Seaduse nimel DNR (1990–2010) Online

This particular Law and Order episode struck a chord with me after I had seen and reviewed The Fountainhead here. In this episode a civil court judge played by Lindsay Crouse is shot and seriously wounded. She becomes a paraplegic afterward and since her kidneys are damaged, Crouse is put on dialysis. Long term prospects for her survival aren't real good.

Detectives Briscoe and Green develop evidence showing that the one who planned the whole thing was her husband, John Heard. Heard is a once promising architect who never became a big name in his field as his wife's legal career soared upwards. She was about to get a federal appointment when she was shot.

Developing the motive was interesting though. The detectives interviewed a former partner who said that Heard was a singular individual who pushed his own ideas regardless of what the client wanted. In doing so he put off any number of clients who took their business elsewhere.

Of course the other half of the episode dealt with Crouse's refusal to aid in any way the prosecution of her husband which led to the the whole issue of competency on her behalf.

But the husband's motive fascinated me in this one. It's like John Heard must have read The Fountainhead and took it to its logical outcome in his life as well as his profession. Jack McCoy quite accurately described him as a 'narcissistic S.O.B'.

The man truly thought he was Howard Roark and that's what happens to the Roarks in the real world.

... to oneself, that is. Judge Denise Grobman (Lindsay Crouse) is shot when her car is stolen as she is returning from a weekend in the country. She is badly injured but not killed, plus she has a concealed carry permit and returns fire with the thief, who escapes but is presumed badly injured. But then detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green begin their investigation and discover that a car thief could have easily lifted an expensive model in the same garage right next to the judge's car, because the owner always left the keys in it (he was always forgetting where he put them, so he left them in the ignition). Oh the eccentricity of the one percent, but that's another story.

Our able observant detectives follow the trail of the stolen car back to (eventually) the body of the car thief, dead from the judge's bullets. Large sums of money are found on him, showing that this might have been a hit. However, the judge came back early from her country house that Sunday, in response to a phone call from her assistant. Only three people knew about that call - the assistant, the judge, and the judge's husband of 27 years. More investigation is done. The husband (John Heard as Walter Grobman) doesn't play the field, doesn't gamble, in fact has no vices at all. But EVERYTHING points to him, including a half hour of time when he was out of the judge's company jogging, coinciding with a call made from a pay phone in the same town to the dead hit-man.

The judge will live - I guess I should say exist - through the shooting according to her doctors. However, she is in horrible pain, a paraplegic, on dialysis with one kidney removed and the other ruined. Plus she now needs a colostomy bag and will need round the clock nursing care for the rest of her life. When presented with all of the evidence, she still professes her husband's innocence and her willingness to testify on his behalf, but now she has a new request, she requests the right to discontinue dialysis and die.

So now the criminal justice system AND her husband are involved in a flurry of legal activity about this woman's right to die, none of it really being about her best interest. Did her husband do it, or was it somebody who had a grudge against the judge who happened to be watching her? Watch and find out. Sometimes Law and Order plays out just like you think it is going to, sometimes not, usually at the last minute.

In a garage, a workaholic civil court judge (Lindsay Crouse) was shot and severely wounded. The shooter left the crime scene with the judge's car; some cigarettes butts were left near the body, Briscoe supposed an electrician worker might have known something. Some clues led to a doctor who bought the car shortly after the accident. It took some time for detectives to figured out who sold the used car the first time; anyway the perp was hired. Victim's husband, an unsuccessful architect, was the prime suspect; despite not so strong evidences, detectives arrested him, but the wife was ready to defend him (she can't believe her beloved husband could have done such a thing). Furthermore, she wanted to die because of the pain she was feeling (there's no way she could get back to a normal life). Anyway a call from a payphone set him up. Why did she protect him?

McCoy and Charmichael, as well as Dr. Skoda, found it hard to solve the case. There are some situation so irrational you can't understand from the outside.