Directed by Steven Robman
Written by Robert Nathan & Sally Nemeth
Tim Chong, a high school senior, is shot and killed as he walks home from school. His friend Carl Borland was his closest rival for a prestigious science award, and Carl's family had threatened Tim's mother, insisting that white students should take priority over the Chinese-American Tim. It becomes apparent that Carl's mother and brother are faking their alibis; and his father Ron has a permit to carry the type of gun that killed Tim. After getting an anonymous tip about the gun, Cerreta and Logan obtain a search warrant. They find the gun in the Borlands' home and prove it is the murder weapon. Stone and his team quickly establish that Ron did not kill Tim; Ron planted his own fingerprints on the gun and called in the tip to cover for his wife and son.
The gun can't be rendered admissible due to insufficient evidence that the search warrant was justified. Stone tries to entrap Carl's mother with a plea deal, but she declines. The Borlands are found guilty on evidence from Tim's girlfriend; but when she is proven to be lying, the trial is declared a mistrial and the defendants released. Meanwhile, the news reports the case of a father convicted of killing his son's rival in a school tennis club. Stone regrets the gun warrant and feels deeply uncomfortable about ordinary people committing murder.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Ace: Tim Chong.
- The Bad Guys Win: The Borlands get away with their actions thanks to a mistrial.
- My Beloved Smother: Marion Borland for Carl.
- Outside/Inside Slur: Katie says that she and Tim were each called these because of their interracial relationship.
- Removing the Rival: The Borlands' goal.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Specifically from the case of Wanda Holloway, convicted of ordering a hit on the mother of her daughter's high school cheerleading rival.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Tim was briefly part of a Tong gang, which the defence seizes upon in its evidence.
