Amends (''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'')
| "Amends" | |
|---|---|
| Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode | |
| Episode no. |
Season 7 Episode 1 (#134 overall) |
| Directed by | Jesús S. Treviño |
| Written by |
Dick Wolf (creator) René Balcer (developer) Warren Leight (story) Siobhan Byrne (story and teleplay) |
| Production code | CI7003 |
| Original air date | October 4, 2007 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
Holt McCallany | |
"Amends" is a seventh season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. This is the first original episode to air on the USA Network.
Plot summary
Officer Quinn is fatally shot while he and his partner Copa are on security detail for a witness in a drive-by gang shooting. Detectives Goren and Eames investigate. When Eames's husband, Officer Joe Dutton, was murdered, Quinn was his partner. Copa identifies a member of the 86ers, the gang accused in the drive-by, as Quinn's killer; but Goren deduces that Copa has macular degeneration and can't provide reliable testimony. Other officers believe Goren is soft on cop killers. Drug dealer Alfred Minaya, who testified against Joe's killer Ray Delgado, is murdered with the same gun as Quinn; a connection to Dutton's murder seems possible. Goren and Eames visit Delgado in prison. His last appeal was recently denied, but he maintains he didn't kill Dutton. Goren reexamines forensic evidence from Dutton's murder; Eames is initially upset that Goren's line of investigation could exonerate her husband's killer, but Goren points out that if Delgado didn't kill Dutton, Eames should want to know the truth.
Quinn and Minaya were killed with a distinctive, older gun. Goren determines that Ray's son Victor, believing his father's innocence, murdered the witnesses against Ray with the Vietnam War service weapon of Ray's father Rodolfo, a Marine veteran. Victor denies it, but confesses when Goren says the elderly Rodolfo is prepared to confess to protect him.
Dutton's killer's cigarette had been found at the scene of the crime, but there was not enough DNA present for testing at that time; testing is now possible due to technological advances. Ray is not a match. Goren and Eames deduce Quinn's testimony was mistaken, while Minaya lied to protect someone else. They arrest Dutton's real killer, Minaya's then-teenaged cousin Manny Beltran, who is now an emergency room surgeon. Beltran admits that he still has nightmares about killing Dutton, and he became a doctor in hopes of making amends by saving lives.
Goren and Eames suggest that neither revenge nor amends can resolve a past wrong.