A homeless man goes on trial for manslaughter, accused of killing another homeless man. His defense attorney argues that the laws of civilized society should not apply to homeless people because of their realities.
The detectives break the news of a woman's murder to her sister, but she turns out to really be her ex-wife and disappears with the victim's adopted child, who had previously lived with the couple.
A city councilman and a water inspector are victims of a shooting in City Hall. Prosecution of the guilty party is difficult because the murder weapon was obtained through a secretive FISA warrant.
An angry veteran whose son died in Iraq claims extreme emotional disturbance after he is charged with killing a young Iraq War protester he thought was provoking him.
A boy is murdered in the park in front of two witnesses by a man on a bicycle. When the witnesses are repeatedly threatened and one turns up dead, the case against the murderer begins to unravel.
Some of a man's body parts are found in separate garbage cans and an early suspect is his deaf girlfriend. The investigation soon discovers that this woman is nowhere close to who she seems.
The main witness in the deportation trial of a purported Nazi war criminal is found beaten to death in her home. Suspicion soon falls upon the former guard, as well as a white supremacist entrepreneur who supported his cause.
Detectives discover that a murdered assistant district attorney had an assumed identity, and that he never graduated from law school. They also discover that he made a mob-related murder case in his files disappear.
A film producer is killed at Raimondo's, a restaurant known for its mob ties and celebrity clientèle. Briscoe and Green discover that the producer was feuding with a novelist over profits for a movie based on the writer's book about Raimondo's.
A former prisoner exonerated on murder charges kills another man. He claims he wouldn't have done it if he wasn't wrongfully imprisoned in the first place, so prosecutors must prove that he had a prior history of criminal behavior.
Two women are accused of conspiring to murder each other's husbands, but Jack and Serena are forced to try the cases simultaneously and separately. Meanwhile, Detective Briscoe announces his retirement.
Green and his new partner, Joe Fontana, investigate the murder of an Iraq War veteran who has more incriminating Abu Ghraib prison photos. An Iraqi woman who is an American citizen is charged, but she claims to be a prisoner of war.
A "9-11 Widow" who received a lucrative settlement after her firefighter husband's death is murdered. Another firefighter's ex-wife, who was dumped for the victim after 9-11, is charged.
A prison guard is charged with killing a released member of a white supremacist prison gang. The guard says the victim threatened him and his family. The gang also threatens the judge presiding over the trial.
Two student suicides are connected to a university drug study. The investigation uncovers that the pharmaceutical company that commissioned the study may have known about adverse side-effects, but tried to cover it up.
Black market gun dealers murder two undercover officers during a gun buy. During prosecution, McCoy begins to suspect that a bitter defense attorney may have masterminded the entire episode.
A novelist dies after undergoing multiple plastic surgeries. Detectives believe that her doctor took unnecessary risks and falsified documents to cover it up. The DA's office charges him with criminally negligent homicide.
McCoy takes on gay marriage at the state Supreme Court when a man refuses to testify in a case involving the death of the governor of Connecticut's wife, because he says that he is married to the defendant.
A mob boss is accused of ordering a hit on a urban vigilante group leader who was seeing his mistress. However, when the mistress is killed before the trial, he insists that he truly loved her and had absolutely nothing to do with it.
An Afghan drug lord is implicated in a drug-related massacre in New York. However, prosecution is difficult because the government considers him an ally in the War on Terror in Afghanistan.
A frustrated prison social worker is accused of taking the law into her own hands with a dangerous man whom she knew was violating the terms of his parole agreement.
