Golden Years (Season 4, Episode 11)
Premise: An elderly woman is found dead after a break-in, but the autopsy shows she starved, and suspicion moves from her fired maid to her granddaughter.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 11
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Julie Dretzin as Laura Bauer, Tovah Feldshuh as defense attorney Danielle Melnick, Jan Miner as Edna Hodge, Denise Casano as Maria Gonzalez, Miguel Sierra as Felix Ortega
- Director
- Helaine Head
- Writers
- Story: Ed Zuckerman; Teleplay: Doug Palau
Summary
The Investigation
“Golden Years” opens with 82-year-old Mildred Bauer found dead and bruised in her ransacked apartment. Her granddaughter, Laura, says a live-in maid, Maria Gonzalez, should have been with her. The detectives track Maria to the apartment of her boyfriend, Felix Ortega, who has two burglary convictions and is holding Mildred’s silver candlesticks. Maria says Laura fired her days earlier.
According to Maria, Laura ordered her to ration Mildred’s food and water and fired her for slipping the woman more; Laura’s notes on the refrigerator back her up. Maria says she and Ortega forced the door on Friday, found Mildred dead and ran. The medical examiner rules that Mildred died of starvation and dehydration. Laura cites a doctor’s diet for kidney disease, but the doctor says Mildred stopped coming after his office was told she had a new physician.
Mildred’s will leaves her bonds to charity, but months earlier she made Laura co-owner of her apartment. Laura had told her she was engaged to Kent Halliwell and headed to law school, neither of which was true, and she has since borrowed $75,000 against the apartment and put $60,000 into a restaurant. A friend says Laura stopped in the night before the break-in and reported her grandmother asleep. Laura is charged with murder.
The Trial
Defense lawyer Danielle Melnick uses peremptory challenges on older jurors, and the judge rejects Stone’s bid to extend Georgia v. McCollum to age. Melnick undercuts Mildred’s friend Mrs. Hodge and attacks Maria over the burglary and her coming deportation. Stone then shows that Laura made an anonymous call reporting Maria to the INS the day Mildred died.
Laura testifies that her grandmother, in pain and outliving her friends, wanted to die and refused to eat. Mildred’s priest says she asked him whether letting herself die would count as suicide, and Laura says she kept silent so Mildred could be buried in consecrated ground. A funeral home confirms Mildred made her own arrangements a month before her death.
Spoiler, the ending: Unsure whether Laura is lying again, Stone and Kincaid offer a plea to assisted suicide. Laura takes it and will serve two years in prison.
Why it stands out
- The story was later retold on Law & Order: UK as “Mortal.”
- Stone argues that excluding jurors over 65 should be barred the way race- and gender-based challenges are, and the judge turns him down.
- A priest’s account of the victim’s wish to die turns a murder case into a plea to assisted suicide.