Law & Order (season 4) - Episodes

Logan and Briscoe investigate after a convicted child molester, Dr. Joseph Vinton, is murdered on Rick Mason's controversial talk show. The shooter is easily identified — he's Sid Fisher, the father of the dead man's victim from three years earlier. During the course of the investigation, however, the detectives find evidence that leads them to believe that Mason may have set up Vinton's murder so as to assure high ratings during sweeps period. Stone's case is made more difficult because Sid Fisher isn't willing to say anything that could put his son, Scotty, on the stand.

• First appearances of S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren and Jill Hennessy as ADA Claire Kincaid.
• Inspired by the Geraldo brawl.

A disruptive, unbalanced homeless man is found severely beaten in an alley of the middle class neighborhood he calls home, leading Stone to try to prosecute one of the residents for premeditated murder.

• This episode was the basis for the Law & Order: UK episode "Community Service"

After wealthy Jonathan Keyes is found dead in his home, the police receive an anonymous tip that he was murdered. Logan and Briscoe encounter difficulties at the scene when the widow and her attorney refuse to allow an autopsy, and by the time Rodgers is able to examine the body, it has already been embalmed. The medical examiner claims the death was natural causes, and even though the state finally gets the necessary proof that the death was murder, the methods used to obtain the needed evidence come under question when Stone tries the case in court.

• Inspired by the death of Sunny Von Bulow.

Stone and Kincaid try to prove that the young woman believed to have planted a bomb in a parking garage had been brainwashed and was acting under the direct orders of Daniel Hendricks, the charismatic leader of a local cult known as the Acherusian Temple.

• Inspired by the crimes of Charles Manson.

A dig at a building site uncovers the body of Sid Cohen, who had gone missing and been presumed murdered years earlier. The identification of the body proves troublesome for Stone, who had initially prosecuted Phillip Swann eight years earlier and had obtained a conviction. Swann uses inconsistencies between the original trial and the location of the body to seek an appeal.

• Inspired by the crimes of the Billionaire Boys Club.
• This episode was the basis for the Law & Order: UK episode "Unsafe"

When teenager Chris Pollit beats a fellow foster home resident to death, his lawyer seeks a not guilty verdict by reason of genetic defect, claiming that Pollit is genetically predisposed to violence because he has an extra Y chromosome.

• This episode was the basis for the Law & Order: UK episode "Unloved"

When the investigation into threats on a 5-year-old girl leads to a judge that Kincaid had been romantically involved with when she clerked under him, she asks Ben to take her off the case. When Thayer is brought to trial, he insinuates that Kincaid deliberately pointed the witness in his direction, claiming that she had approached him in an inappropriate manner while she worked with him.

• Inspired by the Sol Wachtler criminal case.

During a 24-hour period, Briscoe and Logan have a heavy caseload that includes five unrelated murders and a domestic quarrel (which results in the maiming of the husband).

• One of the cases in this episode was based on the Lorena Bobbitt case.
• One of the cases in this episode is continued in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode Entitled and in a Law & Order follow up episode by the same name.
• This episode was the basis for the Law & Order: UK episode "Dawn till Dusk"

Briscoe and Logan bet that the killing of a star athlete's father is linked to gambling debts and threats to the baseball player's family, but it turns out the son's alibi does not hold up and he ends up under suspicion himself.

• Inspired by the murder of James Jordan, the father of Michael Jordan.

A black minister fans the flames of racial intolerance after a hit-and-run in Harlem claims the life of a 12-year-old and the Jewish driver isn't indicted.

• Inspired by the Crown Heights Riot.

An assailant breaks the wrist of a tennis player prior to a tournament, and a competitor is among the suspects.

• Inspired by the individual attacks on both Nancy Kerrigan and Monica Seles.

A truck hits a pedestrian and the investigation reveals the victim's link to a baby-food company in which a new partner has connections to the Russian mob.

• Last appearance of Michael Moriarty as EADA Ben Stone.