S22.E17: Bias

[Chyromaniac]

The thing is, I know they have legal advisors- I looked into it, and the attorney who used to work with SVU was a former AG, and now heads up the DEA.  It didn’t sound like she was the only one though - I assume every series they make would have an advisor.  But for some reason, that expertise is just not registering here - maybe the writers are only asking about case law, when the entire trial process could use a second opinion.  I don’t know about the specific writer for this episode- however, I noticed on IMDb that the writer of Fear and Loathing (the episode most of us seemed to enjoy) had been a legal analyst on other shows.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

[Door County Cherry]

6 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

I really enjoy the cop portion, I think the mother's hip would be better served going the CI and SVU way and just being 80-90% cop drama because these writers cannot handle the legal side.

I don't agree.  I would rather they make attempts to fix the legal stuff rather than abandon it all together even if the cop portion of the series is fixed.  I mean, they did fix that.  Maybe next season will get them to fix the other half too. 

[blackwing]

Agree with everyone that the Order side was a mess.  I do feel like we got cheated out of a major portion of the trial.  We saw the clerk testify and Price testify, then it fades and all of a sudden it's two days later and the jury is back.  I would have liked to have seen Maroun walk through the evidence of the shoes and the cut on the hand with either Cosgrove or Shaw.

I guess the actual trial portion made so little impact on me, did the ex-wife even testify?  Price said they were going to order her to testify but I can't even recall now if she did, and I just finished watching the show not that long ago.

 

On 3/30/2023 at 8:17 PM, storyskip said:

Because Nolan skated a very sketchy ethical line in not disclosing the bell-hop witness to the defense attorney.

Rachel was a public defender. A witness like the bell-hop would have given the defense a huge avenue to prove reasonable doubt. As a public defender she would have wanted that leverage, so what Nolan did would have been extremely distasteful. 

She wouldn't have liked HOW he won.

I think I side with Price... I don't feel like they were withholding evidence.  The defense would have had access to the same cameras and could have found the doorman on their own.  Also, the judge would have surely told his lawyer about the last time he talked with Rachel, and he could have recalled if anyone else was in the area, which would have led to them looking at camera footage.

I have a question about the photo of Price kissing Rachel.  I thought all evidence had to be provided in advance of trial or at least that day in advance of introduction, so that the opposing counsel isn't surprised by it.  Maroun was very clearly surprised by the photo, so it seemed to me that it wasn't shown to her in advance.  There would have had to be a series of questions or statements establishing authenticity olf the photo.  Which I guess is omitted to save time.  But she still should have gotten a chance to see it in advance.

On 3/30/2023 at 9:29 PM, Door County Cherry said:

I also think the clerk should have been disbarred.  I have a hard time believing there's no cameras near the courthouse that could have shown the clerk leaving without the judge.  

I agree.  I wasn't clear if Price was saying they were going to bring perjury charges against him.  Or if they would just publicise the fact that the clerk lied, and let the news spread in the New York legal community and essentially make him unhireable.  If I were Price, I would have confronted the clerk with video footage showing very clearly that he lied.

On 3/31/2023 at 4:57 PM, Andyourlittledog2 said:

I also agree that the scene with McCoy was done without Waterston actually present. The lighting of McCoy was that weird pasted in kind to the background that seems to be used a lot these days. It's obvious and cheap looking and I wish shows would knock it off. I do hope it wasn't done that way because the actor is having problems. He's over ninety now. I want him to live forever. 

It did look obvious, he's only in each episode for a few minutes.  It seems likely that he just changes clothes and tapes a lot of his scenes for multiple episodes on the same day and they just greenscreen him in.

[Door County Cherry]

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

I have a question about the photo of Price kissing Rachel.  I thought all evidence had to be provided in advance of trial or at least that day in advance of introduction, so that the opposing counsel isn't surprised by it.

I don't think that applies to impeachment-of-testimony evidence.  IIRC, he asked Price what kind of relationship he had with the victim.  Price was not forthcoming so the lawyer presented the picture to impeach Price's attempt to downplay the relationship. Had Price been upfront, they probably couldn't have gotten the pic admitted into evidence. 

That said, they have played super fast and loose with discovery in this reboot with things entered into evidence mid-trial or lawyers filing motions to exclude during trial which normally would be done in advance. 

[GiandujaPie]

17 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

I don't think that applies to impeachment-of-testimony evidence.  IIRC, he asked Price what kind of relationship he had with the victim.  Price was not forthcoming so the lawyer presented the picture to impeach Price's attempt to downplay the relationship. Had Price been upfront, they probably couldn't have gotten the pic admitted into evidence. 

That said, they have played super fast and loose with discovery in this reboot with things entered into evidence mid-trial or lawyers filing motions to exclude during trial which normally would be done in advance. 

When we watch L&O, this is what bugs my husband the attorney the most. Sometimes he'll just say that they must do things differently in NY but other times, it really bugs him. LOL 

[ML89]

Quote

On 4/4/2023 at 1:56 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

Speaking of the cop portion...Detective Yee needs a raise.

 

Agreed.

If Price is the best in the office, then Jack needs to clean house. Watching the old eps lately and this is as bad as Claire not telling that she’d been involved with the judge in “Censure” but she at least tried to warn Ben and she wasn’t prosecuting. Price didn’t even give Maroun the courtesy of mentioning he’d been involved with the victim. Did he mention to Shaw and Cosgrove he’d moved the wallet? I was expecting those shoe prints to be his.

Was I the only one that thought that the whole case would flip and the clerk would be the killer?

At least Cosgrove and Shaw didn’t have to run that far this week.

Watching the old eps with the snarky lawyers, the interesting support staffers, the citing of cases - the difference is striking. 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, ML89 said:

I was expecting those shoe prints to be his.

When they mentioned the unique shoe prints, I too first thought Price would say they were his, and maybe there'd be a joke about him having an expensive shoe fetish. But when they weren't Price's I kept wondering how he managed to not leave any shoe prints.