A serial killer refuses to tell Jack McCoy the names and locations of all of his victims. The killer's defense attorney has the information too, but refuses to disclose it because of attorney-client privilege.
A bounty hunter's murder in a motel room is connected to a journalist who may have fabricated a story about the criminal the bounty hunter was chasing.
A carjacking murder investigation becomes complicated by a SARS outbreak in New York City, and the discovery of medical container with the virus in the stolen car.
A popular Broadway composer is accused of murder. His psychiatrist blames it on a traumatic episode he had as a teenager, but McCoy discovers that the doctor may also have a motive.
The leader of a rock band is accused of tampering with a flamethrower at a concert, which caused the deaths of 23 people. However, an enamored teenage fan may be willing to commit perjury to give him an alibi.
An 80-year-old man is accused of killing the man who stole his identity and caused him to lose his home. However, the defendant's son wants him declared incompetent to stand trial.
A reporter, just back from Iraq, is shot in the back by a military-issue handgun. Did he put soldiers' lives at risk with his reporting, and was the shooting payback for it?
Did a pediatric oncologist kill a con artist over a failed investment, or did she actually crack mentally over the stress of dealing with terminally-ill children?
An illegal Mexican immigrant is accused of killing his wife's sweatshop boss because he was their baby's father. He claims, however, that his wife was forced to be her boss's surrogate mother.
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.
