SVU 5x24 - Poison

[Citanul]

A slightly different episode in that the focus was very much on court proceedings rather than an investigation, but still a good one. And it certainly made you wonder - judges are supposed to be impartial, but who checks up on them.

I guess that's an important issue in South Africa, where we don't have trial by jury. While there are benefits to that (a judge is better qualified to judge a case solely on its legal basis and can handle various technicalities), there can also be drawbacks.

One thing that puzzled me early on was when Elliot was being questioned about his interview with the daughter. The defence lawyer claimed that because Elliot told the mother that he was going to make sure she never saw her children again, that suggested that he influenced the daughter because he went into the interview with the opinion that the mother was guilty.

But he made that statement after the interview, so why couldn't his opnion have been formed by the interview? It seems a bit too much of a leap to make.

[Alex]

Novak was amazing! I'm sure every judge in the district will be watching themselves around her now.

This episode again highlighted the flaws in the justice system. How many other judges make snap decisions based on some or other preconception? And how can you monitor something like that?

I kinda missed the first few mins so missed the premise of the case. How old was Alexis?

[Citanul]

This episode again highlighted the flaws in the justice system. How many other judges make snap decisions based on some or other preconception?

And as was pointed out - a judge must decide whether to recuse themselves, and so you can end up asked a biased judge to decide whether they're biased or not.

And how can you monitor something like that?

Indeed - who watches the watchmen?

I kinda missed the first few mins so missed the premise of the case. How old was Alexis?

About 9 or 10 I think. The parents took her into hospital and Olivia and Elliot wound up being called in (the episode opened in the hospital). I'm a little hazy on why they were called in in the first place because I don't think the hospital suspected foul play at that point, but I think Alexis's aunt may have had a hand in the call out as right from the start she claimed that the mother had it in for Alexis.