The cops uncover a man with a secret second life as they try to learn who opened fire on a group of people disembarking from a party cruise, but his guilt or innocence becomes almost a second thought as Schiff goes toe to toe with the governor and the States Attorney General over the decision to seek the death penalty.
The cops have a definite clue when a bloodstain that's not the same as the victim reveals that the killer was a blood relative, and the prosecutors stumble when their chief suspect claims their chief witness is her lawyer, and his knowledge of the crime represents privileged communications.
Briscoe and Curtis investigate the death of a pretty young book editor who was reputedly having an affair with one of her authors, and find themselves focusing on the author's long time companion, who steadfastly denies there was anything wrong with their relationship.
A young man who claims to have helped a murdered young man change a flat tire is first the cops' primary suspect, then the prosecutors' chief witness.
The cops' best hope of finding a kidnapped hired car driver alive is one of the armed robbers who grabbed him after a job, but the immunity deal he demands in return would effectively preclude his prosecution for the shooting death of an off-duty cop, placing McCoy in a difficult position as he seeks to placate the cops, who want the guy prosecuted, and the kidnapped man's wife, who wants every avenue of saving her husband explored.
McCoy becomes obsessed with nailing a serial rapist recently released on parole and pushes the cops perilously close to harassment as he attempts to connect the man with a new rape and murder matching his previous M.O.
The trial of Eddie Newman begins but the prosecution's chances of conviction are hampered by a "dream team" of defense attorneys, Gorton's personal pressures on Ross, the public questioning of the relationship between Curtis and Lisa Lundquist, and a surprise accusation.
Back in New York with their suspect, Briscoe and Curtis try to pin down his schedule on the night of the murder, but find instead that another man was in the area at the right time and more importantly, might have a motive for the crime. But after the issuance of a new arrest warrant, McCoy and Ross have to fly to LA to defend their warrant against attacks by the man's defense counsel, Ross's former husband Neal Gorton.
A headless corpse fished out of the river sends Briscoe and Curtis out to Los Angeles to obtain a blood sample from their chief suspect while McCoy and Ross back in New York try to obtain a court order for the procedure.
The murder of an ex-cop with a penchant for blackmail and illicit sex brings feminist lawyer Lanie Stieglitz into court against McCoy to defend a suburban wife and mother.
The discovery of a would-be thief refocuses a murder investigation, leaving the prosecutors the task of making a conspiracy case against the deceased's attorney and the pretty young widow.
An unpromising case of murder suddenly develops new leads when the cops explore the possibility that the victim was mistaken for someone else. McCoy walks a thin line in the matter of ethical conduct as he tries to make a case against a lendor who uses unscrupulous methods to collect the money owed to him.
The detectives face a difficult struggle getting witnesses to a girl's apparent suicide to come forward while Ross tries to prove that a known bully is the one really responsible for her actions.
The sidewalk shooting of a young husband uncovers the fact that his wife's first husband died in a inadequately investigated accident, and that they may have been having an affair before it happened.
The case against Huey Tate, a young man accused of shooting the well-known leader of the African-American Congress comes undone when the New York authorities learn that their chief witness was once an informant for the FBI, and is still under their protection.
The murder of Richard Speigel, chief financial officer for an exclusive, family-owned department store goes from the sitting room to the bedroom and into the board room as suspicion shifts from co-workers to family members.
The murder of a deadbeat father whose son is dying of leukemia presents McCoy and Ross with a sympathetic suspect and a moral dilemma.
The murder of a janitor in a university laboratory building leads back to a student employee whose participation in a drug study may have prompted the crime.
Curtis, angered by the attitude of an old colleague of Briscoe's, looks beyond the findings of an IAB investigation and turns up evidence of police corruption that puts the DA's office into competition with an ambitious judge and Briscoe under investigation for stealing evidence from a police lockup.
Briscoe and Curtis's investigation of the murder of a rare coin dealer nets them a millionaire as a suspect, but Ross has to play detective too as the DA's office tries to establish a provenance for the missing coin collection.
Briscoe and Curtis have to break the mutual alibi of two girlfriends as they try to find the killer of a young black man, whose angry parents pressure McCoy to indict a young woman who claims the victim had raped her.
The cops tackle identifying a corpse left in an elevator, and McCoy finds his prosecution of the suspect later hampered by a vindictive judge who resents Ross's in-court rebuke for sexual harassment.
McCoy's new second chair, ADA Jamie Ross, is determined to prosecute as harshly as possible a carjacker who took the life of a teacher as she pleaded for her life on an audio tape discovered at the crime scene.
