soco-02851 For this episode, you have the description wrong. This Law & Order episode is actually based on Abner Louima. Louima was a Haitian who after interceding in a fight between men and women was identified by a NYPD police officer as the one who sucker-punched him. Based on that officer's statement, Louima was arrested. Following his arrest he was assaulted along with sodomized in the NYPD bathroom. Louima did not die from the assault that took place on August 9, 1997. The case that this Law & Order references to slightly is that of Amadou Diallo which took place on February 4, 1999. Diallo was a Guinea immigrant who was in the process of entering his apartment. 4 NYPD officers in plain clothes mistakenly took him for a serial rapist. Diallo was in the process of reaching for his wallet which the officers could not see due to the porch light being blown. They proceeded to fire their weapons at Diallo 42 bullets times based on one officer mistaken Diallo's wallet for a weapon. Due to all public attention that this incident received, the trial had to be moved to Albany, New York where all four NYPD officer's were acquitted of the crime. I ask that you please correct this mistake since both are not only well known cases but in all fairness to those it affected.

TheLittleSongbird The original Law and Order series will always be the best of the franchise. Criminal Intent is also great, and despite having an initial negative view of Special Victims Unit I now like it much more. Trial By Jury is not as good, and while it did start off weak and had its faults it was getting better and deserved a fairer chance than it got (the original Law and Series started off slow too, only really coming to life when Lennie Briscoe arrived, and it's become one of the longest-running series and for good reason).Some have said about Trial by Jury having too many characters, and I don't disagree, some are not really developed all that well (Scott Cohen's character is particularly flat, and you could tell it was last-minute replacement) and at first it was not always easy telling who was who. The first few episodes are on the slow side, due to getting used to the format and trying to keep up with the amount of characters and who they were. Some of the stories are predictable with most of the episodes having the same outcome and some like re-treads of episodes from the other Law and Order shows. The Baby Boom episode tried to do something different but Patel's behaviour made it obvious how it was going to end regardless of the verdict, also didn't like how badly overplayed and emotionally manipulative Kibre's closing statement was in that episode either. Some are also one-sided with the defence often being weakly written to the point of improbability, sure the defence team in real-life trials and in the other Law and Order shows also suffered from a weak case that can be easily argued against but not to this extent, and hurt further when they are shown asking very questionable questions or coaching their clients.However, as with all the Law and Order series, Trial by Jury is visually well-made, New York as always looks great and it's stylishly filmed. All episodes are hauntingly scored, and the theme tune is one of the catchiest of the Law and Order franchise as well as being the most refreshing. There is a lot of intelligent, thought-provoking writing as well especially in the later episodes, with the crossovers (particularly Day) and The Line episodes generating a lot of tension. The stories once the show hit its stride became brisker paced and more engrossing, with more suspense in the courtroom scenes. And they a vast majority of the time made the most of the interesting concept, it was really refreshing to see much more of the order and developing cases stuff, more so than the rest of the franchise, rather than half-and-half (Law and Order, Special Victims Unit) or almost entirely on the law and policing (Criminal Intent). Day, Skeleton and The Line had some particularly well-written stories, and Boys Will Be Boys had some nice moments before concluding predictably. Credit is also due for raising some sensitive issues in a way that is presented not too over-the-top.It's very well-acted too. Bebe Neuwirth won't be for all tastes, in a role that is pretty atypical for her, but while it took a little time to warm to her and her terseness she does a great job overall and brought intensity and gravitas. Amy Carlson is a pleasantly warm contrast, and there is a great dynamic between her and Neuwirth. Kirk Acevedo is nicely sincere but steely too, while Jerry Orbach is by far the best thing and the heart of the first two episodes, bringing authority, sympathetic air and heart-breaking poignancy to especially the second episode (he succumbed to prostate cancer shortly after). Orbach in fact brought so much to this show and to Law and Order in general that the lack of a send-off felt insulting. It was great seeing Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkeson, Denis Farina, Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni as well, and they brought the same amount of quality that they did to their respective shows. The secondary cast are notable too, with real standouts being Alfred Molina and Angela Lansbury in the second crossover, bringing much more than just star power to their characters. Two casting choices didn't seem quite right though, Scott Cohen is not helped by his character being written flatly but Cohen never seemed comfortable or generated any spark, while Fred Dalton Thompson has very little to do in all of his appearances and is unable to do anything with Arthur Branch the same way he did before so he comes over as one-note.All in all, a bit of a bumpy ride but a decent show that deserved a fairer chance, uneven but undeservedly short-lived. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

bkoganbing Law And Order: Trial By Jury is the spin off that didn't sell. Sad it only lasted for not even one season.It seemed to have everything going for it, a good team of ADAs with Bebe Neuwirth and Amy Carlson as her second chair. Above all it had as an original team of investigators of Kirk Acevedo and the most popular of all the Law And Order characters, Jerry Orbach as Lennie Briscoe.I don't know if Orbach was sick or even knew how sick he was with the cancer that killed him when he signed for the spin off. In Law And Order prime, his character Lennie Briscoe said he was putting his papers in and was thinking of joining the District Attorney's own squad of investigators.Orbach only completed two episodes and it was painful to look at him in these episodes that aired after he passed away. It's possible that people who wanted more of Lennie Briscoe just were turned off by the sight of him and no one could really take his place. And he certainly wasn't going to be making return appearances like Carey Lowell and Richard Brooks who were former second chair ADAs.Such a pity this show didn't take or people rejected it after Orbach died. The team of Neuwirth and Carlson were good, I'm surprised that neither was picked up and made appearances on SVU, Criminal Intent or Law And Order prime.

berkeleymews I liked this version of Law and Order as well as I liked the Angie Harmon episodes of the original. Which is a lot. One of these days I'll make it to the video store and buy the DVD. I believe it comes with something else as there are so few episodes. Amy Carlson and Bebe Neuwirth were very good. I apologize for the spelling errors. I'm using a wireless keyboard that seems to have a mind of its own. Completely irrelevant to my comments, but should I have to actually add four lines of extra text? Why on earth would anyone require ten lines of text? In any event, both lead actresses were very good and the supporting cast was as well