Law & Order · Season 2 · Episode 6

“Misconception”

Aired Tuesday 29 October 1991 on NBC

The mugging of a pregnant legal secretary leads to a charge against her employer of assault, which is upgraded to murder when the baby dies. Time span confirmation of the baby's conception and the employer-secretary affair eliminates the employer as a suspect. Suspicion shifts to the secretary and her boyfriend (a disbarred lawyer) when a wiretap reveals that the couple intended, first, to have the employer held criminally responsible for the baby's murder and, second, to sue the employer for wrongful death. Initially, the primary issue appears to be the fetus age at which a murder charge can be leveled. The primary issue proves to be two-fold; 1. whether the suspects can be held accountable for knowing both the law and its meaning, and 2. even if the suspects cannot legally be convicted of the baby's murder, whether they can be convicted of a lesser crime, i.e. attempted murder.

S2 E6 discussion