Manhood (Season 3, Episode 21)
Premise: A patrolman dies in a shootout while backup units take their time, and detectives learn his fellow officers knew he was gay.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 21
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), 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
- Charles Hallahan as Capt. Tom O’Hara, Adam Trese as Officer Craig McGraw, Philip Bosco as defense attorney Gordon Schell, Sam Rockwell as Officer Weddeker, Rene Rivera as Lucio Martinez
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Story: Walon Green; Story & teleplay: Robert Nathan
Summary
The Investigation
“Manhood” opens with Officer Rick Newhouse, alone on foot patrol, calling for backup on a possible drug sale at 107th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Two patrol cars respond, but neither arrives before gunmen kill Newhouse. One dealer, Romeo Romejas, dies at the scene; fingerprints on a bag of crack identify the other as Lucio Martinez. A frightened neighbor who called 911 picks Martinez out of a photo array.
Hoping to avoid a murder conviction, Martinez says Romejas fired the fatal shots and that two officers sat in a patrol car around the block. Briscoe and Logan learn that Newhouse’s record went from spotless to poor in his last three months and that his partner, Craig McGraw, has asked for a transfer. Newhouse’s apartment suggests he was gay. Radio tapes show one backup car went to an address 40 blocks away, yet both cars arrived together, though the other started 20 blocks closer.
The Trial
Capt. Tom O’Hara and the sergeants deny that bias played any part. A memo citing the Bible and urging homosexuals off the force has been passed around the precinct. Young Officer Weddeker, offered a deal, admits his partner, Sgt. Harley, parked half a block away and mocked Newhouse instead of helping. Stone charges Harley, Rhodes and Davis with second-degree murder under the depraved-indifference statute.
McGraw, who is also gay, testifies that Rhodes left the memo where he would find it and that O’Hara paired the two gay officers. The defense calls a psychologist who says fear of homosexuals is common and hard to control, and O’Hara vouches for his men. In closing, Stone warns jurors that officers who choose whom to protect could someday pass them by.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits all three defendants. Schiff tells Stone he tried the case well and still lost, and the two reflect that the jury repeated the officers’ indifference.
Why it stands out
- The episode won a 1993 GLAAD Media Award, and writers Walon Green and Robert Nathan earned an Emmy nomination for the script.
- It was later remade for Law & Order: UK as the season 2 episode “Samaritan.”
- Michael Moriarty suggested basing Stone’s closing argument on Martin Niemöller’s “First they came…” statement.