An American Muslim becomes the prime suspect in a double murder after an academic challenges his religious beliefs.
The murder of a female high school English teacher uncovers a love triangle that includes a female student and a male teacher, both of whom become suspects. The prosecutors have to deal with the student's multiple identities and refusal to live past adolescence.
Investigating the death of a rock band singer who had large amounts of cocaine and heroin in her system, the detectives question a former boyfriend who was a disgruntled band mate of her late husband. The prosecutors are hampered by the actions of a retired detective-turned-writer, who worked a case with Briscoe several years back and whose unconventional research tactics make him a suspect as well.
A struggling actress is murdered in an apparent robbery-homicide where a videotape, made by a couple touring the city and 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 this causes unrest with Southerlyn surrounding the death penalty.
The discovery of a body in Hell's Kitchen that had been wearing a $40,000 diamond ring leads Briscoe and Green back to the September 11th attacks, as the victim had been reported to have died on the 89th floor of the World Trade Center. The ensuing investigation leads to a fiancee and a lover and the determination that the events of 9/11 may have been convenient timing to hide the fact that she was murdered the night before.
The execution-style shooting of a city contractor leads Briscoe and Green to suspect a professional hitman. They first focus upon possible enemies of the victim, but end up suspecting the victim's wife and her boyfriend of hiring the killer. However, as they investigate every possibility, the evidence leads McCoy and Southerlyn to a conspirator that no one had suspected.
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 preserves the integrity of his adversary, but not without a cost.
A star baseball player becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his limousine driver when it is discovered that the driver regularly supplied steroids to the sports icon. The subsequent investigation reveals blackmail as the underlying motive for the murder.
The smoldering corpse of an Asian girl found outside the Chinese consul general's apartment leads the detectives to believe she had immolated herself to make a political statement. When forensics shows that she had been murdered beforehand, they find themselves in the middle of a religious conflict, with the consul general their prime suspect and his attorney an old friend of DA Branch.
The hit-and-run death of a popular high-school student leaves the detectives suspecting the girl's father was the real target. When evidence reveals that the death was possibly a random killing, they are able to track down their suspect to his apartment. However, things get complicated when their killer is murdered, and the person who committed the crime happens to be the victim's mother.
The murder of a bookie with a high-class clientele 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.
A drug dealer is killed and suspicion falls on a dead teenager's father. Briscoe, still mourning his daughter, is unusually sympathetic. But before the police can prove it, his priest confesses — claiming that God told him to do it.
When the witness in a jewelry store robbery-homicide fails to appear in court, McCoy suspects foul play until he discovers that the man is a fugitive in a 20-year-old murder case.
The bludgeoning of a luxury sports car dealer leads the detectives to a mentally challenged man and his girlfriend, who is extremely attractive and whose expensive tastes lead her to be equally manipulative.
The death of a stockbroker leads the detectives to his girlfriend, whose mother is a cosmetics mogul who has a longstanding friendship with DA Arthur Branch and will stop at nothing to protect her corporate image by using hormone replacement therapy withdrawal as the basis for her defense.
A media-savvy attorney defends a black teenager accused of shooting an off-duty police officer.
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, but when his yacht is found with all the guests missing the detectives suspect that he was a victim himself of his problematic brother.
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 they set their sights on the headmaster when they discover that the victim was about to go public with the denied admissions.
The suspicious death of a Russian model leads the detectives to suspect medical malpractice.
It's a race against time as the detectives go on the hunt for a sniper whose victims are shot in broad daylight.
One of the few episodes that deviates from the usual formula. Briscoe and Green catch four murders and a kidnapping on the same day, and get handed confessions in each case. The DA's office only features minimally.
Briscoe and Green are assigned to a case involving an eccentric comedian who may have killed his young son by dangling him off a ledge.
