"Law & Order" - "Gunshow" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jesse L. Martin

"Law & Order" was created by Dick Wolf and is one of the most successful police-procedural and legal dramas of all time. As one of the longest-running shows in American television, the original "Law & Order" has seen many characters who both "investigate crime" and "prosecute the offenders", as the famous opening narration by Steven Zirnkilton says. The three characters with the most time on the show were Detective Lennie Briscoe (played by Jerry Orbach), Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), and District Attorney Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). Throughout the 20 seasons, many other actors joined and departed the show, in addition to the many celebrities that appeared over the years as guest stars.

Detective Ed Green was a main character of the show starting in season 10 and up to season 18. Played by Jesse L. Martin, the character is a young and rebellious detective who has an aggressive personality (at least compared to Det. Curtis, who came before him and left at the end of season 9 to look after his wife suffering from multiple sclerosis). The homicide detective was the first one on "Law & Order" to be promoted from junior to senior detective, and left the show in season 18 after a shooting.

Jesse L. Martin is primarily known for this role on "Law & Order" and his portrayal of Tom Collins in the film version of Broadway musical "Rent". He's appeared in other shows of the "L&O" franchise like "SVU" and "Criminal Intent", as well as in the drama "The Flash".

Answer: Conservatory

Covering themselves, the couple tries to explain that what they were doing was "totally innocent" and that they were just "lying on their stomachs". The officer doesn't care about those excuses and gives them a $75 fine, adding that he has no idea how they were "doing it" in such hot weather.

They are interrupted by the sound of multiple shots and screams. A young woman alerts the police that "he's shooting everybody!" after which they are terrified to find a big number of victims on the floor. The officers run to the scene while calling for backup, saying there is a "man with gun behind the conservatory".

This is a reference to the Conservatory Garden in New York's Central Park, though the word "conservatory" can also be used to refer to a music school.

Answer: Hudson University

The officers tell Briscoe and Green that the perpetrator emptied his clip and then reloaded his gun from a knapsack. At the hospital, the victim tally is 15 dead and 12 wounded, an issue so serious that Lt. Van Buren met the detectives in the healthcare facility. Ms. Drake responds she's feeling "lucky" when asked how she is doing. She explains she was sitting in the park with a group of pre-med students from Hudson University when she heard pops and saw her peers lay down on the floor, which prompted her to pretend she was dead so the shooter wouldn't focus on her.

Hudson is a fictional university in New York that is frequently mentioned in "Law & Order". Detective Stabler's children attend that university in "SVU", and Detective Goren's nemesis in "Criminal Intent", Nicole Wallace, taught at Hudson as well.

Answer: Gender issues

Back at the precinct, the investigators try to figure out how the crime happened and who could be behind it. They have a rough sketch of the perpetrator, but it isn't very helpful since as Briscoe humorously notes, the sketch they have of the suspect looks like "half the people in this room". Det. Green is eager to release the sketch to a personal contact at The Daily News, but Lt. Van Buren declines and tells him that media calls get routed to Public Affairs (exposing the lack of know-how of the new detective). Green insists but Van Buren doesn't concede, and instructs the detectives to find out of anyone who might've known the students would be at the park.

They inquire with a Hudson University employee who explains the students were at the park for an orientation to discuss gender issues in med school.

She retrieves a flyer that says the event was supposed to happen by the pool, but they had to move elsewhere because there were people playing with a frisbee.

Answer: Old Spice

The detectives interview witness Gilbert N'goueba from the Ivory Coast, who says that he saw a white man in bloodied short pants running out of the park and into the subway. The witness says that the man was wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat, which matches what the officers who first responded to the scene heard about the suspect.

However, N'goueba didn't see the man with a knapsack, leading the detectives to deduce that it would be abandoned somewhere in the park. As they began their search. Green called Briscoe "Old Spice" and asked what the lieutenant said about him. Briscoe responds: "nothing, did she tell you I don't like nicknames?" Green replies that "the old man used to wear Old Spice", referring to his father and the brand of deodorant and other men's grooming products first introduced in the 1930's by William Lightfoot Schultz.

Answer: Pennsylvania

Briscoe suggests that CSU (Crime Scene Unit) retrieve the knapsack from the scene, but Green decides to take it to the lab himself. The next morning, Green and Briscoe meet at the lab, where the former informs his partner that there were no fingerprints and the serial number was burned off from the gun but recovered by the lab. The forensic investigator argues that the criminal put thought into this, since he modified the weapon from a semi-automatic to a full auto. The wholesaler they visit in Pennsylvania leads them to an independent salesman in Reading who sells the guns via the internet. The Pennsylvania arms seller gives the detectives the name Lee Coats, who purchased the weapon from him and had it shipped to New York City. The police execute a search warrant in his home and find a dead woman inside. They then realize that Lee is actually the woman, and she was a patient at Hudson Presbyterian hospital before.

Briscoe also notes that the caller ID from Green's page was from Atlantic City, and Jesse L. Martin's character responds that he was gambling all night. This is the first time Green's gambling problem is introduced in the show.

Answer: Paramedic

The detectives visit Dennis Trope's home and find gun magazines and medical research. His mom says that he's a paramedic on his way to becoming a great doctor, and that he almost got accepted at Hudson's medical school but didn't succeed since the university gives preference to women. This serves as the first indicator of motive for Trope's alleged crime. When they find him at a park, Trope tries to run and then threatens to shoot himself, but a cyclist bumps into him, allowing Green to tackle him and very aggressively point his gun at the suspect trying to get a confession. Lt. Van Buren is concerned because Green has prior excessive force complaints and another one would not look good.

At the interrogation room, Briscoe and Green are fairly certain that they have the right man but have no concrete evidence. They find that he was abused by his father as a child and his mom didn't do anything about it, which might have inspired misogynistic sentiments. The detectives play on this feeling by indicating that a jury may be comprised of many women so he would be best served confessing on the spot. Green even pretends to dislike the lieutenant because he tells Trope, she was unfairly promoted over Briscoe (a ruse to get a confession). Green's strategy eventually works and Trope confesses to shooting the women at the park because they had been chosen over him to study medicine.

Answer: Fruit

Trope's lawyer wants to invalidate the confession because the police told Dennis's mother he would be getting medical treatment when they were actually interrogating him. McCoy tries to make the point that the mom didn't specify when the lawyer would be hired, but the judge sides with the defense anyway.

The attorney also moves to suppress the bloody clothes found at the train station because they were found after that same statement was made by Trope. Once again, the judge agrees with the defense since it is "fruit from the poisonous tree", a legal doctrine that metaphorically implies that any evidence obtained from an illegally obtained confession cannot be used in court.

Answer: They can't prove they have the murder weapon

Both the district attorneys and the detectives interview a man who sold Trope a conversion kit at a gun show. These kits allow a semi-automatic weapon to be easily converted into an automatic firearm, greatly increasing its potential to do damage. The man says that this is an easy process, and that a simple design change in the gun's bolt would make them harder to tamper with. Since the prosecution still cannot prove that the murder weapon was the same one used by Trope during the attack, D.A. Schiff decides it is better to offer a plea deal than let the case go to trial and allow a jury to acquit due to lack of convincing evidence.

Therefore, McCoy offers to remove the death penalty from the equation in exchange for decades in jail, something that makes the victim's families angry because they feel it is a soft punishment.

Answer: No

While D.A. Schiff and A.D.A. Carmichael are not convinced that Rolf Firearms is responsible for the massacre in Central Park, McCoy is irate at the company for manufacturing a weapon that can be modified so easily. The judge has little interest in Mr. McCoy's case, arguing that the place for a discussion about gun control laws is the legislature and not the courts. An appeals court disagrees though, and allows McCoy to make his case against Rolf. The defendant's lawyer argues that people like Trope are the problem and they would find a way to kill even if guns were unavailable. In his closing statement, McCoy poignantly shows that were it not for Rolf's criminal negligence in selling a gun with a known design flaw that makes it easy to convert, Trope wouldn't have been able to fire so many bullets, and therefore would not have harmed as many people during the shooting.

The jury finds the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree and McCoy briefly celebrates. The judge, however, is still adamant to accept Mr. McCoy's argument and reverses the jury's verdict. The judge believes the People failed to meet the standard of proof set at the beginning of the trial, so he issues a directed verdict of not guilty, shocking the victim's parents and the prosecution. The episode ends with McCoy staring at the empty courtroom still appalled by the judge's decision.