Street Justice (Season 25, Episode 1)
Premise: Hours after Price fails to convict Carter Mills of murdering a young model, Mills, who is also suspected of killing Maroun’s sister, is shot dead in the street, and the first suspect is Maroun.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Violet Yee (Connie Shi)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Christine Spang as Julia Keaton, Amanda Warren as defense attorney Camilla Paymor, Erica Spyres as Allison Mills, Jordan Cox as Carter Mills, Lana Young as Judge Mebane
- Director
- Alex Hall
- Writers
- Rick Eid
Summary
The Investigation
“Street Justice” picks up after a jury acquits Carter Mills, whom Price tried for a model’s murder and who is also suspected of killing Maroun’s younger sister. That same night Mills is shot on the street. Price tells Baxter he cannot rule out Maroun, who tells Price he handled the trial to feel noble rather than to win it.
Det. Yee finds Edgar, a man sweeping a sidewalk across from the scene, who heard a woman shout that Mills deserved it before the shots. Lt. Brady notes that the slim shooter fits Maroun’s build and that Maroun owns a .38, the caliber used. Maroun refuses to have her gun tested, and a search under warrant finds a dark hoodie and an empty safe. She then tells Price she set out toward Mills’s home armed, turned back, and dropped the revolver in the East River to keep herself from using it. Meanwhile the squad learns that Det. Jalen Shaw is moving to Brooklyn’s 88th Precinct.
Riley locates a man who collided with a hooded woman a block away; he picks no one from a photo array that includes Maroun and puts the woman at his own height, 5’9”, half a foot taller than Maroun. Riley and Yee then question Julia Keaton, a lawyer who defended Mills publicly throughout the trial. Mills’s sister, Allison, his heir, has an alibi and reveals that Keaton left him three days before the verdict. Bank records and store video show Keaton buying a .38 at a Pennsylvania gun shop hours after the acquittal, and she is charged with second-degree murder. Maroun insists on staying on the case.
The Trial
Defense attorney Camilla Paymor concedes the shooting but calls it self-defense. Judge Mebane lets the defense air Mills’s murder trial, since Keaton sat through it, and rebukes Price for trying to disown a case he brought himself. Keaton testifies that when she ended things Mills choked and raped her and threatened her life, and that on the night of the shooting he laughed, said she was finished and came at her.
Maroun argues the facts fit manslaughter under extreme emotional disturbance and accuses Price of lacking the nerve to convict Mills. Price takes a first-degree manslaughter offer to Baxter, who asks whether it is meant to appease Maroun. Left alone with Maroun after the offer, Keaton lets slip that she waited outside Mills’s building, and Maroun cuts her off.
Spoiler, the ending: Maroun tells Price about the slip; they agree it means Keaton lied on the stand, and Maroun calls the killing premeditated and names testifying in rebuttal as one option but recommends taking the plea. Price agrees, Keaton accepts first-degree manslaughter, and Price thanks Maroun for being straight with him.
Why it stands out
- The episode continues directly from the Season 24 finale, “Look the Other Way,” opening in the aftermath of Carter Mills’s acquittal.
- Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) leaves the squad offscreen for Brooklyn’s 88th Precinct, and Riley works the case with Det. Violet Yee.
- The prosecutors knowingly pass up evidence that would prove premeditation, choosing a manslaughter plea over a conviction they believe they could win.