Re: Law & Order "Duty to Protect" 2/13/2025 (spoilers)

On Feb 13, 2025 at 11:44:38 PM PST, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com>
wrote:

This episode seemed very familiar. It seemed like a script repurposed
from an episode of SVU that I must have seen. Even Elizabeth Marvel
pokes her nose in.
 
Abigail Spencer is this week's guest defendant, mother of the victim,
wasted in a dreadfully written script.
 
A product model is taping a commercial for a cleaning product/personal
protection/skin care product (It does it all!) Gosh, she looks 16.
That's 'cuz she is.
 
Of course she's tonight's murder victim. Riley and Shaw have a stilted
discussion, being required to forgo the gallows humor due to the age of
the victim. Hey! Briscoe and Green never stopped cracking wise.

And it certainly wouldn't have stopped Horatio from putting on his sunglasses
and waiting for The Who to scream "Yeaaahhhhh!"

They find a credit card receipt from the stepfather, breaking his
alibi. But they can't find motive till a video the victim shot in which
she accuses her stepfather of raping her repeated at age 14.
 
The video hadn't been made public yet.

And Price showed it during his opening argument! You can't present evidence to
the jury during opening arguments, for the love of gawd!

Upon seeing Marvel, Mauroon gets uber-sympathetic to the defendant.

I think you're confusing the defense attorney actress with someone else. She
was played by Elsa Davis and Marvel is listed nowhere in the rest of the cast
for the episode.

The defense wants to put a psychiatrist on the stand to argue the
defendant's state of mind which Price objects to as state of mind is
irrelevant to the crimes she's charged with.

Astoundingly, the judge actually rules in the prosecution's favor, something
the Judicial Ethics Committee will probably sanction her for. LAW & ORDER
judges are ethically required to overrule all prosecution objections and allow
whatever crazy nonsense the defense attorneys think up.