Whose Monkey Is It Anyway? (Season 11, Episode 10)
Premise: A researcher dies of a bite after a lab security guard sets free 17 monkeys used in AIDS vaccine studies, and the guard’s manslaughter trial turns into a test of whether saving animals can justify a crime.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 11, Episode 10
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), DA Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest)
- Guest stars
- Kevin Isola as George Peavey, Terrence Mann as defense attorney Oyler, Tricia Paoluccio as Maxine Walden, Tresa Hughes as May Peavey, Richard Russell Ramos as Professor Paul Serafian
- Director
- Vincent Misiano
- Writers
- William M. Finkelstein
Summary
The Investigation
“Whose Monkey Is It Anyway?” begins in a research lab where molecular biologist Ronald Lee lies dead with a single bite on his hand, one monkey loose and 17 others missing; eight of them carry a genetically modified simian virus engineered with human HIV. Lee died of anaphylactic shock set off by the monkey’s saliva. With officials planning to go public within 72 hours, Briscoe and Green look at an animal-rights group whose members once poured blood on the lab floor, and they rule out ex-con Barry Pratt.
Student activist Maxine Walden was released early from that protest by guard George Peavey, who has since given up fishing and meat and stopped coming to work. After the detectives lean on animal-refuge owner Faye Ireland, they find the monkeys at another sanctuary, where two caretakers name George as the man who brought them. His mother finally sends police to a friend’s boat on City Island, and Peavey confesses, insisting Walden had no part in it.
The Trial
The prosecutors charge second-degree manslaughter, noting that Peavey knew the risk and left a loose monkey behind without warning anyone. The medical examiner and Peavey’s supervisor testify, and Peavey says he freed the animals because most were expected to die, paying a refuge $15,000 from the sale of his late father’s car. Peavey then swaps his lawyer for animal-rights attorney Oyler, who argues justification: that Peavey reasonably believed the monkeys had to be saved. The judge doubts the theory but leaves it to the jury.
Bioethicist Paul Serafian calls Peavey’s act profoundly moral, but McCoy reads his writings likening lab raids to freeing Buchenwald. Walden admits neither she nor Peavey considered the danger to people, and Dr. Tong describes the vaccine work and how sick animals are put down. At his mother’s urging McCoy offers criminally negligent homicide with one to three years, but after talking with Walden, Peavey refuses.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Peavey guilty, and Walden apologizes to him at the defense table. Afterward the prosecutors observe that the jury followed the law and that the animal-rights movement has gained a hero.
Why it stands out
- The defense asks the jury to stretch the justification defense, which covers protecting other people, to cover rescuing laboratory monkeys.
- The defendant turns down a plea to criminally negligent homicide so his trial can serve as an animal-rights test case.
- In closing, the defense compares the legal status of animals as property to the status of enslaved people.