This is the first season to feature Ed Green (played by Jesse L. Martin) who replaced seasons 6–9's Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) in the role of junior detective. This season marked the first Law & Order spinoff, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Law & Order: SVU), which features Dann Florek reprising his role of Captain Donald Cragen from the first three seasons of Law & Order. Florek/Cragen appears in both parts of a two-part crossover between the two shows this season, and four other Law & Order: SVU characters appear in episodes of the original series over this season. Steven Hill, who played Adam Schiff, left the series at the end of the 10th season.
Steven Hill, who played Adam Schiff, was the last first-season member to leave the series; he left at the end of this 10th season and was replaced by Dianne Wiest.
A murderer's shooting spree of female medical school students in Central Park prompts Briscoe and his new partner, Detective Ed Green, to trace the murder weapon's origin; McCoy makes it his mission to punish both the killer and the gun manufacturer.
As Briscoe and Green investigate the shooting of Denise Grobman a judge, suspicion quickly points to her husband Walter as the person who ordered the hit, but McCoy's case is hindered when she refuses to implicate her husband during the trial.
Served as the basis for the Law & Order: UK series 4 episode "Denial"
After the murder of Martin Felder a lawyer, McCoy finds himself on the opposite side of the courtroom from his former colleague, Jamie Ross, when she defends a man who claims to have key evidence that could put to death a man McCoy believes was wrongly convicted.
A frustrating investigation of Eva Harrison a purse-snatching victim who was fatally shot leads to tension between Briscoe and Green over age and racial innuendos. Briscoe notices his partner has developed a dangerous habit.
The investigation that follows the discovery of Cecilia Knowles a comatose woman in her apartment leads to an unusual case involving murder and a possible frame-up, despite the prosecution having key DNA evidence to the contrary.
A patient Marjorie Hallenbeck is found beaten to death in a hospital lounge — and the resulting case involves infidelity, Alzheimer's disease, and a ladies' man.
After sanitation workers find a teenage boy's body, the investigation leads to a school bully who displays an avid interest in martial-arts weapons, and whose father bought the murder weapon.
The investigation of the death of Karen Brewster, a schizophrenic woman, leads to a case involving Harvey Bauer, a homeless man, and his right to refuse medication.
Bloodstains in an apartment that belonged to Amy and James Beltran a young couple with a baby leads to the separated parents, each of whom claims that the other has the infant. The baby is later found dead.
218
13
"Panic"
Constantine Makris
S : Kathy McCormick & Matt Witten; T : William N. Fordes & Lynn Mamet
Briscoe and Green investigate the shooting of Carolyn Tyler a best-selling mystery writer and the death of her accountant, with a love triangle involving the author's consulting FBI agent (Tom Berenger) as a possible motive for the crime.
The focus of the case previously investigated in "Mayhem" (1994) returns to a politically-influential family; during the course of the trial, McCoy finds the powerful matriarch to be a formidable opponent.
After the bodies of two teens Jane Kendrick and Annika Ohlman are found, the detectives trace their identities and learn that one of them had a sister who was traveling with the girls.
The murder of Sean Alvarez a stockbroker points to a coworker and supervisor (Michael Gross) involved with organized crime when a hired hit man kills the prime suspect.
222
17
"Black, White and Blue"
Constantine Makris
S : Richard Sweren; T : Matt Witten; S/T : Lynne E. Litt
The murder of Michael Tobin a young white man in Harlem sparks outrage when it is discovered that two police officers Smith and Flannery intentionally dropped him off in a known crime prone neighborhood.
The body of Dorothy Graham a teacher, suspected of having an affair, is found in a car trunk and the investigation involves her husband and father-in-law, both of whom are psychiatrists.
A wealthy woman Lucy Young, a patron of the arts, is found dead in her apartment and the ensuing investigation leads to a suspect whose violence was spurred by a painting similar to the crime scene.
The discovery of Lorraine Shelby a strangled prostitute's body leads to a case involving illegal immigrants and a family grappling with internet addiction.
Detectives Briscoe and Green probe the strangulation of Leslie Cavanaugh, a college student who moonlighted as a stripper, and while they believe a pair of drug-dealing skinheads committed the murder, they struggle to determine the motive of the strip club owner who paid them for the hit. However, as they work their way up the ladder of complicity, the cops learn that the slaying is keyed to an insider trading scam that forces McCoy to connect a former porn star with a businessman.
The death of an elderly man trying to find who was responsible for the torture-killing of his son in Chile in 1973 leads to a former high-ranking Chilean Army officer who is in New York receiving cancer treatments at a Manhattan hospital.
"Entitled," episode 219, is a continuation of an SVU episode of the same name.
Adrienne Shelly guest-starred in the episode of 'Law & Order titled "High & Low" Season 10 in which she portrayed the character Wendy Alston. Shelly herself would later be murdered, which inspired the episode 'Melting Pot' Season 17.
