After viewing this episode, aired December 2001, a search turned up:
University Of Miami Law Review "Racism in the insanity defense" by Hava B. Villaverde October 1 1996
Washington Post June 7 2016 "How racism came to be called a mental illness and why that's a problem" by W. Carson Byrd and James M. Thomas.
5 Reviews
Death and prejudice
TheLittleSongbird24 May 2022
Anything race related is covered and depicted a lot, but that is in no way a bad thing. Racism, a major issue for decades, is a very brave and difficult topic, it also is a very important thing to address and explore and today it maybe should be addressed more with it being just as bad. A lot of admiration would have been had for even tackling the subject regardless of the execution, it being a subject that has been tackled variably on both film and television.
Despite every previous season of 'Law and Order' having at least one race-related episode, which goes to show how relevant it was/is and how big a problem it was and still is, it is a topic that warrants a lot of discussion, awareness raised and searching for ways to decrease it. Season 12's "Prejudice" does a generally very good job with the topic, though there are other episodes of 'Law and Order' that handle it even more powerfully, namely Season 4's "Profile" and Season 5's "Rage".
Personally did not buy the defense argument. 'Law and Order' has had its fair share of ridiculous defense arguments ("Remand" being a primary example), but still this one was very naive, silly and even near-insulting as equating mental illness as an excuse for racism (and to this degree) is a big stretch and is not going to go down well with many.
It's 10 episodes in and Southerlyn is such a deadweight still it is quite wearing. Elisabeth Rohm is still wooden.
Wooden cannot be something to describe the rest of the regulars for, the complete opposite for Jerry Orbach and especially Sam Waterston. Do agree that the truly chilling Steven Rishard is the main reason to see "Prejudice", his character is truly repellent (to the extent that it does defy belief that anybody would want to defend him) and Rishard personifies evil as him. The character interaction is a nice mix of tense and intimate, Briscoe and Green are such a good pairing and they are for me my personal favourite of the show's police duos.
The production values as ever have slickness and grit, with an intimacy without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when it's used but does so without being intrusive, some of it is quite haunting too. The direction is also understated but the tension never slips, the second half being full of it.
Script is taut and intelligent, while the story is lean, intense and emotional. Very little overwrought-ness or no preachiness, not easy with this topic to do.
Overall, very good. 8/10.
Despite every previous season of 'Law and Order' having at least one race-related episode, which goes to show how relevant it was/is and how big a problem it was and still is, it is a topic that warrants a lot of discussion, awareness raised and searching for ways to decrease it. Season 12's "Prejudice" does a generally very good job with the topic, though there are other episodes of 'Law and Order' that handle it even more powerfully, namely Season 4's "Profile" and Season 5's "Rage".
Personally did not buy the defense argument. 'Law and Order' has had its fair share of ridiculous defense arguments ("Remand" being a primary example), but still this one was very naive, silly and even near-insulting as equating mental illness as an excuse for racism (and to this degree) is a big stretch and is not going to go down well with many.
It's 10 episodes in and Southerlyn is such a deadweight still it is quite wearing. Elisabeth Rohm is still wooden.
Wooden cannot be something to describe the rest of the regulars for, the complete opposite for Jerry Orbach and especially Sam Waterston. Do agree that the truly chilling Steven Rishard is the main reason to see "Prejudice", his character is truly repellent (to the extent that it does defy belief that anybody would want to defend him) and Rishard personifies evil as him. The character interaction is a nice mix of tense and intimate, Briscoe and Green are such a good pairing and they are for me my personal favourite of the show's police duos.
The production values as ever have slickness and grit, with an intimacy without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when it's used but does so without being intrusive, some of it is quite haunting too. The direction is also understated but the tension never slips, the second half being full of it.
Script is taut and intelligent, while the story is lean, intense and emotional. Very little overwrought-ness or no preachiness, not easy with this topic to do.
Overall, very good. 8/10.
Waiting For the opportunity to use it
bkoganbing9 June 2012
A body dragged and dumped in the cellar entrance of a basement apartment is what opens up a new homicide to investigate for Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin. The victim is the CEO of a publishing house and as it happens he's black. After going up a few false trails, the two detectives find it was a hate crime pure and simple. The victim beat a Ku Klux Klan wannabe for a cab and the perpetrator took it as some kind of affront. As he was known to carry a firearm, this was a man waiting for the opportunity to use it.
Use it Steven Rishard did. This man is one racist the kind you found loud and clear in the pre-civil rights era. His defense attorney puts up a defense that says irrational racism is some kind of mental disease. If the episode probed a little deeper I'm sure a rationality would have been found for Rishard's behavior be it an incident, general upbringing, et al. No justification, but in his mind a root cause.
Still the whole concept of what lawyer Dennis Boutsikaris is using is what Sam Waterston is fighting. An interesting essay into how much is environment and mental makeup and how much is personal responsibility. Waterston is right, just how much can be explained away and if all is justified, there is no personal responsibility.
Steven Rishard is chilling, I'd watch this episode for him alone.
Use it Steven Rishard did. This man is one racist the kind you found loud and clear in the pre-civil rights era. His defense attorney puts up a defense that says irrational racism is some kind of mental disease. If the episode probed a little deeper I'm sure a rationality would have been found for Rishard's behavior be it an incident, general upbringing, et al. No justification, but in his mind a root cause.
Still the whole concept of what lawyer Dennis Boutsikaris is using is what Sam Waterston is fighting. An interesting essay into how much is environment and mental makeup and how much is personal responsibility. Waterston is right, just how much can be explained away and if all is justified, there is no personal responsibility.
Steven Rishard is chilling, I'd watch this episode for him alone.
Visual Editors added something
azurecielo5247911 June 2007
A bit into the show, Briscoe and Green have found a suspect and as they are arresting him, I think that the editors added in a little joke: he has a devil tail that goes whipping out the door after him. Right as he is being led out of his apartment on the left side of the screen along the brick wall a cartoonish devil tail (black and pointy) whips along after him (similar to the whip in the Lord of the Rings that comes up after Gandalf on the bridge and pulls him into darkness). Please post if you know where a list of these Law and Order "easter eggs" (is that the correct term) are compiled. I have tried in vain to find such a compilation but to no avail.
By creating an excuse, we lose any chance to punish it.
Mrpalli7714 November 2017
A vegetarian woman was talking to her fiancée about the right to eat meat while walking down the sidewalk. After a little argument, she noticed a dead man on a stairwell. The victim was a black workaholic, working as a publisher in a magazine downtown. The same night, he had a meeting with potential buyers in order to set a bailout and he left the workplace half a hour before being murdered. He had seemingly no enemies neither at work nor in his personal life, apart from some stakeholders who didn't want softcore pictures published in the magazine; besides, a man (Kevin Henderson) got angry at him the night of the murder over the same pictures that portrayed his girlfriend (anyway a coworker supported his alibi). Detectives were stunned after realizing the murder was perpetrated for racial issues: two white man in black suit followed the victim cab for twenty minutes that night...
I find this episode a little boring; furthermore, the tactics pursued by defense attorney is very naive: the racism is a matter of mental illness. Just leave it!
I find this episode a little boring; furthermore, the tactics pursued by defense attorney is very naive: the racism is a matter of mental illness. Just leave it!
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