When teenagers commit violent crimes, things get complicated.
Technically, they’re still kids — but if a crime is sufficiently heinous, is it fair to argue a sixteen-year-old didn’t know any better?
Law & Order Season 22 Episode 20 examined this thorny issue. It didn’t come up with any answers, instead giving viewers several perspectives to consider.
There were a lot of factors to consider, not the least of which was that Aaron Cole was a white kid whose parents were wealthy, while Black kids who committed similar crimes were tried as adults.
McCoy and Price were both right on this one. Price didn’t think treating Aaron unfairly helped the situation, which it didn’t. But there was no way to undo the injustice already done to Aaron’s less wealthy peers of color.
The time to change how things are done isn’t when you get a more privileged perp — that’s asking for trouble.
Still, Price had a point that Aaron was a screwed-up teenager whose immaturity and impulsivity contributed to his crime. That might have played sympathetically to a jury/
If the jurors thought Aaron should have been tried in juvenile court, they might have voted to acquit on the grounds that he didn’t know what he was doing.
Luckily for Price’s case, the defense attorney didn’t do her client many favors. She got the confession thrown out, but after that, the only defense she presented was a series of excuses for Aaron’s behavior.
That probably solidified the jury’s belief that Aaron was a spoiled rich kid who killed a man and thought he could get away with it.
The defense attorney’s treatment of Lily Cosgrove was especially egregious.
Lily: I didn’t say I had suicidal thoughts! I just said I can understand how kids can do crazy things like that when they’re stressed. I was just trying to be open and bare my soul like they told us to do.
Mrs. Cosgrove: We know. But honey, you know if you do feel that way, you can always come to us.
Lily: [to Cosgrove] How can I? You said you would keep this between us and you lied.
She came off as a bully, consistently insisting Lily was lying to impress the rich kids and accusing her of emotional instability when that strategy failed. Why on Earth did she think this would score points with the jury?
Ironically, everything she said about Lily applied to Aaron. She should have focused on making her case instead of hurling outlandish accusations.
If she wanted to go for an insanity defense, why try to blame the school for Aaron’s instability, especially by claiming the root cause was n event that he wasn’t present for? Surely she could have found a psychologist to evaluate Aaron and offer expert testimony.
The Lily subplot was one of the more interesting aspects of this case. I love when detectives have to balance their family and professional obligations!
Lily went to Sophia’s school and knew Aaron well enough to text him about the things Sophia said about her father, making her the prosecution’s star witness — except she didn’t want to be involved.
I wish the story hadn’t jumped so quickly from Lily asking Cosgrove to keep it to himself that she’d texted Aaron to her testifying. Cosgrove got one scene begging Nolan to keep Lily out of it, after which she took the stand.
I know there’s only so much time in the hour, but the meatiest drama might have come from Lily learning on-screen that she would have to testify. Lily’s mother didn’t have any on-screen reaction either. Talk about a missed opportunity!
Lily and her mother might have gotten into it with Cosgrove for bringing this to Price or not doing more to stop Price from calling her. They also could have gone the route of Mrs. Cosgrove not wanting to consent to Lily testifying.
This could have been powerful drama, but we fast-forwarded to Lily’s testimony instead.
Similarly, I was curious about the dynamics between Lily and the other students. Sophia initially asked if Lily was the one who divulged her secret, but there were no interactions between the girls.
Lily said Sophia hung with the “rich kids,” yet Lily had Aaron’s phone number. What was going on there? Were Aaron and Lily friends? Did Lily struggle to fit in with her wealthier classmates?
These dynamics would have added a fascinating extra layer to this story. And the defense attorney’s line of questioning would have made a lot more sense if there had been an explicit story about Lily’s relationships with these other kids.
Instead, the defense attorney came off as desperate, and her theory that Lily was lying to impress the wealthier kids came out of nowhere.
So did this business about Lily having had suicidal thoughts. Lily denied ever having said any such thing, and it’s hard to know what to believe. Lily didn’t seem depressed or unstable, but the last time she appeared, she had difficulty dealing with the trauma of witnessing a woman be shot.
Suicidal thoughts don’t make a person incompetent to understand or interpret others’ statements, and the defense attorney suggesting it aggravated me.
Mental illness is already stigmatized enough without people who should know better spreading lies about how mentally ill people are violent and unstable.
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.