A police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also ... Read allA police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also been a drug dealer.A police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also been a drug dealer.
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- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on several separate cases/incidents:
- The 1985 Edmund Perry case. Perry was a 17-year-old Harlem resident and a graduate from the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy who was shot to death by undercover New York plainclothes police officer Lee Van Houten on June 12, 1985. Van Houten maintained that Perry--and another black youth, later identified as Edmund's brother Jonah--attempted to mug him and that he shot in self-defense. The case briefly generated a firestorm of protest in New York City when it was revealed that Perry was an honor student and was enrolled to attend Stanford on scholarship. However, witnesses backed up Van Houten's claim that Perry and Jonah had attempted to mug the officer, and the shooting was ruled as justified. Jonah was then arrested and charged as an accomplice to the mugging, but he was found not guilty at trial.
- The 1973 Clifford Glover case. Glover was a 10-year-old African American boy who was fatally shot by Thomas Shea, an on-duty, undercover policeman, on April 28, 1973. Glover's death, and Shea's later acquittal for a murder charge, led to riots in the South Jamaica section of Queens, New York.
- The 1975 Bernard Whitehurst case. Whitehurst was shot in the back and killed on December 2, 1975 by Donald Foster, a Montgomery, Alabama police officer who said he thought Whitehurst was the suspect in the robbery of a neighborhood grocery store. In a subsequent cover-up, police officers planted a gun on him. The initial police report said that Whitehurst fired a gun at the officers, and the police returned fire. There was no autopsy and the body was quickly embalmed before the family was contacted; the coroner relied on police reports that Whitehurst was killed by a bullet fired through the chest. Six months later, after an investigation by the local newspaper and local attorney Donald Watkins raised questions about the facts of the case, the District Attorney ordered the body to be exhumed and an autopsy performed, which showed that Whitehurst had been shot in the back. A perjury indictment was issued for three police officers. Eight police officers were forced to resign or were terminated. No police officer was convicted of a crime. The attempted cover-up led to the resignation of the mayor and the Director of Public Safety.
- The 1986 Mark Davidson case.
- GoofsGreevy tells Reverend Thayer that Tommy Richardson was shot 'the other night'; but the time stamp before the scene reads August 7th, whereas the time stamp for the previous scene read July 21st.
- Quotes
Det. Mike Logan: Somebody heard that shot?
Policeman #1: In this neighborhood? You couldn't get a witness to a sunrise.
- ConnectionsReferences Sudden Impact (1983)
Featured review
"Know why I wouldn't let go? Because there but for the grace of God go I, or any cop. You get caught, you get prosecuted"
Better quality was yet to come in later episodes of 'Law and Order', but its very early years were still solid while not completely finding its groove straight away. Found all the previous episodes good to great, my favourite being "Prescription for Death" and my least being "Everybody's Favourite Bagman" (which was actually the pilot and it has the feel of one).
Liked "Poison Ivy" a little better than the previous reviewers and found it a very solid episode. One with a lot of great things that was just missing the extra something. That extra something in this case being to my liking a little more tension and that it could have gone into its challenging subject with a little more depth. Greevey having doubts and the strong possibility of the victim not being what he seems being hardly novel, handled well still but could have been a little less obvious.
It was great though that "Poison Ivy" had an equal mix of the law and order sides of the case, showing both procedures in the show and its spin offs was a great idea and always makes me when done right think hard about the truth and making a judgment myself. The case does grip as does the inestigative/procedural work, even though we are completely on Greevey's side when he thinks things don't add up. The prosecution element is intriguing and it is great to see how these prosecutors work and get a result.
Again it was gutsy exploring a difficult current issue (which has always been a major interest point of the 'Law and Order' franchise and plays a sizeable role in its appeal), the regular characters' moral dilemmas and the complications of getting a result. Even if the depth wasn't always there, the intrigue certainly was.
Can't fault the gritty production values here or the sparingly used and unobtrusive music (also that memorable main theme). The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, with no fat and no focus on soapy personal lives which could be a problem in the later seasons of 'Special Victims Unit'. Michael Moriaty as ever makes much of the juicy character of Stone Greevey's hard boiled edge is brought out more than convincingly by George Dzundza. John Finn gives a strong supporting turn.
On the whole, very solid. 8/10
Liked "Poison Ivy" a little better than the previous reviewers and found it a very solid episode. One with a lot of great things that was just missing the extra something. That extra something in this case being to my liking a little more tension and that it could have gone into its challenging subject with a little more depth. Greevey having doubts and the strong possibility of the victim not being what he seems being hardly novel, handled well still but could have been a little less obvious.
It was great though that "Poison Ivy" had an equal mix of the law and order sides of the case, showing both procedures in the show and its spin offs was a great idea and always makes me when done right think hard about the truth and making a judgment myself. The case does grip as does the inestigative/procedural work, even though we are completely on Greevey's side when he thinks things don't add up. The prosecution element is intriguing and it is great to see how these prosecutors work and get a result.
Again it was gutsy exploring a difficult current issue (which has always been a major interest point of the 'Law and Order' franchise and plays a sizeable role in its appeal), the regular characters' moral dilemmas and the complications of getting a result. Even if the depth wasn't always there, the intrigue certainly was.
Can't fault the gritty production values here or the sparingly used and unobtrusive music (also that memorable main theme). The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, with no fat and no focus on soapy personal lives which could be a problem in the later seasons of 'Special Victims Unit'. Michael Moriaty as ever makes much of the juicy character of Stone Greevey's hard boiled edge is brought out more than convincingly by George Dzundza. John Finn gives a strong supporting turn.
On the whole, very solid. 8/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 14, 2019
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