Detectives Briscoe and Logan investigate the murder of Dawn Bryan. The young African-American woman once had a bright future ahead of her. She was a good student and was even voted most likely to succeed. It seems to have all come tumbling down when she got hooked on crack. She was shot with a .45 caliber gun and their first suspect is her supplier and sometime live-in boyfriend who goes by the street name of Skate. The dead woman's family are devastated by the loss of their daughter but they feel they lost her long ago when she became hooked on drugs. When the evidence points to a family member as the likely culprit, ADA Stone and DA Adam Schiff both feel a good deal of sympathy. Paul Robinette however doesn't think anyone should have leniency and pushes for a grand jury indictment.

To avoid the consequences of a bad shooting, a corrupt police officer makes a deal to cooperate with a commission investigating police corruption. During his testimony, he accuses Briscoe of stealing drugs after an arrest.

A father confesses to killing his son's hockey coach over playing time. His defense is that he should not be considered responsible for his actions because he suffers from a mental defect known as "sports rage."

A convicted drug dealer is accused of killing a pregnant loan officer, but it turns out to be part of a larger plot involving a professional basketball player who may be the baby's father.

A reality show cast member kills one of his castmates during a heated argument. But was the confrontation staged, and who is ultimately responsible?

Detectives discover that an Assistant Attorney General was having an affair with a murdered investigator in his office, and that he had made threatening statements about her to his psychiatrist.

A young man's murder appears to be connected to a paternity test and extortion attempt involving the victim's wealthy father.

Jack goes head-to-head with his former assistant, Jamie Ross, as he prosecutes the gunman in a high-school mass shooting.

Jack tries to prove that a state senator and a mobster conspired to kill a journalist investigating voting irregularities. But connecting the dots is difficult without cooperation from the journalist's confidential source.