Family Business (Law & Order episode)

"Family Business" is the 142th episode of NBC's legal drama Law & Order, and the eighth episode of the seventh season.

Plot

The chief financial officer of a department store is found shot to death on an elevator at the store late at night. The victim's wife and her sister are co-presidents of the store, and are daughters of the semi-retired chief executive officer.

During the investigation, the detectives find that the victim's wife was having an affair as part of an open marriage. They also find that the sister was running the company poorly and using suspect accounting to try to cover up the financial difficulties of the company. The victim knew about both circumstances and wanted to take actions to address them.

The police eventually find the murder weapon, which is registered to the spiritual guru of the wife, but has the fingerprints of the sister. The police arrest both, and after a night in jail, the wife turns on the sister: she claims that she had a phone call with her sister in which she claimed the victim had to "be stopped" from meddling in the affairs of the company. For testimony against her sister, she is granted immunity.

At trial, the father, who had previously provided alibis for both sisters to the police, claims that the victim's wife was not at his home, and that she admitted to him that she murdered the victim. The state asks for a continuance to determine if the defense attorney subborned perjory, but are unable to prove anything substantive. The father knows that with the grant of immunity, he can protect his defendant daughter by accusing her sister of the murder. With sufficient doubt in the minds of the jury, they return a verdict of not guilty.