detectives simply had to pursue this angle before trial.

Rather than seek appellate review of the decision, Miller's attorney suddenly announces that he will be arguing self-defense. This would not be successful in those states that require a defendant to give notice in a pre-trial motion, if they wish to use an affirmative defense such as self-defense. It also does not seem to be the best strategic move, since Miller is now admitting that he did kill Kearsey. Up to this point in the case, the evidence against the defendant consisted of his fingerprints in Watts' apartment, which could have been left there on a previous visit, and his call to his voice mail service, which was at least half an hour before the killing. Thus, before switching to the self-defense argument, Miller had a strong chance of being acquitted on the basis of reasonable doubt due to severe holes in the prosecution's case.

Miller must now prove he believed he was in imminent danger of grave bodily harm when Kearsey came to the apartment. Abbie Carmichael correctly points out to Jack and Nora Lewin that this is a subjective test: If Miller honestly and reasonably believed he was in such danger, even though his belief is mistaken, his claim of self defense is valid and entitles him to an acquittal. To support his claim, Miller testifies about past experiences in dealing with racist police officers, many of which dated back to the 1960's. He further bolsters his self-defense claim by pointing to more contemporary events such as the Amadou Diallo murder, the Abner Louima assault, and the Rodney King riots. On cross examination, McCoy questions Miller extensively about his advocacy of "cop killing" during his Black Panther years. He also gets a key concession from Miller when the defendant admits he never heard Kearsey identify himself as a police officer.

This concession is apparently not enough; the jury returns with a not guilty verdict. This was a mostly well-done episode. While the switch to the self-defense claim was too clever as a trial strategy to be realistic, the argument was portrayed realistically once the change was made. Furthermore, the episode raised thought provoking issues about the progress of race relations and points out that we still have a long way to go.

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