The hunt for a racist serial killer is aided by personality profiling that the defense uses to their advantage in court.The hunt for a racist serial killer is aided by personality profiling that the defense uses to their advantage in court.The hunt for a racist serial killer is aided by personality profiling that the defense uses to their advantage in court.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on the following incidents:
- The 1977-1980 Joseph Christopher (a.k.a. "The .22-Caliber Killer") case. Christopher was a serial killer who gained infamy for a series of murders in the early 1980s. He is believed to have killed at least twelve individuals and wounded numerous others.
- The 1991-1992 John Ausonius (a.k.a. "The Laser Man") case. Ausonius was a Swedish far-right extremist convicted of serial murder and 10 bank robberies. Between August 1991 to January 1992 he shot eleven people in the Stockholm and Uppsala area, most of whom were immigrants, killing one and seriously injuring the others. He first used a rifle equipped with a laser sight (hence his nickname), and later switched to a revolver. He was arrested in June 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1994. Additionally, in February 2018 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the 1992 murder of Holocaust survivor Blanka Zmigrod.
- The Joseph Paul Franklin (a.k.a. "The Racist Killer") case. Franklin was a white supremacist and serial killer who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was eventually executed by lethal injection on November 20, 2013.
- The 1980-1993 James Swann (a.k.a. "The Shotgun Stalker") case. Swann is a mentally-ill serial killer who committed a string of random drive-by shotgun shootings that terrorized two neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. in 1993. The spree killed four people and injured ten others. Swann was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to Saint Elizabeths Hospital.
- Inspired by the 1993 controversy of Anthony P. Griffin, a black lawyer, defending Ku Klux Klan member Michael Lowe.
- GoofsLionel Jackson, the older African-American victim, explains to Logan and Briscoe in the hospital that he knew to duck and run for cover when he saw the shotgun due to his WWII service in the 761st Battalion at Omaha Beech on D-Day. The 761st Tank Battalion was a unit in World War II and was primarily manned by African-Americans (the U.S. Army did not desegregate until after the war) however it was not deployed for action until November 1944, five months after D-Day.
- Quotes
Lionel Jackson: [testifying against a racist killer] I remember the voice of the first white man that told me not to come in his store. I remember the voice of the doctor who told me I had a healthy son. And I remember the voice of the man who took out a gun and shot me!
- ConnectionsReferences Unforgiven (1992)
Featured review
Unsettling profile
The subject matter is enough to make one want to see Season 4's fourth episode "Profile". Racism is such a bold and hard-hitting topic, that has been a big problem everywhere for decades and still is now and almost as bad. Regardless of the execution, whether it's handled tactfully or whether it's on the preachy side, credit has always been given by me for even trying. As well as that and my love for the show, another big reason to see it is James Earl Jones who is another person who makes everything he is in better.
"Profile" for me is an outstanding episode and one of the standouts of the fourth season. One of the most powerful, bravest and most thought-provoking (am aware that this word has been used a lot by me but it is one of the words that repeatedly sums the show and the franchise up) ones. And one that more than does justice to its subject, complete with a riveting case and being one of the episodes to have the guest stars being even better than the regulars.
Cannot fault the production values, it's slick and gritty as ever and is one of the better shot episodes of the season. It's intimate with the action but doesn't get claustrophobic. The music doesn't get intrusive and suits the mood well. The direction is understated but provides some great tension in the second half of the episode especially.
Of the Season 4 episodes, "Profile" is one of the best written. It is very intelligently crafted and has intensity and edge while handling the topic sensitively too, everything with the profile and the issues that come with it is particularly well done with some interesting questions raised that makes one think hard about the validity of evidence. The story is one of the most uncompromising, the episode really not holding back on its depiction and reprehensible traits of the perpetrator, of Season 4, while not getting heavy-handed (i.e. explicit messaging). The conflict has genuine tension and the second half gave me chills. The ending is one of the season's most shocking, and it's different.
All the characters are very well written, although the judge is frustrating (it didn't take away from the drama though and she does boast one of the episode's best lines). The regulars are all on top form, especially Stone, and the perpetrator is as as nasty a piece of work as one can get for any 'Law and Order' episode covering racism. Horace McCoy is the juiciest character, that is one shrewd character who epitomises the "characters meet their match" kind.
Performances couldn't be better. All the regulars bring their usual excellence, Michael Moriarty does authority and conflicted so well and he was missed when he left at the end of the season (with him being one of the best things consistently of the first four seasons). "Profile" is one of the show's finest examples of the guest stars being not just on equal level in quality of performances but perhaps even better. Joe Seneca is moving and William Carden is chilling, but best of all is Jones who brings a lot of gravitas and shrewd intelligence and dominates the legal scenes even more so than Moriarty. On paper, one does wonder how anybody could defend such an awful person whose guilt is so obvious but Jones manages to make McCoy plausible and somewhat entertaining which says a lot about how good an actor he is. His conversation with Stone explaining why he is defending indeed fascinates.
In summary, brilliant. 10/10
"Profile" for me is an outstanding episode and one of the standouts of the fourth season. One of the most powerful, bravest and most thought-provoking (am aware that this word has been used a lot by me but it is one of the words that repeatedly sums the show and the franchise up) ones. And one that more than does justice to its subject, complete with a riveting case and being one of the episodes to have the guest stars being even better than the regulars.
Cannot fault the production values, it's slick and gritty as ever and is one of the better shot episodes of the season. It's intimate with the action but doesn't get claustrophobic. The music doesn't get intrusive and suits the mood well. The direction is understated but provides some great tension in the second half of the episode especially.
Of the Season 4 episodes, "Profile" is one of the best written. It is very intelligently crafted and has intensity and edge while handling the topic sensitively too, everything with the profile and the issues that come with it is particularly well done with some interesting questions raised that makes one think hard about the validity of evidence. The story is one of the most uncompromising, the episode really not holding back on its depiction and reprehensible traits of the perpetrator, of Season 4, while not getting heavy-handed (i.e. explicit messaging). The conflict has genuine tension and the second half gave me chills. The ending is one of the season's most shocking, and it's different.
All the characters are very well written, although the judge is frustrating (it didn't take away from the drama though and she does boast one of the episode's best lines). The regulars are all on top form, especially Stone, and the perpetrator is as as nasty a piece of work as one can get for any 'Law and Order' episode covering racism. Horace McCoy is the juiciest character, that is one shrewd character who epitomises the "characters meet their match" kind.
Performances couldn't be better. All the regulars bring their usual excellence, Michael Moriarty does authority and conflicted so well and he was missed when he left at the end of the season (with him being one of the best things consistently of the first four seasons). "Profile" is one of the show's finest examples of the guest stars being not just on equal level in quality of performances but perhaps even better. Joe Seneca is moving and William Carden is chilling, but best of all is Jones who brings a lot of gravitas and shrewd intelligence and dominates the legal scenes even more so than Moriarty. On paper, one does wonder how anybody could defend such an awful person whose guilt is so obvious but Jones manages to make McCoy plausible and somewhat entertaining which says a lot about how good an actor he is. His conversation with Stone explaining why he is defending indeed fascinates.
In summary, brilliant. 10/10
helpful•81
- TheLittleSongbird
- Sep 3, 2020
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