An assistant manager at a jewelers discovers four bodies at the store, leading to the prosecution of an amiable murder suspect who insists on representing himself, and winning the admiration of a female juror.

A star baseball player becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his limousine driver when it is discovered that the driver regularly supplied steroids to the sports icon. The subsequent investigation reveals blackmail as the underlying motive for the murder.

The death of a woman who fell from a hotel balcony leads to a case involving a lesbian couple and a state law banning gay adoption

When McCoy fails to win a murder conviction against an eccentric cross dressing millionaire for the death of his neighbor, he redoubles the effort to convict the man for murdering his second wife years earlier by demonstrating that he murdered a witness to the crime.

The District Attorney's Office is set on its ear when the investigation into the death of an A.D.A. uncovers a scandal that could imperil hundreds of cases.

An Iraqi immigrant who murders a former military policewoman in retaliation for torturing her brother at Abu Ghraib prison claims that she is covered as an enemy combatant under the terms of the Geneva Convention.

A conservative talk show host involved in a sexual harassment scandal is murdered, but the trail leads to the victim's wife and an obsessed stalker.

After a man causes a massive train crash that results in multiple deaths, McCoy tries to prosecute him for murder despite his insanity defense. But McCoy finds himself hampered by a defense attorney whose own agenda may undercut that of his client.

The deaths of three women with the same name lead Fontana and Green to the nine-year-old conviction of Leland Barnes, who had shot and killed his wife in an office full of people. With two of the three witnesses against him dead and Jack McCoy on the hit list, the detectives struggle to determine how Barnes, who has been in prison the entire time, got someone on the outside to kill the only people who could keep him in jail. The investigation leads them to Leland's two sons, with surprising results.

Fontana and Green investigate when a bank manager is involved in the robbing of his own bank and learn that his daughter is being held hostage and that he had to go along with the robbery or risk losing his daughter.

Green and Cassady investigate the murder of a female rapper.

Lupo and Green's first offical case together is a kidnapping that happened during a citywide blackout; a housekeeper is slain and a mother and daughter are kidnapped. The evidence that links all the kidnappers is the father and husband of the kidnap victims. When they search the kidnappers' hideout, they find preparations which implies that the kidnappers knew that the blackout was coming. Cutter must convince the man to testify after he has lied about a search warrant to save the man's daughter, or else the kidnappers will all go free. Issues of a warrantless search arise. Courtroom scenes revolve around questions of Enron-like manipulation of energy.

The detectives investigate the mystery of a falling construction crane in the city and that leads them to something much more sinister.

When a young woman is found dead in her apartment, a few tell-tale signs quickly lead Detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard to believe that the killer was not after her wealth.

When detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard come upon the burning body of Cesar, a sixteen-year-old charter school student from a bad neighborhood, they begin to question his young mentee Moses, who was the last person to see him alive.