A corpse of a badly burned Jewish jeweler is found in an alley. Initial evidence suggests that it could be a hate crime performed by a group of black youths, but a business motive is later uncovered.

An award-winning Chinese American high school science student is killed. Evidence points to the jealous family of one of the student's high school competitors.

A Greek immigrant jewelry store owner kills two robbers and claims self defense. However, it is soon questioned whether his actions went beyond self defense and crossed into revenge and murder.

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.

After a business owner is shot and killed, suspicion falls on his Russian mail order bride and the man she is having an affair with.

The investigation into the killing of the CFO of a baby food company leads Briscoe and Logan directly to the Russian mob and its head, who now goes by the name Steven Green. When they arrest the shooter, ADA Stone isn't above manipulating his situation to get him to testify against Green. However, since no one can be found guilty solely on the testimony of an accomplice to the same crime, he desperately needs another witness. Ann Madsen had business dealings with Green and can testify to having seen the shooter in Green's office the day of the shooting. When it come to actually testifying however she changes her story, obviously in fear of her life. Stone makes it quite clear she will go to jail if she doesn't tell the truth but it leads to tragedy and forces Stone to make a major decision about his future.

McCoy charges a city councilman with "larceny by extortion," after a female colleague claims that she had to sleep with him or lose her chance at partnership at their law firm.

The discovery of a fake pornographic "snuff tape" leads detectives to a high school gang and an alleged points-for-sex contest.

An investigation into a horse swindling scheme escalates into a murder investigation when one of the accused's possible victims--his ex fiancée--disappears.

After a mother orders a professional hit on the new husband of her former daughter-in-law, detectives reopen an investigation into her son's death.

Lawyers make a deal with a suspected cop killer in order to find a kidnapping victim. However, the DA's office wants to renege on the deal after the victim is found dead, and detectives suspect that he knew the victim was dead all along.

The prosecution of the shooter in the death of a young mother and wife hits a snag when it is suggested that her doctor may have killed her to give away her organs and advance his career.

A mafia hit man who was in the witness protection program turns up dead in Central Park. A mafia boss is implicated, but his defense wants him declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

An investigative reporter is shot, and evidence indicates a link to a 20-year-old murder case. Prosecutors learn that one of the reporter's stories on the case may have helped convict an innocent man of the crime.

A lapse in judgment by two police officers results in two African-Americans killing a white teen in Harlem. The case promises to set off a racial powder-keg, and it drives a split between between Jack McCoy and Adam Schiff.

A community activist who was formerly a Black Panther is accused of killing a police officer. He claims self-defense because of the history of police violence against African-Americans.

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

A pair of feuding siblings who share ownership of a building are suspects in the murder of a tenant who may have been keeping them from selling the building for millions of dollars.

A former aide for a state senator disappears and later turns up dead. The investigation uncovers the aide's affair with a powerful state official and her being pregnant.

Three suspects are arrested when a tourist's home video shows them leaving the victim's apartment with stolen property. McCoy and Southerlyn are surprised when Branch announces they will seek the death penalty.

A mob-connected contractor is murdered, and his wife and her lover are connected to a hit man hired to kill him. But the case turns out to be much more complicated than it seems.

A man scheduled to testify in a murder trial disappears. The DA's office discovers that he's actually a radical who disappeared 20 years earlier after being charged with killing his girlfriend.

A prep school headmaster is accused of murdering his school's admissions director after overruling her on a controversial admissions selection.

The child of a popular comic dies after he is reportedly thrown out of a window during a fire. However, the investigation also uncovers allegations that the comic molested an 11-year-old boy years earlier.

A murder investigation leads detectives to a judge who may be taking bribes from a select group of divorce lawyers to rig their cases.

A mob boss is accused of ordering a hit on a urban vigilante group leader who was seeing his mistress. However, when the mistress is killed before the trial, he insists that he truly loved her and had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The bombing death of a husband set to remove the feeding tube of his wife, who's in a persistent vegetative state, focuses the investigation on the protesters.