Lupo and Bernard investigate the murder of Mark Burns, a doctor who was attending a convention. A large cash withdrawal prior to his death makes them suspicious. It eventually comes out that he had switched rooms with the intended target; Howard Garrison, a doctor who was present at an execution gone wrong in South Carolina that left a man in a coma. The man's cousin, Jamie Yost (Michael Rooker) had stalked the doctor.
Tropes present in this episode
- Black-and-White Morality: Cutter's approach in this, with McCoy's blessing:Cutter: Yost killed an innocent man in our jurisdiction.
McCoy: No shades of gray in this for you, Mike?
Cutter: Nope.
McCoy: Good. - Bludgeoned to Death: How the victim was killed.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: The botched execution should have killed the accused, but instead left him in a persistent vegetative state.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Goes to figuring out who killed Burns to whether Yost was justified in his attempt to murder the doctor who left his cousin in a coma.
- Murder by Mistake: The deceased was killed, but the intended target was a doctor who was present at a botched execution.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The chain of events leading to the murder started from Yost's son and grandchildren being murdered.
