Misconception (Season 2, Episode 6)
Premise: A mugging that costs a young woman her pregnancy looks like a cover for something more deliberate.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 6
- 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
- Molly Price as Amy Newhouse, Reed Diamond as Christopher Baylor, Nicolas Surovy as David Alcott
- Director
- Daniel Sackheim
- Writers
- Story: Michael Duggan; Story & teleplay: Michael S. Chernuchin
Summary
The Investigation
“Misconception” starts in a downtown alley, where police find Amy Newhouse, a legal secretary who is about six months pregnant, beaten after leaving work late. Her attacker took only $20 but kicked her repeatedly in the stomach, and she later miscarries. Suspicion falls first on her boyfriend, Christopher “Chris” Baylor, a cab driver who once broke her arm, but he appears to have been driving a fare to the airport.
Amy then tells the detectives she had been sleeping with her boss, David Alcott, a partner at her law firm, and that the baby was his. Alcott denies it until the detectives hear a dictation tape that leaves little doubt about the affair. They also learn that Amy and Christopher had been pressuring Alcott for money, and that Alcott had demanded she end the pregnancy. With a motive and the opportunity, Alcott is charged with murder and assault.
The Trial
The murder count collapses first. New York requires a fetus to be at least 24 weeks old for a homicide charge, and the medical evidence can’t establish that, so the judge dismisses it. Meanwhile Amy and Christopher file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Alcott, and Robinette grows suspicious. Insurance records lead to a doctor who confirmed Amy’s pregnancy before her affair with Alcott began, so Christopher was the father. A cab company’s mileage log breaks Christopher’s alibi.
The couple had staged the attack to make Alcott look guilty and win a lawsuit, and Christopher was the one who kicked her. They are charged with attempted murder. Their defense is that they knew the fetus was too young for the law to count its death as murder, so they never intended a crime. Stone attacks their credibility, including Christopher’s past as a disbarred lawyer.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury refuses to believe they knew the law and convicts both Amy and Christopher of attempted second-degree murder. Amy has learned she will never be able to have another child.
Why it stands out
- The case turns on New York’s 24-week rule for when a fetus can be the victim of a homicide.
- The apparent victims turn out to be the schemers, a reversal the series used often in later seasons.
- Stone wins with an attempt theory: the defendants are convicted for the crime they meant to commit, not the one the law would recognize.