Law & Order

Executioner - S18-E9

Factual error: Yost attacks and kills an innocent man, believing him to be Dr. Horace Garrison, a physician who administered a faulty lethal injection to a condemned prisoner, reducing him to a vegetative state rather than killing him. The problem is, medical doctors never, ever participate in an execution except to certify death, a legal requirement. They do not, ever, take an active role in killing the condemned person.

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Suggested correction: I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but medical doctors are involved in lethal injections more than just certifying death. This is why so many groups were actively trying to stop the practice of medical profession involvement. In 2007, 17 states required physician involvement, which included doctors at times having to administer the injection.

Bishop73

The botched execution took place in South Carolina, which absolutely forbids medical practitioners to take an active role in killing a condemned prisoner. In fact, they are considering switching executing prisoners by firing squad instead of lethal injection, at least partly to distance medical professionals from the actual procedure leading to a person's death.

Remand - S6-E10

Character mistake: McCoy asks his witness, an expert geneticist, what the odds are that a DNA sample presented in evidence does not match that of the defendant. He answers "About one in two hundred." That is idiotic. If the DNA samples are identical the chances that the the sample presented in evidence does not come from the defendant is about one in two billion, not one in two hundred! A bright high school senior would know that, never mind an expert geneticist.

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Suggested correction: If the odds are 1 in 200, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.5%. If the odds are 1 in 2 billion, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.9999999995%, which simply isn't true.

Bishop73

In fact as any geneticist (i.e, anyone like me) will tell you the chances of two identical DNA "fingerprints" coming from two different and unrelated individuals are around one in two thousand million. Two billion. In fact the odds are much higher than that but we scientists don't like to make claims that sound unlikely or fantastic. The accuracy of DNA fingerprinting is, as you point out, 99.9999999995%. You correction is wrong and the posting is correct.

Except that's not what happened in the scene or what happens in real life. You simply don't understand what you're arguing. You're not a geneticist.

Bishop73

Battle Lines - S22-E2

Continuity mistake: Detectives Cosgrove and Shaw head to the hospital to interview a doctor which they do in a hallway. At one point the door behind the doctor is a single door then it changes to two doors and then finally when the detectives leave there is no door at all.

bnemirow

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Suggested correction: Dr. Mercer and the detectives stand at a T-intersection of 2 halls (Cosgrove and Shaw at the top arm of the T). In 2 shots facing Mercer head-on, a single door is at the end of the hall directly behind her. In a shot facing Mercer's right side there are double-doors beside her, to her left. The last shot of Mercer is head-on with the single door at the end of the hall. When the detectives leave in the shot from a new angle, we cannot see the hallway (at the right) where Mercer stood, only the opening to the hall (00:18:25).

Super Grover

School Daze - S11-E22

Plot hole: They speak of sending a high school shooter to state prison. But if he's under 18 surely he'd have to be held in a juvenile facility until he's old enough.

Rob245

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Suggested correction: This is incorrect for the time period. Until recently, 16 and 17 year olds who were charged as adults could get sent to State prison with adults. 2015 is when New York State decides to house 16 and 17 years olds in State prison in separate facilities.

Bishop73

Second Opinion - S5-E1

Factual error: Ryan, the laboratory technician, eats his lunch of burger and fries while discussing a murder case with Assistant D.A. Claire Kincaid. Trouble is, they are in his laboratory. No lab technician ever, ever eats or drinks in a laboratory - it is the most basic lab protocol imaginable. He could contaminate his samples in any one of a hundred ways, he inevitably contaminates his gloves or fingers with residue from his meal and he risks poisoning himself with accidental transfer. This is not a character error - lab security is hammered into science students starting with the first day of first year and number one on the list is never, ever eat or drink in your lab.

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Question: I don't remember if it was this show or another L&O, but there was an episode where a reporter was overseas at a military encampment, reporting on a war. While there, he explains the military's plans by drawing them in the sand. Shortly later, the encampment is attacked. How could the enemy figure out where the encampment was? The reporter never said where the location was at, only what the soldiers were planning.

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