An obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.An obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.An obsessed fan is charged with the brutal beating of a soap opera actress. During the trial, he claims that a voice in his head told him to do it.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on three high-profile stalking cases involving actresses:
- Rebecca Schaeffer, who was stalked and then shot dead by Robert Bardo, who obtained her address through DMV records, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. Schaeffer was best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam (1986).
- Theresa Saldana, the stalking victim of Arthur Richard Jackson, a 46 year old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland. Jackson stabbed her in the torso 10 times, with a 5 1/2 inch knife, near the front of her home in broad daylight, almost killing her. Saldana recovered after 4 hours of surgery, and a 4-month hospital stay. It was later revealed that he had hired a private investigator to obtain her mother's phone number.
- Andrea Evans, who dropped out of public view for nearly a decade. Years later she revealed that she had left to escape a persistent stalker who became too familiar with her schedule and kept showing up at the set, and had later gone as far as breaking into the ABC studios in New York City, intent on killing her.
- GoofsAll entries contain spoilers
- Quotes
Mitchell Burkitt: I didn't do the lady. What do you think, I'm crazy?
Phil Cerreta: Actually, you're about the sanest person we've met all week.
Featured review
"Juries are not psychiatrists"
This episode of Law And Order deals with a defendant pleading insanity in the brutal assault of soap opera star Blanche Baker. Bradley White is our guilty party he is as obsessed with Baker as that demented fool in California who shot and killed Rebecca Schaefer on which this episode is partly based.
Michael Moriarty puts it plainly enough at the end. The ordinary lay people who make up jury pools are most assuredly not psychiatrists. That defendant White is absolutely nuts everyone agrees. But the standard is insane enough that he cannot appreciate the consequences of his actions. It is also clear that White, his father Werner Klemperer, and his attorney Stephen Joyce are looking for a John Hinckley type of verdict where he's taken to a hospital and then maybe let out and presumably he'd stalk Baker again. Or another example would be assassin Dan White who killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Although no one alleges it was an overdose of Twinkies that set White off.
Joyce has tried and has made a specialty of insanity defenses. Moriarty is up against the best in that field.
See how this one comes out and what 12 ordinary citizens do.
Michael Moriarty puts it plainly enough at the end. The ordinary lay people who make up jury pools are most assuredly not psychiatrists. That defendant White is absolutely nuts everyone agrees. But the standard is insane enough that he cannot appreciate the consequences of his actions. It is also clear that White, his father Werner Klemperer, and his attorney Stephen Joyce are looking for a John Hinckley type of verdict where he's taken to a hospital and then maybe let out and presumably he'd stalk Baker again. Or another example would be assassin Dan White who killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Although no one alleges it was an overdose of Twinkies that set White off.
Joyce has tried and has made a specialty of insanity defenses. Moriarty is up against the best in that field.
See how this one comes out and what 12 ordinary citizens do.
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- bkoganbing
- Oct 18, 2017
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