LAW & ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY: 41 SHOTS {ROUGH CUT} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of police dramas—a spin-off of "Law & Order"—about the criminal trial proceedings of the New York City judicial system, showing both the defense’s and prosecution's points of view. This asset is a rough cut and does not contain credits. In this episode, Officer Ray Hernandez is shot and killed by one Bruno Johnson, who was then shot 41 times by the police. Johnson is arraigned in his hospital room and charged with a capital crime, though he pleads not guilty, stating that the cops shot first. Defense attorney Mike LaSalle vows that Johnson's family will win millions in a civil suit against the city, determined to create the right image of a police-brutality victim, though Johnson is soon indicted by the grand jury after the other cops testify about how he intentionally shot Hernandez above his Kevlar vest. Kibre tells Elena, Hernandez's widow, about the indictment, and Elena notes that the media seems to care more about Johnson's plight than about her husband's death. Salazar and Briscoe question Hernandez's co-workers about the incident, wondering if they attempted to serve Johnson's warrant without backup as a sort of "cowboy thing," though Officer Burke states that their actions were by-the-book.
Kibre sets up a live feed from Johnson's hospital room to the courtroom for the Supreme Court arraignment, though LaSalle, wanting the media to see the full extent of his injuries, objects and arranges for Johnson to arrive in person. He talks to the press about his unfair treatment, revealing that he is pursuing a $20 million civil suit, and LaSalle later convinces him to quickly marry his girlfriend, with whom he has a child, to soften his image. Branch is annoyed by the stunt and tells Briscoe and Salazar to check into Hernandez's background, and Burke is offended to see them reading the dead man's disciplinary files. LaSalle convinces Judge Anderlee to forbid any mention of Johnson's other arrest and the armed assault warrant for which he was being sought, though when they learn that he had several serious charges conveniently dismissed on the same day, they realize that Johnson was a Federal informant. Agent Merriweather hints that Johnson was assisting on matters of national security and that they covered up for him for this reason, and Briscoe and Salazar wonder if the cops intended to murder him for investigating corruption. Burke and Blakely insist that they had no agenda against him, however, and were merely seeking to arrest him for another crime.
At the trial, LaSalle is forced to delay his opening statement when Hernandez's cop brethren cause a scene, though he forces the medical examiner to admit that the fatal bullet cannot be definitively matched to Johnson. LaSalle also calls Burke's eyewitness testimony into question, and when Merriweather takes the stand, he reads out a transcript strongly suggesting that Hernandez was dirty. Desperate, Kibre points out that there were 126 Hernandezes on the force at the time and Johnson could have meant any one of them. Branch instructs her to offer Johnson a plea deal, and she grudgingly agrees on 20-to-life. Aware that taking a plea negates the civil suit, however, LaSalle and Johnson decide to take a risk and place Johnson on the stand. He offers a harrowing testimony about his near-death experience, stating that the cops shot him first and then, after an eleven-second pause, resumed shooting to ensure that he was dead. However, Kibre then questions a reporter who was outside the scene, and he provides audio of a single shot, the one that killed Hernandez, followed immediately by 86 more, with no eleven-second pause, strongly implying that Johnson was lying. One juror still votes not guilty, protesting that Johnson has been "punished enough," but she is apparently convinced otherwise and Johnson is convicted, much to the cops' relief. Elena, observing the shrine around her husband's work locker, sincerely thanks Kibre and the others for their efforts. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:36
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:85409
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Drama, legal
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 2005-2006
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Walon Green … Executive Producer
- Peter Jankowski … Executive Producer
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer, Created by
- Arthur W. Forney … Co-Executive Producer
- Richard Pearce … Co-Executive Producer
- Rick Eid … Supervising Producer
- Barry M. Berg … Producer
- Chris Levinson … Producer
- Tim Deluca … Co-Producer
- Tony Phelan … Co-Producer
- Joan Rater … Co-Producer
- William Burns … Associate Producer
- Caleb Deschanel … Director
- Mike Post … Music by
- Bebe Neuwirth … Cast, Tracey Kibre
- Amy Carlson … Cast, Kelly Gaffney
- Kirk Acevedo … Cast, Hector Salazar
- Fred Thompson (see also: Fred Dalton Thompson) … Cast, D.A. Arthur Branch
- Jerry Orbach … Cast, D.A. Investigator Lennie Briscoe
- Peter Coyote … Cast, Mike LaSalle
- Treach (see also: Anthony Criss) … Cast, Bruno Johnson
- Jessica Chastain … Cast, A.D.A. Sigrun Borg
- James Hanlon … Cast, Detective Hagen Burke
- Curtiss I'Cook … Cast, Detective Kwame Blakely
- Aliya Campbell … Cast, Amanda Johnson
- Peter Appel … Cast, Frederick Merriwether
- Suzette Gunn … Cast, Elena Hernandez
- Carey Lowell … Cast, Jamie Ross
- Candice Bergen … Cast, Judge Amanda Anderlee
- Stephanie Berry … Cast, Bedelia
- Anne L. Nathan … Cast, Audrey Golum
- David Lipman … Cast, Judge Morris Torledsky
- Gerrit Vooren … Cast, Vilis Lundelius
- Cynthia Addai-Robinson … Cast, Lillian Beaudriville
- Cortez Nance Jr. … Cast, Tancred Harlan
- Sanjit De Silva … Cast, A.D.A. Ed Kapoor
- Nicholas Webber … Cast, A.D.A. Ross Campbell
- Ezra Knight … Cast, Dr. Patrick Roy
- Amir Ali Said … Cast, Toby
- Mary Jo Mecca … Cast, Juror #1
- Charles Weldon … Cast, Juror #2
- Joan Rosenfels … Cast, Juror #3
- Eric Morace … Cast, Technician
- Victor Cruz … Cast, Grand Juror - Man
- Tamilla Woodard … Cast, Grand Juror - Woman
- Craig Alan Edwards … Cast, Bailiff