Jack McCoy - Character Overview

Character Overview

Jack McCoy brings 24 years of experience with him as he is appointed Executive Assistant District Attorney by Adam Schiff (Steven Hill) in the Season 5 premiere episode "Second Opinion". He quickly establishes himself as a more unconventional, ruthless litigator than his predecessor, Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty); he often bends—and sometimes breaks—trial rules to get convictions, finds tenuous rationales for charging defendants with crimes when the original charges fail to stick, and charges innocent people to frighten them into testifying against others. McCoy is more than once found in contempt of court for such behavior, and his tactics occasionally incur negative publicity for the DA's office. His underlying motivation, however, is not, he maintains, corruption, but a sincere desire to see justice done. To that end, McCoy has gone after defendants accused of perverting the justice system to arrange wrongful convictions with just as much determination as his more mundane cases. Such aggressive actions in the courts have earned him the nickname "Hang 'em High McCoy". He has subsequently developed a reputation with both colleagues and rival attorneys, once being referred to as "the top of the legal food chain" by a rival attorney during a case.

Following the 17th season (2006–2007), Jack McCoy became District Attorney, taking over from Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson). McCoy's appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on the November 13, 2007 episode "Blinded", marked his first appearance in the Law & Order universe as District Attorney. The replacement for his former position is Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), a prosecutor with a penchant for recklessness not unlike McCoy's own in his younger days. This occasionally presents political difficulties for the new District Attorney. More than once, McCoy berates Cutter for reckless conduct, in the same manner as he was berated by district attorneys when he was Assistant District Attorney.

In the season 19 episode "Lucky Stiff", McCoy begins his election campaign for New York County District Attorney after serving the last season and a half as interim DA. In the episode "Rapture", his opponent for the office is shown for the first time. In season 19 episode "Promote This", it is revealed that in 1991 his wife Ellen (whom he was divorcing) unknowingly employed an undocumented immigrant as a nanny. This causes McCoy political havoc during a murder case where the motive was racism against illegal immigrants of Hispanic descent. In the episode "Skate or Die", the place where his final campaign fundraiser would be held is discovered by the organizers to be owned by a man who served a 20-year prison sentence for racketeering. Eventually, the final campaign fundraiser would be held at a Chinese seafood restaurant with a kosher section. In the last episode of season 19, "The Drowned and the Saved", McCoy's opponent's patron resigns due to scandal on the eve of the election, giving him good prospects for victory.

Following Law & Order's cancellation in May 2010, McCoy continued in his role as District Attorney within the L&O universe for another year as he was mentioned in the Season 12 finale of Law & Order: SVU by ADA Sherri West. However, he is out of office by the show's thirteenth season premiere as Cutter, by this time the new Special Victims Unit Bureau Chief ADA, comments to ADA Alexandra Cabot that "the new DA wants the charges dropped" in the case they were trying at the time.