America, Inc. (Season 16, Episode 17)
Premise: A security contractor home from Iraq is gunned down in a hotel room, and the men accused of avenging a beheaded colleague bring the war into the courtroom, until one of them offers the government a wanted terrorist.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 17
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Adam Scott as Robbie Howell, Pablo Schreiber as Kevin Boatman, Tovah Feldshuh as defense attorney Danielle Melnick, Luke Reilly as Mr. Howell, J.P. Linton as General Ronson
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“America, Inc.” begins when a stray bullet pierces a hotel wall on 43rd Street, and the manager finds the guest next door shot dead. He is Jeffrey Pope, a former Navy man who paid cash and whose ID is missing. An escort he hired online says he was fine when she left, and a man who pulled Pope’s phone out of a trash can near the Midtown Tunnel saw the driver who tossed it: an old dark red car with a broken headlight. A satellite phone and a postcard to Pope’s old college lead to the Diamond River Group, a private military firm working in Iraq.
The firm says Pope’s colleague Kevin Boatman just quit after an ambush near Ramadi in which two of Pope’s men died, and detectives stop him at JFK before his flight to Jordan. A lawyer’s card in his bag leads to the parents of one of the dead men, Nick Howell, who was beheaded; struggling with debt and his mother’s multiple sclerosis, they had consulted the lawyer about suing. Their maroon Honda holds a 9mm casing that matches the bullets in Pope. Nick’s younger brother, Robbie, admits he lent Boatman the car and Nick’s gun, saying Pope had ignored warnings about the route and refused to send help.
The Trial
Danielle Melnick represents both defendants and treats the case as an indictment of a privatized war. Robbie rejects manslaughter with ten years in return for testimony. Judge Fischer lets the defense play video of Nick’s ambush, edited to stop before the beheading, and Nick’s father breaks down on the stand. Boatman testifies that Pope cut corners and answered to no one. Pressed by McCoy, he blurts out that Pope came to New York to sell a captured insurgent leader, Abu Zayeed, to Israeli agents for $15 million.
Melnick tells the FBI that a renegade Diamond River team stumbled onto Zayeed and is holding him in a private jail. A Pentagon general tells Branch and McCoy the account checks out and that three Marines are missing, possibly held by Zayeed’s group. Melnick rejects first-degree manslaughter for Boatman and insists on dismissal. After debating Branch, McCoy moves to dismiss Boatman’s murder indictment, while Robbie’s case goes on.
Spoiler, the ending: Nick’s father asks how one man can walk while his surviving son faces prison, and the prosecutors offer Robbie attempted manslaughter with five years. Melnick urges him to trust the jury, but he takes the plea. Zayeed is then captured roughly 30 miles from the spot Boatman described, and the missing Marines turn out to have simply gotten lost in the desert.
Why it stands out
- The prosecution drops the murder charge against the alleged gunman to win his help finding a terrorist, while the friend who lent him the car and gun still goes to prison.
- Adam Scott, years before Parks and Recreation and Severance, guest stars as Robbie Howell, opposite Pablo Schreiber as Boatman.
- Tovah Feldshuh returns as defense attorney Danielle Melnick, and the judge lets her show the jury a jihadist video of the ambush, cut before the beheading.