Law & Order (season 4)

Logan and Briscoe investigate after a convicted child molester, Dr. Joseph Vinton, is murdered on Rick Mason's controversial talk show. The shooter is easily identified — he's Sid Fisher, the father of the dead man's victim from three years earlier. During the course of the investigation, however, the detectives find evidence that leads them to believe that Mason may have set up Vinton's murder so as to assure high ratings during sweeps period. Stone's case is made more difficult because Sid Fisher isn't willing to say anything that could put his son, Scotty, on the stand.

• First appearances of S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren and Jill Hennessy as ADA Claire Kincaid.
• Guest stars: Robert Klein and David Krumholtz. 

When college student Julia Wood charges an admittedly promiscuous rock star, C Square, with rape, he claims the act was consensual. Logan and Briscoe investigate the crime and soon learn that C Square isn't the nice guy he would have everyone believe.

• Guest stars: Lucy Deakins and Sebastian Roché. 

After a number of neighborhood residents are murdered, the police follow the investigation to a local racist who is murdering people he doesn't feel belong in his neighborhood. Stone finds himself facing a prominent black attorney representing the murderer.

• Guest star: James Earl Jones. 

After wealthy Jonathan Keyes is found dead in his home, the police receive an anonymous tip that he was murdered. Logan and Briscoe encounter difficulties at the scene when the widow and her attorney refuse to allow an autopsy, and by the time Rodgers is able to examine the body, it has already been embalmed. The medical examiner claims the death was natural causes, and even though the state finally gets the necessary proof that the death was murder, the methods used to obtain the needed evidence come under question when Stone tries the case in court.

• Guest star: Hudson Leick. 

When building superintendent Frank McKinnon is found murdered in the basement of the building he works and lives in, Logan and Briscoe initially investigate the crime as a potential break-in until forensics discovers that the "break-in" was staged. The state's attention soon turns to Sean, Frank's 17-year-old son. Dr. Olivet determines the son is an abusive sociopath after interviewing him. But when the victim's wife claims that Frank beat his family on a regular basis, Stone and Kincaid try to determine who is telling the truth.

• Guest star: Lauren Ambrose. 

Stone and Kincaid try to prove that the young woman believed to have planted a bomb in a parking garage had been brainwashed and was acting under the direct orders of Daniel Hendricks, the charismatic leader of a local cult known as the Acherusian Temple.

• Guest stars: Sam Robards and Lawrence Pressman. 

A dig at a building site uncovers the body of Sid Cohen, who had gone missing and been presumed murdered years earlier. The identification of the body proves troublesome for Stone, who had initially prosecuted Phillip Swann fourteen years earlier and had obtained a conviction. Swann uses inconsistencies between the original trial and the location of the body to seek an appeal.

• Guest star: Zeljko Ivanek. 

When the investigation into threats on a 5-year-old girl leads to a judge that Kincaid had been romantically involved with when she clerked under him, she asks Ben to take her off the case. When Thayer is brought to trial, he insinuates that Kincaid deliberately pointed the witness in his direction, claiming that she had approached him in an inappropriate manner while she worked with him.

• Contains a rare error: 26 minutes into the episode, a title card reads "Home of Michele Selig, Attorney for Jill Kincaid." The character's name is Claire Kincaid; "Jill" is the first name of the actress who plays her.
• Guest stars: David Groh and Jane Kaczmarek. 

A scientist becomes the chief suspect when his estranged wife, who's been delaying divorce proceedings, is the victim of a letter bomb.

During a 24-hour period, Briscoe and Logan have a heavy caseload that includes five unrelated murders and a domestic quarrel (which results in the maiming of the husband).

• One of the cases in this episode is continued in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode Entitled and in a Law & Order follow up episode by the same name. 

Briscoe and Logan investigate the disappearance of a child from her abusive foster home and find her being held by a loving but disturbed woman who insists she has acted only for the child's own good.

• Guest stars: Lisa Eichhorn and Christine Baranski. 

An assailant breaks the wrist of a tennis player prior to a tournament, and a competitor is among the suspects.

• Guest star: John Heard. 

A truck hits a pedestrian and the investigation reveals the victim's link to a baby-food company in which a new partner has connections to the Russian mob.

• Last appearance of Michael Moriarty as EADA Ben Stone.
• Guest star: Allison Janney.