Prejudice (Season 12, Episode 10)
Premise: A Black magazine executive is shot after an argument over a taxi, and his killer’s lawyer argues that extreme racism is a mental illness that excuses murder.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 10
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest)
- Guest stars
- Steven Rishard as Ray Burrows, Dennis Boutsikaris as defense attorney Al Archer, Reuben Jackson as Dr. Paul Bernard, Dominic Fumusa as Scott Turner, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Jill Goldsmith
Summary
The Investigation
“Prejudice” begins with the murder of Thomas Reddick, the Black chief executive of Pavilion Publishing, shot in the chest and dragged into a stairwell five blocks from his home, his cash untouched. A guard saw him talking with a white man in a suit outside the office before getting into a cab. Pavilion was settling lawsuits from magazines it had bought, including one by aspiring actress Amanda Marvin over nude photos, and her angry boyfriend, Doug Larsen, had signed into the building that night.
Larsen’s friend Danny Moreno, waiting outside, saw Reddick argue with two white men, who then pulled a passenger’s luggage out of a minivan cab to chase him. The driver remembers being paid $50 to follow Reddick’s cab to the West Seventies and hearing talk of a red-haired waitress. Her pile of business cards leads to broker Scott Turner, who says his friend Ray Burrows fought with Reddick over the taxi. A search of Burrows’s apartment finds 9mm rounds, and ballistics ties his gun to the murder.
Turner, held as a material witness, says Burrows used racial slurs throughout the ride. A former co-worker recalls Burrows showing him a gun in a dispute over a Black client, which cost Burrows his job, and Burrows had written to his co-op board urging it to turn away an interracial couple.
The Trial
McCoy adds a hate-crime count and offers 20 years to life. When the judge admits the co-op letter, Burrows tells the court he did the right thing, and defense attorney Al Archer gives notice of an insanity defense, claiming extreme racism is a delusional disorder; the judge lets Yale psychiatrist Dr. Paul Bernard testify. Dr. Skoda finds Burrows fully aware of his actions, and Southerlyn tells Lewin that after the Towers attack, excusing hatred is the last thing they should do.
On cross Bernard concedes the psychiatric profession rejects his theory and that it would mainly help white defendants. A prosecution psychiatrist says Burrows was in touch with reality. Burrows tells the jury he feels good about the killing, and McCoy’s questions show that he hid the body and asked for a lawyer.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Burrows guilty of second-degree murder as a hate crime. Afterward, McCoy remarks that letting someone kill out of hatred and escape punishment would be the true insanity.
Why it stands out
- McCoy recalls an earlier defendant who tried to excuse murder with a “black rage” defense, a reference to the Season 5 episode “Rage.”
- Southerlyn cites the attack on the World Trade Center towers in arguing that hatred must not become an excuse.
- Dr. Emil Skoda examines the defendant and rejects the idea that racism is a mental illness.