LAW & ORDER {LAW AND ORDER}: BURN CARD (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas that deals with the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of criminals. The first half of each episode concerns the police procedure that leads to the arrest of a suspect, while the second half covers the efforts of the district attorney to prosecute the case. In this episode, Lupo and Green investigate the murder of John Singer, a real estate agent who refereed college basketball games in his free time, according to his live-in girlfriend Angela. Singer's friend Daniel reports that he may have been seeing another woman, though when they catch up with her, she reveals that Singer was her Gamblers Anonymous sponsor. The detectives learn that Singer was in debt to an intimidating bookie and may have promised to fix one of the basketball games, and Green soon leaves for the night, claiming he must visit a sick friend. Later, Lupo is called to a crime scene and finds Singer's bookie, known as "Bunny," dead, and is shocked to learned that Green was the one to shoot him. Green states that it was self-defense, though Internal Affairs Bureau Detectives Bernard and Cole doubt his story, wondering how he knew that Bunny would be at the secret gambling club.
Bunny is proven to be Singer's killer, but the IAB detectives question Lupo as to why Green uncharacteristically abandoned the case mid-investigation. Lupo finds that they have a questionable witness to Bunny's "execution," and he tracks down the bartender from the gambling club, Katherine, who reveals that Green visited the club on many occasions and once beat up Bunny, to whom he owed money. Lupo confronts Green about the claim, though Green simply asks that his partner trust him. Lupo confides in Van Buren about his uncertainty, and Cutter and Rubirosa agree to send the case to the grand jury. Green is suspended without pay, though McCoy tells Cutter to "be sure" before sending Green up for second-degree murder. Bernard testifies about Green's lies, stating that he made a mysterious trip to New Jersey before returning to Manhattan to kill Bunny, but Lupo provides Rubirosa with certain evidence and when the witness, Ruben, states that he saw Green shoot Bunny unprovoked, she proves that he has a grudge against cops because of his own criminal past. Cutter remains suspicious about Green's intent, however, and Green soon learns that he has been indicted, though Van Buren accuses Bernard of conducting only "half of an investigation."
Lupo is forced to admit on the stand that he and Green almost never go off-duty at the start of homicide investigations, though when Katherine testifies about Green and Bunny's movements in the club that night, Lupo gets an idea and guesses that Bunny actually fired at someone else on the street and that Green killed him to save that person, thus making it justified. Lupo and Bernard head to Jersey and track down April Lannen, who evades their questions about Green but admits to knowing him. They soon find that she left her home shortly before Green arrived there on the night of Bunny's death, and they speculate that Green killed Bunny to save her life and is covering for her for some reason. When they threaten to prosecute April as an accomplice, Green agrees to take a second-degree manslaughter charge, but April opts to confess rather than allow him to go to jail, admitting that she embezzled money from her job to feed her gambling habit and feared that Bunny, who forced her into prostitution to pay her debts, would inform on her and on Green once arrested for Singer's murder. Green, guilt-ridden over introducing April to gambling, wonders why the A.D.As find him "worth saving," but Van Buren encourages him to fight for his job now that his noble intentions have been proven. Green, however, admits that he feels too "worn out" to defend himself, and thanks Lupo for his efforts before walking out. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 122172
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, police/detective; Drama, legal
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1990-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- René Balcer … Executive Producer
- Fred Berner … Executive Producer
- Peter Jankowski … Executive Producer
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer, Created by
- Stephanie Sengupta … Co-Executive Producer
- William N. Fordes … Co-Executive Producer
- Arthur W. Forney … Co-Executive Producer
- Richard Swern … Co-Executive Producer
- Ed Zuckerman … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- David Wilcox … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Peter Giuliano … Producer
- Tim DeLuca … Co-Producer
- Stephen Wertimer … Co-Producer
- Gina Gionfriddo … Co-Producer
- David Slack … Co-Producer
- Alfonso I. Delgado … Associate Producer
- Mario Van Peebles … Director
- Mike Post … Music by
- Jesse L. Martin … Cast, Detective Ed Green
- Jeremy Sisto … Cast, Detective Cyrus Lupo
- S. Epatha Merkerson … Cast, Lt. Anita Van Buren
- Linus Roache … Cast, Executive A.D.A. Michael Cutter
- Alana De La Garza … Cast, A.D.A. Connie Rubirosa
- Sam Waterston … Cast, Jack McCoy
- Ruben Santiago-Hudson … Cast, Attorney Winters
- Armando Riesco … Cast, Ruben Alvera
- Dee Hoty … Cast, Judge
- Carmen Ejogo … Cast, April Lannen
- Anthony Anderson … Cast, Detective Kevin Bernard
- Peter Bradbury … Cast, Sergeant Gregory Cole
- Lou Carbonneau … Cast, Des Chiarella
- Joselin Reyes … Cast, Katherine Halsey
- Jennifer Rae Beck … Cast, Angela Savitsky
- Adam Sietz … Cast, Daniel Hoyte
- Nick Damici … Cast, Phil Norris
- Autumn Dornfeld … Cast, Sylvia Delaney
- Howard Feller … Cast, Stu
- Victor Colicchio … Cast, Murray
- Cesar Leonardo … Cast, Detective Johnson
- Chad Gittens … Cast, Officer Bonelli
- Michael Devine … Cast, Officer Saunders
- Christine Danelson … Cast, Isabel