Confession (Season 2, Episode 1)
Premise: When Sgt. Max Greevey is murdered the night before he testifies to a grand jury, his grieving partner will do anything to catch the killer.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, Karen Shallo as Marie Greevey, Vyto Ruginis as Dan Magadan Jr., Val Avery as Dan Magadan Sr., Nicolas Coster as Morgan Stern
- Ripped from the headlines
- The trial turns on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1991 ruling in Arizona v. Fulminante, which held that a coerced confession can be harmless error.
- Director
- Fred Gerber
- Writers
- Michael Duggan & Robert Palm
Summary
The Investigation
“Confession” opens the second season with a shock: Sgt. Max Greevey is shot to death in his own driveway on the eve of his grand jury testimony about corruption and stolen building materials in the construction trade. Det. Mike Logan insists he is fine and pushes to stay on the case, while a department counselor tries to get him to face his grief. Sgt. Phil Cerreta, who caught the murder, transfers in as Logan’s new partner.
Stone suspects the killers learned what Greevey was about to say. The detectives lean on the contractors named in the coming indictments and trace the leak to the grand jury itself: the foreman, Dan Magadan Sr., told his son what Greevey planned to reveal. Logan tracks the son, Dan Jr. (“Danny”), to a dark alley, forces him to his knees at gunpoint and gets him to admit the killing.
The Trial
Back at the precinct Dan Jr. repeats his confession after being read his rights and tells police where to find the murder weapon. But when he complains that Logan threatened to kill him, Stone sees the whole case unravel. A coerced confession poisons everything that flows from it, including the gun. Logan, facing Internal Affairs and a possible menacing charge, admits he crossed the line but insists he caught the right man.
Stone finds another road to the gun. A task-force search warrant for the construction sites was waiting for a judge’s signature before Greevey died, and Stone argues the weapon would inevitably have been found. The judge admits the gun but warns that any mention of the confession will mean a mistrial. Then the gun’s owner, contractor Morgan Stern, testifying under an immunity deal, blurts out on cross-examination that Logan held a gun to Dan Jr.’s head.
Spoiler, the ending: The defense moves for a mistrial, but the judge applies the Supreme Court’s new harmless-error rule from Arizona v. Fulminante and lets the trial go on. Dan Magadan Jr. is convicted of first-degree murder for killing a police officer and is sentenced to 25 years to life. Logan admits he went too far and says he will never fully accept Max’s death.
Why it stands out
- Paul Sorvino joins the series as Sgt. Phil Cerreta, replacing George Dzundza’s Max Greevey.
- The legal fight turns on the then-new Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. Fulminante, which the characters argue about by name.
- Carolyn McCormick makes her first appearance as police psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Olivet.