This Law And Order episode concerns a shooting in the men's room of a swanky
uptown restaurant where one man is killed, another wounded, and the third
man hiding in the toilet stall, feet up in fear of his life. It's interesting here how
Benjamin Bratt and Jerry Orbach track down the shooter and who was the intended victim by what a witness did not see.
The shooter was Vera Famiglia and the intended target was Stephen Pearlman
who is a psychological gun fire as an expert witness. He's got this theory which for a price he'll sell to a jury about how defendant went into some kind
of trance before doing the murder. Famiglia feels Pearlman did not deliver on
her father who was convicted of a murder in Albany County.
Joanna Merlin is the defense attorney and she does a good job. Still Sam
Waterston digs up evidence that makes both her client and Pearlman not look
so good.
Years ago I remember on a talking head show the conservative commentator
James Jackson Kilpatrick describe economists as a bunch of swamis, showing a
general disdain for the profession. I didn't agree with much of what Kilpatrick
said, but I always liked that description. It certainly fits Pearlman and I love
what Waterston does to him on the stand.
See Jack McCoy take down a swami in this episode.