"Law & Order" Sheltered (2003)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Richard Dobbs

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator)
Terri Kopp (writer)

TV Series:

"Law & Order" (1990)

Original Air Date:

14 May 2003 (Season 13, Episode 22)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Plot:

As the DA's office tries to prosecute a teenage sniper who killed four people, prosecutors discover that he was abducted from his real family as a child and emotionally abused by the man he was living with. |

Plot Keywords:

Attorney | Detective | Police | District Attorney | Evidence

Cast

Jerry Orbach	...	Detective Lennie Briscoe
Jesse L. Martin	...	Detective Ed Green
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Lt. Anita Van Buren
Sam Waterston	...	Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy
Elisabeth Röhm	...	A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn
Fred Dalton Thompson	...	D.A. Arthur Branch
Ty Burrell	...	Herman Capshaw
Lisa Emery	...	Meg Lafferty
Hope Chernov	...	Maggie Barkman
Carolyn McCormick	...	Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Sebastian Stan	...	Justin Capshaw
Trisha LaFache	...	Jennie Lafferty
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tim Ahern	...	Borough Commander Clarke
Tyrees Allen	...	Deputy Stanley
Derek Argobright	...	Policeman #2
David Barroso	...	Hernandez
Gloria Biegler	...	Linda Sanders
Veronica Blackwell	...	Foreperson
Tom Bloom	...	Super
William H. Burns	...	Sergeant #2
John Cariani	...	CSU Julian Beck
Lynn Cohen	...	Arraignment Judge Elizabeth Mizener
Helmar Augustus Cooper	...	Judge Lawrence McNeil
Laura Marie Duncan	...	Tracy Underwood
Laurie Gamache	...	Regina Loggerman
Joe Gonzalez	...	Sergeant Martinez
Michael Barry Greer	...	Alan Geffin
John Knox	...	Sheriff Bell
Lawrence Kopp	...	Dr. Harlan Diamond (as Lawrence David Kopp)
Liz Larsen	...	CSU Technician Johnson
Nelson Lee	...	Roy Leung
Marcella Lowery	...	Lois Barker
Joanna Lu	...	Grace Chin
Dominic Marcus	...	Policeman #1
Tim Miller	...	Court Clerk
Andrea Navedo	...	Detective Ana Cordova
Connie Nelson	...	Marcia Healey
Howard W. Overshown	...	Kyle Rowen
Edwin Sean Patterson	...	Bob Webb
Michael Quinlan	...	William Sanders
Kirsten Sans	...	CSU Technician (as Kirsten Sahs)
Socorro Santiago	...	Mrs. Anna Rodriguez
Laura Michelle Smith	...	Amy Lane
Dan Snook	...	Tom Lane
Marisa Vural	...	Witness #1
Ben Wang	...	Danny Chin
Jo Yang	...	Witness #2
Welly Yang	...	Wesley Frost
Felice Yeh	...	Detective #1

Company:

Universal Network Television

Movie Connections:

Featured in 10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2004) (TV)

Creating Sympathy for the Defendent

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

My second of two favorite Law and Order episodes is this one concerning a group of random sniper shootings. As the plot develops three innocent people were killed in order to mask the killing of one man. The man in question was the supervisor of the perpetrator's father as our intrepid detectives Briscoe and Green arrest this nerdy looking nearsighted kid for the murder.

But there's a whole lot more. Turns out the suspect was in fact someone kidnapped from his family years ago and he's bonded with his kidnapper. Reunited with his mother and sister he rejects them.

The trial leads to some agonizing moments for the DA's staff. Fred Dalton Thompson wants the book thrown at him. Sam Waterston does his job. But there are a few times he does have sympathy with who he prosecutes and this is one of them. Elizabeth Rohm for once sides with Thompson.

The outstanding quality of this episode is made possible by the performance of Sebastian Stan as young Justin Capshaw. You are like a 13th member of the jury and his performance creates in you what the jury is feeling.

Waterston loses this case as he sometimes does. Sebastian Stan is sentenced to a mental facility because of the sympathy created for him.

Justice sometimes ain't so easy and no one in this episode was spared any tragedy.