History TearJerker / LawAndOrder

* In the season 3 episode ''Mother Love'', a former honor student turned crack addict has been shot dead. The trail leads first to her dealer/boyfriend, but there is no evidence to link him to it. Stone and Robinette discover that the girl had stolen from her family, including bearer bonds from her grandmother, to support her habit and suspicion falls on her father. Ultimately, they discover that it was her mother who had killed her. Performed by the incomparable Mary Alice (the Oracle in [[Film/TheMatrix The Matrix Revolutions]]).
-->Virginia Bryant: "I looked at her, it was so hard. Those little lines of blood in her eyes, her hands full of holes. My baby... It was so pitiful. She gave me the gun. She begged me, 'Mama...put me out of my misery. Do it for me...please.' I...I gave up. I gave her what she wanted. I killed my baby."

* In the opening of episode ''Seeds'', A crazed Woman is looking for her Husband to shoot, claiming he killed there unborn child and leaving her. When the Husband goes to call the cops, the Woman shoots at him, only for the nearest Guard shoots her dead. The look he gives is a mixture of having [[IDidWhatIHadToDo no other choice]] and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horror realization]]. No one blames the Guard, but he's still trying to justify his actions.
** It turns out the Woman only thought she was pregnant, but autopsy revealed she was not. The Specialist, Dr. Delbert, She and her husband have been going to either lied to them or it was a misdiagnosis, either way, Dr. Delbert can't be legally held responsible and the husband is furious that the man who he blames for his wife's senseless death will suffer no consequences.

* The Season 7 finale, "Terminal." Adam has been unavailable throughout much of the episode and not quite up to his usual DeadpanSnarker standard when he is around, because his wife is dying in the hospital. The final scene is [[spoiler:him alone in the hospital room with her when she finally dies.]] He begins to cry.

* The ending of 'Manhood', when three cops are acquitted of murder, despite them willingly leaving their fellow police officer to die [[RefuseToRescueTheDisliked just because he was gay.]]
-->'''Schiff:''' They used to ask, "How can a man put a sheet on his head and lynch somebody?" Usually he can't, by himself.

-->'''Schiff:''' And twelve citizens did it again.
-->'''Stone:''' And they voted their indifference.

* "Fluency" has a conman selling saline as flu vaccine during a particularly bad flu season, causing 19 people who got it to die from the flu. While questioning the con man in court, McCoy brings up the film "The Third Man", which is about a conman who steals and dilutes penicillin with similar consequences. McCoy talks about a scene where the conman is on a Ferris wheel and points out the faceless dots below and asks someone if they would care if one stopped moving. The conman is broken-voiced and tearing up in the witness box.

* "Memo from the Dark Side" has the side-plot of the revelation that Van Buren, after all of her years in the precinct, is suffering from cancer. Treatable but potentially problematic. No one knows how to react to it, but it does begin a long series of PetTheDog moments from her fellow officers.

* Joe Fontana's mistake in ''Ghosts'', where a homicide case from ten years ago made him assume it was the father that raped and killed his daughter. It ruined the man's life even after he was acquitted, and the case of the episode picks it back up and forces Fontana to realize [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he was effectively the root cause of the man's misery with his assumptions.]] He tries to apologize to the widowed father at the end with a hand extended.. and the man just slowly closes the door in Joe's face, not even saying anything. The look on Joe's face before the episode fade-out sells how badly he knows he messed up.

* The reveal towards the end of "Personae Non Grata" where Chrissy, the young girl that had supposedly flirted with Bob and caused him to murder some supposed interference in their relationship, [[spoiler:was DeadAllAlong, murdered by her mother who then used the girl's online identity to mastermind the victim's murder.]] When Bob is shown the truth by the way of Cutter [[spoiler:showing Chrissy's bones unearthed from where her mother had buried her]], Bob breaks down ''hard'' realizing the person he loved [[spoiler:was never actually the one he talked with.]]

* After years of a clean record, even compared to his partners and Lupo who tries to save him regardless of the risk to his own career, Ed Greene ends up discharged from the force in "Burn Card" after killing a hustler and drug addict to save his girlfriend, on top of [[ItsPersonal personal reasons]]. He also ends up doing everything he can to make sure to try to divert the investigation from her even if he has to go down with a murder charge for it. Thankfully her coming clean helps save the both of them from serious charges, but it's Greene's departure from the series with all the somberness it required.

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* "Evil Breeds" had a murdered Holocaust survivor who was about to give testimony that would had led to a suspected Nazi officer getting deported. At the man's murder trial during her videotaped deposition, she spoke about an incident of his cruelty during her imprisonment: he killed an elderly woman who could not physically march in the face and then shot five other girls in line who cried while ordering the survivors to carry on like nothing happened. She then tearfully said that the fifth girl who was killed was her little sister. This causes the woman's granddaughter as well as other attendees in the gallery to begin sobbing themselves.

-->'''Denise''': ''*to [=McCoy=], tearfully*'' Why do you keep on hammering and hammering?! Can't you see that everything was my fault? Walter did not do this. I've loved him for more than half of my life. When is this over? When is this over?! ''*turns around to face the sitting judge presiding over the case, who is also a good friend of hers*'' Lisa! Please, please make them stop! Just let me die.

* In "Compassion", similar to "Endurance", [=McCoy=] is cross examining a pediatric oncologist who killed a man who had conned her out of money by claiming he could speak to the dead. The woman breaks down and begins babbling uncontrollably and [=McCoy=] is shocked to realize that for once, the accused wasn't presenting a bullshit defense. Years and years of watching children die despite her best efforts had taken its toll on her, and this man scamming her was the final blow.

'''Sammy:''' Well, what was it like?!

-->'''Mrs. Mireles''': We only did this to save Davey!
-->'''Sammy''': Davey! What about ''me?!''
-->'''Mr. Mireles''': Hey, you weren't the one who was going to die!
-->'''Sammy''': Well, what do you call this, huh?!

* "Tabula Rasa" had a father who was a ManipulativeBastard that kept his wife and two daughters under lock and key by not allowing them to make friends outside of the home or really do anything without his permission. It eventually comes to light that he [[spoiler: abducted his children from their biological mother, who had custody, years earlier and brainwashed them against her and killed the victim by throwing her in the path of a train because she recognized him from back then. Furthermore, he admits that he never loved his second wife and only married her to give his children a mother. The real mother then is able to find them all, but due to his lies, they hate her and after he goes to prison, the younger daughter, who's still a minor, is ordered to live with her, which upsets the girl as her older sister yells at her mom, "Are you happy now, you bitch?"]] The episode is a true DownerEnding that gives a [[TruthInTelevision realistic]] look at what happens in tragic situations like that.

* "Stiff", where a woman is comatose after being given spiked insulin, has the last-ditch attempt to wake her ''fail'', the woman's daughter, [[spoiler: who is responsible for the crime]], whispers tearfully [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone "I'm so sorry, Mom."]]

* Creator/JerryOrbach's death on December 28, 2004 is completely sad. Orbach had been fighting cancer for more than 10 years. Before he died, his character Lennie Briscoe was written out having him being retired and after Orbach's death, Lennie was killed-offscreen as well.

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