"Hey, Bobby, Austin. I know if you're watching this, the two of you are in a room with a couple of DAs and the whole thing's gone to hell. Whoever it is, hi. My name is Tony Rosatti. I thought I'd planned this whole thing out pretty good. Sherri and that son-of-a-bitch Porter in jail, me at peace, maybe for the first time. So, Mr. DA, the hitman, the wired money, the phone in Porter's apartment, it was all me. Bobby loaned me the dough, but he didn't know what it was for. Sorry, Bobby, for jamming you up this way. So that's it. All's well, etcetera etcetera. You know what? Parting is not sweet sorrow, it's just plain sweet."
— Tony Rosatti detailing his plan in his video confession released postmortem, Law & Order, "Hitman"
In the criminal justice system, among the criminals or others that the People—the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders—have faced over the decades are the most brilliant and audacious of them all. These are their stories.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Franchise-Wide
- Assistant District Attorney John James "Jack" McCoy is a ruthless prosecutor who, though his first concern is always justice, contrasts his predecessor Ben Stone by being willing to bend the law whenever he needs. Over a decades-long career, McCoy has secured countless convictions using a wide variety of strategies and has similarly manipulated the law to protect those he believes deserve it. Whether it's intentionally overcharging a grieving mother so the case will be thrown out, getting people like drunk drivers and gun manufacturers convicted of murder to satisfy his personal vendettas and agendas, dropping all charges against a kidnapper to ensure the victim returns alive, getting around the state's rape laws to convict a predator of illegal extortion instead, or intentionally causing a mistrial for a murder case with no corpse so that he could try again when the corpse was found, Jack never falters in the face of a complication and always adapts to a criminal's strategies. Even when he's promoted to District Attorney, though he admits he made mistakes in his earlier career, he maintains the brilliance and ruthless edge that makes him one of TV's most famous fictional lawyers.
- "Hitman": Tony Rosatti is a mob contractor killed by a hitman, but it turns out he was behind the hitman who did it. Rosatti having discovered his wife Sherri cheated on him with construction worker Randy Porter plants the money and evidence that frames them for his murder before he does indeed hire his own killer so they'll both go to prison—in which they turn on each other during the trial too—and uses money borrowed from associate "Bobby Vig" Vignerelli as a means of funding it—though Rosatti also filmed a video prior to his death in which he details everything so that Bobby Vig won't be blamed for any of it. Even with his final fate being his own demise—and that being the plan, Rosatti still goes to the grave with the satisfaction that he'd gotten the chance for a shot at "sweet" revenge—and either way, Sherri gets nothing not just because of her affair, but because Rosatti left everything to Bobby Vig too.
- "Family Friend": Valerie Messick is the widow of mob accountant Phillip Messick who's brutally murdered by thug Jay Fleckner who also attacks and almost kills her too. Wanting to make Fleckner pay, Valerie asks close friend Bob Cerullo—a former cop—to kill him and throws her testimony in court to make it look like she couldn't positively identify Fleckner so that he'd be acquitted. This results in Cerullo killing Fleckner and staging the scene to look like self-defense. Once Cerullo is on trial though, Valerie is discovered in her husband's book under different names and only agrees to testify and reveal what she knows if she's given full immunity before saying anything at all. She then testifies reluctantly resulting in Cerullo being found guilty and Valerie getting away with everything.
- "Innocence": Emily Ryan is EADA Michael Cutter's old law professor and mentor and head of the Hudson University Innocence Coalition, delighting at the idea of pushing and testing him to see how far he'll push back. Pushing for a new trial for convicted hate murderer Cedric Stuber, Ryan is successful with evidence and a new witness suggesting the victim's husband is responsible. Upon Cutter exposing one of Ryan's students as bribing the drug dealer for false testimony—which Ryan wasn't aware she did—and exposing Ryan's competitive barter system pertaining to grades and recommendation letters, Ryan seeks a complete dismissal by exposing that Cutter never got his undergraduate degree and therefore is not a lawyer. Agreeing to talk deal when McCoy asks her to, Ryan then when Cutter threatens worse action and consequences against Stuber encourages Stuber to take a 25 year sentence to avoid going to prison for life.
- "Scheherezade": Jake "Judson" Tierney is a career criminal who decades earlier pulled off 21 successful bank robberies with his partner as the "Fedora Bandits", making off with millions of dollar in the process—only found out when he's dying of Cancer in the present day and the priest directs Stabler to him. Tierney hid all of his trappings in a bomb shelter that for years helped him go completely unnoticed—with the trunk key hidden at his wife's grave too, including the body of his sadistic partner which when recovered results in Tierney discovering that when his partner murdered his lover, her ex-husband was wrongly convicted for it. Tierney insists on helping to clear the man's name and holding on until receiving word that he's been set free, during which it comes out that Tierney's daughter Sheila who refused to talk to him for years is actually the daughter of his partner who was almost killed as a baby along with her birth mother, Tierney having killed her real father in order to save her life.
- "Authority": Merritt Rook is a former audio engineer whose wife died in childbirth thanks to an error from the doctor. Rook, gaining a hatred of authority figures, manipulated and harassed the doctor into suicide before making calls posing as an authority figure to make others commit crimes for no reason but a voice on the phone told them to. Representing himself at trial to get his views out, Rook manages to get acquitted and keeps his movement going before Detective Benson goes to arrest him. Turning the tables, Rook sets a trap for Stabler where he forces him to torture Benson at risk of a bomb exploding only to reveal Benson was never in danger and her screams were prerecorded. Rook proceeds to flee, with the assumption being he drowns in the river, but the strong possibility remaining he manages to escape justice entirely after proving the points he wishes.
- Nicole Wallace is a charming Australian murderer whose brilliance established her as the "white whale" of Detective Robert Goren's career. First appearing under a false identity, Nicole manipulated Mark Bayley into committing murder so she could become a citizen, she then murders Bayley and subtly reveals her deception to Goren before escaping. Nicole then married Gavin Haynes and committed another murder, framing Daniel Croyan, knowing that Goren would doggedly pursue Coryan and ignore other possibilities, before murdering Croyan and framing it as a suicide to ruin Goren’s reputation. After using Haynes' loyalty to escape justice, Nicole divorces him and starts molding Ella Myazaki into a killer like herself, nearly killing Haynes then murdering Ella and faking her own death. Nicole then becomes engaged to Evan Chapel and desires to live a normal life with him and his daughter Gwen. When she learns that Evan is trying to murder Gwen, Nicole exposes him to the police and kidnaps Gwen, only to realize that her very nature makes her a threat to Gwen and releases her. Staying just out of Goren's grasp the whole time, Nicole is only stopped when Declan Gage murders her, her last words being, "You tell Bobby, he's the only man I ever loved."
- "Blind Spot" & "Frame": Dr. Declan Gage is a profiler of serial killers who analyzes them and gets into their minds as a means of figuring out their next moves. He ended up passing on his methods to his protégée Goren, thinking of him as a son. When a killer Gage tried to flush out by means of informing the press of evidence seems to resurface, Gage pushes to be involved in the case even when accused of the killings himself and gives Goren info and advice that helps him in investigating. After his now-estranged daughter Jo—and the true killer—ends up in a self-inflicted coma, Gage, blaming himself, seeks to free Goren of his personal demons to do right by him. While making himself appear to be a target as well, Gage ends up convincing Nicole Wallace to kill Goren's addict brother Frank and then kills her while leaving evidence that suggests Goren's the culprit, but then has it lead to himself so Goren will catch him. In doing this, Gage seeks to free Goren of the three people in his life still bringing him down so he can finally start anew.
