The bludgeoning of two women in their apartment leads the detectives to a suspect who has taken a hostage while demanding legal representation ... and Southerlyn's actions, while heroic, results in disbarment proceedings against her for violation of Disciplinary Rule 1-102.

The investigation of a student's killing leads to a case involving meat contamination at a food service.

A tenement building explodes and the lone victim is Joseph Haden. The building was rent controlled and there had been a tenant strike, so the police initially suspect arson. But the landlord doesn't have insurance, ruling out their arson theory, and the medical examiner discovers that Haden's neck was broken and he was tied up before the explosion happened. Trying to figure out Haden is even more difficult. He didn't appear to have a family or a girlfriend and never got any substantial mail. He worked at the Jiffy Job service station making minimum wage, yet had $90,000 in the bank. Briscoe and Green do some more digging and find out that Haden was using an alias, and his real name was Yusuf Haddad.

An American Muslim becomes the prime suspect in a double murder after an academic challenges his religious beliefs.

A struggling actress is murdered in an apparent robbery-homicide where a video tape, made by a couple touring the city sold to a local news station, shows three suspects loading the stolen property into an SUV. They are charged with felony murder, a capital crime, and causes unrest with Southerlyn surrounding the death penalty.

A defense attorney who had just acquitted a cop killer is gunned down outside a Manhattan restaurant. The detectives start with police officers in the precinct of the injured officer, then to his brother, before they are led to a white supremacist who is part of a national network. McCoy is faced with the unlikely prospect that the defendant's attorney, his friend of 20 years and a friend of the slain lawyer, played a part in the murder of a Florida district attorney following the defendant's arrest. McCoy is able to make a deal that perserves the integrity of his adversary, but not without a cost.

The murder of a bookie with a high-class clientelle leads the detectives to arrest his partner. Charged with first-degree murder, his attorney puts forth an unusual defense strategy that turns the trial into a political statement.

Investigating the murder of a cab driver, the detectives come to suspect a famous author and his protege, a former child prodigy.

A missing football player becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a woman whose body is discovered floating in the East River.

The prime suspect in the murder of a woman outside a sex club claims to have merely witnessed the crime via a psychic vision.

The murder of an admissions director of a private school leads the detectives to investigate a pair of angry parents whose children were denied admission, but then set their sights on the headmaster when they discover that the victim was about to go public with the denied admissions.

It's a race against time as the detectives go on the hunt for a sniper whose victims are shot in broad daylight.

The police and prosecutors investigate the connection between an award-winning songwriter and the young woman found murdered in his home to discover who would profit by her death at his hands.

The husband of a woman whose partially decomposed body is found floating in the Hudson River becomes the prime suspect in her murder until the prosecutors uncover a connection between her prospective attorney and a judge who has heard a suspiciously high number of his cases.

The apparent hit-and-run of a homeless man send the detectives on a search for the driver, a high profile female publicist, which fuels the fire for the prosecutors to obtain a murder conviction. Forensic evidence given during the trial reveal that the victim was severely beaten before being hit by the car which leads to a suspect within the homeless community.

The investigation into the murder of a wealthy husband leads to the uncovering of a conspiracy involving infidelity and greed and leads to one defendant attempting to evade justice by killing the other.

When a rap producer is found shot to death in his studio, detectives focus on his protege, whose demos link him and a friend to a second murder. As the investigation unfolds, Southerlyn's opinions put her sharply at odds with both McCoy and Branch.

A conservative talk show host involved in a sexual harassment scandal is murdered, but the trail leads to the victim's wife and an obsessed stalker.

Police turn their attention to the murder of an undercover reporter, but realise that the killer isn't as guilty as he appears.

Teenage suspect Traci Sands dies in police custody after being arrested for the murder of the man who reported her to child protective services. Rodgers reveals that she died because someone outfitted her with a benecrine I.U.D. that reacted with Sands' sickle cell syndrome and ended up killing her. Fontana and Green follow the trail to a charitable clinic and nurse Gloria Rhodes, who believes she is saving the world by sterilizing women that she does not believe are worthy of having children. McCoy faces former assistant district attorney Paul Robinette in court as Robinette defends Rhodes.

The case of a man who defiled a copy of the Torah turns into a religious battle for McCoy.

After undercover cop Dana Baker is murdered, Fontana and Green learn that the man who killed her had discovered her identity after seeing a photograph of her.

Fontana and Green are called in to investigate when Green's former replacement, Nick Falco, is suspected of murdering a young woman he had spent the night with.

Green and Cassady investigate after the photograph of a dead woman is found on a popular website, B-Frendz.com. Their investigation leads them to a mentally disturbed young man whom the teenage daughter of the victim claims kidnapped and raped her, but his lawyer offers up an even greater incentive -- the supposed kidnapping victim, Molly Preston.

A has-been actor wearing blood-stained clothing arrested for drunken driving reveals religious prejudices during his rantings.

After an actress is found dead in her apartment, Green and Cassady attempt to prove that her death was not a suicide.