In Thursday night’s episode of “Law & Order,” when a bomb gravely injures a woman, the DA’s office decides to charge the suspect with murder, despite the victim still being alive on life support.
After the defense witness sways the jury with accounts of “miracles” of patients waking up from comas, the prosecution has to change their approach to make sure the defendant isn’t let off the hook for their attack.
In TheWrap’s exclusive sneak peek from the episode titled “The Meaning of Life,” DA Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) tells Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy) and Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), that since the defense seems to have the edge at the moment, they’ve got to appeal to the jury’s “heartstrings” as well.
'Law & Order' Season 24 Release Schedule
Price says he’s sure their case will recover, adding, “We’ll be OK. We just need to rebut Calhoun’s testimony and bring the conversation back to actual science.”
But Baxter strongly disagrees: “I think we’re past that. This case is no longer about science or medicine. It’s about emotion. It’s about people contemplating the unknowable end of life and being scared.”
“If the defense wants to pull heartstrings, we need to do the same. So beat them at their own game. Prepare a closing that paints a portrait of our victim. Show the jury who Sarah Heartwood really was, and make them feel the life [the defendant] stole from her,” he continues. “Whether or not Sarah’s legally or scientifically alive or dead, she is lying in bed, unconscious, intubated, hooked up to all kinds of machines. That’s her reality, and the jury needs to feel that.”
The NBC procedural, which is now in Season 24, also stars Maura Tierney, Mehcad Brooks and Reid Scott. Watch the conversation in the exclusive clip, above.
“Law & Order” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC and streams next day on Peacock.
