"Law & Order": Great Episodes, pt. IV Quiz

Answer: The purse found with the victims arm in the WTC rubble was an evening bag, not a work purse.

In this episode, a skeleton missing one arm is found by two boys. DNA matches it to a victim of 9/11 who was identified by a single arm and her purse which were found among the rubble. The victim had long been thought to be a 9/11 victim-- after all, she worked in one of the towers. After some investigation, Briscoe and Green realize she was murdered the night before the terrorist attack, and her arm and purse were thrown in the rubble to make it seem as though she had perished that morning.

Southerlyn realizes that the purse found in the rubble was a bag a woman would take out in the evening-- the one the killer had the night before-- not a purse a woman would take to work in the morning.

"The Ring" refers to a ring on the body that the victim's married boyfriend had given her. She also had a fiance, and it is the presence of the ring that indicates she was cheating on her fiance. It also refers to a complete circle that the police and DAs made in chasing the evidence from suspect to suspect before coming to the correct conclusion.

Answer: The Griffin

"The Griffin" is based on Ira Einhorn, a man who actually was on the run for two decades, after skipping bail during the trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Holly Maddux. Because voir dire had been completed, the trial had officially commenced, and Einhorn was declared to have voluntarily given up his right to confront his accusers, and therefore the trial proceeded without his presence, or "in absentia." In the US, trials in absentia are generally unconstitutional, because the accused has the right to confront his accuser, but in rare exceptions, like Einhorn's, a trial that has begun may be allowed to continue in absentia.

When Einhorn was discovered and arrested in France, his extradition proved complex. His lawyers in France argued that Einhorn faced the death penalty if extradited, and France does not extradite people to face death penalty trials. The US responded that Einhorn had already been tried, and not received the death penalty. However, France then responded that people tried in absentia must be guaranteed the right to request a new trial. The state of Pennsylvania did not have the death penalty at the time, and therefore under ex post facto provisions, could not be given the death penalty for the murder of Holly Maddux. Finally, Pennsylvania passed a law allowing defendants convicted in absentia to request new trials. Einhorn's attorneys in France argued that the law was unconstitutional, but the French court declared itself unable to evaluate the constitutionality of a US law. Einhorn was extradited on July 20, 2001. He was retried, and sentenced to life without parole.

Einhorn took the stand in his own defense, and rambled about the CIA having killed Maddux in order to frame him. Mandy Patinkin beautifully recreates both the insanity and the arrogance of Einhorn in his "testimony" scene in this episode.

Answer: a leg

Joel Steinberg, a lawyer, murdered his illegally adopted daughter Lisa by beating her to death. Another illegally adopted child was removed from his custody, and returned to his biological mother. In the TV episode, the child is called Didi Lowenstein, and is the biological child of her father, Dr. Jacob Lowenstein, a psychiatrist.

Although Steinberg was convicted of the highest crime he could be charged with, and given the maximum sentence, he was eventually paroled under New York state's "good time" law, which requires the release of inmates who have exhibited good behavior while incarcerated, and have served two-thirds or more of their sentences. New York State has since increased this ratio to six-sevenths sentence for persons convicted of violent felonies.

Steinberg's release prompted the follow-up episode, although this episode is nothing like Steinberg's real post-release life. It's true he was not popular in prison, and was kept in a maximum security prison to protect him from other inmates, but he did not participate in any psychological programs to speed up his release, nor is he known to have found a young girlfriend with young children, as did the Lowenstein character.

Although it hardly seems possible, the Lowenstein character was made to be even creepier than the real-life Steinberg, something mentioned in a disclaimer in the original episode, "Indifference".

Answer: sterile saline solution

This episode marks the first appearance of Annie Parisse as ADA Alexandra Borgia; it is also S. Epatha Merkerson's 273rd appearance on the series, surpassing Jerry Orbach record of 272 appearances (not including appearances on other "L&O" franchises).

EADA Jack McCoy mentions the film "The Third Man" in his questioning of the defendant. In "The Third Man", Orson Welles plays a villain who is responsible for the deaths of a number of children because he has diluted penicillin and sold it on the black market. In fact, this film may have partially inspired the episode, that and the realities of people scrambling for vaccines the year the episode was released, due to a shortage caused by a large amount of vaccine having to be disposed of because of bacterial contamination.

Answer: Identical twins have identical DNA.

Real twins, Jason and Randy Sklar, rather than CGI or other trick photography, are used to play the roles of the identical twins. The brothers have experience with stand-up comedy, and steal all the scenes they are in.

During the trial phase of this episode, the question of jury nullification comes up. Jury nullification happens when a jury acquits a defendant (or finds for or against a defendant in a civil trial) in spite of the evidence, either because the jury believes the law is unjust, or that in this particular case, the law should not have been applied. Jury nullification has a powerful history in the US, including runaway slaves who were acquitted when charged under the Fugitive Slave Act, but going back to colonial times, when colonists were not convicted of violating English laws.

The judge informs the juror in this case that jury nullification is illegal. That isn't quite true, but any juror who mentions it in voir dire will be dismissed as having made a decision a priori, and that would be true no matter what the decision was. Judges will not mention jury nullification to jurors, and will instruct them to find only on the facts, but there is strong resistance in the US to inquiring into the actual reasoning or process of any jury, and to regard the verdict as sacrosanct. Judges will, however, not permit defense attorneys to argue jury nullification as a defense, and will declare a mistrial if any one attempts it. The details of how attorneys may word things sometimes varies by state, but on the whole, Supreme Court rulings, particularly in 1969, 1988 and 1992, have upheld rulings against jury nullification.

In the episode, the juror suspected of contemplating nullification (and eventually trying to talk the rest of the jury into it) is dismissed, with very harsh words from the judge.

Answer: the victim's father

Based on the JonBenet Ramsey case, this case was about the murder of a young girl with a powerful father, and an ill mother. The mother dies as Fontana begins the reinvestigation, and the father blames Fontana for that too, as the stress of re-opening the investigation was a factor.

Fontana learns that not only was the dying man at the beginning guilty, but he had a partner, and he eventually tracks down the partner, but the father refuses to be reconciled with Fontana, so it is a bittersweet victory for him.

Answer: He had a brain tumor consisting of ovarian-type cancer.

Although Anna Nicole Smith did lose a son who was a young adult, his death had nothing to do with an illegal bone graft. This second part of the story was based on a second true event perpetrated by Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jersey. The public was particularly outraged when the story broke, because it developed that one person from whom bone and tissue was stolen was the journalist, and long-time host of "Masterpiece Theater", Alistair Cooke. Cooke had died of a cancer that made his bones and organs unsuitable for transplant, as had many of the other people from whom tissue was stolen.

The story first appeared in the "New York Daily News" on December 22, 2005. Tissue and bones were removed from Cooke's body (and those of many others) prior to cremation, and sold as medical-grade (suitable for graft and transplant, as opposed to research or medical school dissection). Death certificates were altered to conceal both the cause of death of many people, and in some cases, to alter their ages, so they seemed younger, as the younger the person is, the more suitable their tissue is for graft, generally speaking. The directors who were responsible were sentenced to prison, and coincidentally, one of them died of bone cancer.

The doctor in the episode who was ultimately held responsible was unrepentant. Unlike the directors in the real-life situation, however, claimed not to be motivated by profit, but by the welfare of his patients. The patients otherwise would not have access to tissue for graft and transplant, and the odds of getting cancer from a graft, while possible, were slim; therefore, it was a risk worth taking, since the alternative for an indigent patient with severe femur fractures like the character in the episode, was amputation.

Answer: The original baby died, and was replaced with an African American baby.

Notable guest stars in the episode are Jennifer Beals as the mother and Anna Chlumsky as her assistant.

It develops that the one night, when the star was supposed to care for the baby by herself, she managed to spill her anti-anxiety medicine, and poisoned the baby. The assistant then went to a former employee, now in prison, and the mother of a baby about the same age. She proposes, on behalf of the star, to take the child for his own good. Her real intent is to substitute him for the dead child. The plan comes to the fore, and it falls apart.

This is based on the number of celebrities who seem to consider an authentic African child a fashion accessory.

Answer: "squashing a bug"

The character of Ned Lasky was inspired by Bruce Edward Ivins, a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, who was obsessed with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. He was turned down by a KKG member when he was a student at the University of Cincinnati.

Ivins died of an overdose of Tylenol with codeine on July 29, 2008, because the FBI was about to file criminal charges against him for an alleged connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks. The investigation ended with his death, however, and no charges were ever filed.

His obsession with Kappa Kappa Gamma included editing the Wikipedia KKG article using the account name "Jimmyflathead." He made a number of derogatory edits, and engaged in discussions defending his defamation of the sorority.

He may also have tried to mail letters laced with anthrax spores from a postal box near the Princeton chapter of the sorority.

He targeted a sorority member at the University of North Carolina for harassment: Ivins stole her research notes for her doctoral dissertation, and vandalized her home. Why he targeted her is particular isn't known, though, as she doesn't appear to be connected to the member who turned him down when he was a student.

Ivins likely had mental health problems, but was successful in his career, whatever disaster he may have made of his personal life. The character based on him was simply a sad sack, and there is no implication of genuine mental illness. McCoy cleverly triggers him into a confession during his trial, in a Perry Mason-type moment that is probably inadmissible in a retrial, but after which Lasky would be likely to plea bargain.

Answer: in a nasal spray

The last line of this episode is Michael Cutter's "20 years it is," in reference to the criminal's sentence, but it may also have been a sly reference to the decision, recently made that year, to end the series after 20 seasons.

The headline from which "Doped" was ripped was the story of a driver on the Taconic Parkway the previous summer. Diane Schuler drove on the wrong side of the Parkway and caused an accident that killed 8 people; alcohol was found in her car. It was one of the worst motor vehicle accidents in Westchester County, New York, and was compared to the July 1934 accident when a bus crashed in Ossining killed 20 people.

Because "Law & Order" needs a twist, the accident wasn't a simple drunk driving accident, but the result of, essentially, sabotage, by another employee at the same company as the driver, who wanted to keep all to himself the whistle-blower reward that would be due to her when she reported the improper use of a very expensive cancer rescue drug.