Conspiracy (Season 3, Episode 2)
Premise: A Black nationalist leader is gunned down after a Harlem rally, and the only suspect is a white man whose ex-wife was having an affair with the victim.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 2
- 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
- Eric Bogosian as Gary Lowenthal, Jeff Gendelman as Mitchell Koblin, Gloria Foster as Satima Tate, Michael Jace as Otis Cooke, Joe Morton as Roland Books
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Michael S. Chernuchin & René Balcer
Summary
The Investigation
“Conspiracy” opens with activist Marcus Tate, leader of the African-American Congress, speaking in Harlem about the Los Angeles verdicts. As he leaves, a small bomb in a trash can goes off and he is shot twice in the chest; one of his bodyguards, Harlans, is wounded in the leg. Witnesses agree only that the gunman was white. Tate’s staff, led by executive director and lawyer Roland Books, resist talking to white detectives.
Bodyguard Otis Cooke says he saw the gunman fire. Searching press photos from earlier rallies, the detectives find the same white face, and both Cooke and Tate’s widow, Satima, pick him out. A lacrosse shirt leads them to Mitchell Koblin, an Amherst graduate and laid-off teacher with a radical past. His ex-wife, Sandra, who worked as a bookkeeper for Tate’s group, says Mitchell accused her of sleeping with Tate. Koblin is arrested, and the bullet from Harlans’ leg matches his .38; the slug from Tate cannot be tested.
The Trial
Koblin is charged with murder, attempted murder and weapons possession, and Gary Lowenthal defends him. Sandra admits her affair with Tate, but Lowenthal establishes that Satima never saw who fired. Cross-examining Cooke, Lowenthal suggests he singled out Koblin only because he was white, and Cooke erupts with an antisemitic outburst. Koblin testifies that he came to see his wife and drew his gun only after the explosion.
The jury convicts Koblin only of third-degree weapons possession. Reviewing the case, the prosecutors learn that Cooke had nearly come to blows with Koblin a month earlier, so he lied about not knowing him, and that Books steered Tate toward the front door with a false claim that police had blocked the side alley. Satima refuses to help Robinette, and Books and Cooke deny everything under questioning.
Spoiler, the ending: Without direct evidence, Stone concludes he could not even get an indictment against Books or Cooke. Koblin will be free within a year on the weapons count, and no one is convicted of killing Marcus Tate.
Why it stands out
- Eric Bogosian, who plays defense attorney Gary Lowenthal, later joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
- The story is set in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles verdicts, which characters cite repeatedly.
- It ends without a murder conviction or a clear answer about who fired the fatal shots.