brought down to the 27th precinct, the police station for the detectives featured on Law & Order, for further questioning. Briscoe and Van Buren play good cop / bad cop with Mrs. Payton. Briscoe aggressively questions her. Van Buren timely enters the room and admonishes Briscoe for his rudeness, before inviting Mrs. Payton for a coffee and a private chat. Van Buren empathizes with Mrs. Payton over the difficulties of being a mother ("You're only as happy as your unhappiest kid"). Eventually, Diane Payton admits she stabbed her own son to death. She is arrested, and later arraigned to the court and enters a plea of not guilty. Mrs. Payton's attorney, Kay Hartley, approaches Southerlyn and identifies herself as an old college friend. Later, in a discussion with McCoy, Southerlyn reveals she remembers Hartley as a highly competitive student set upon becoming a high-earning Wall Street lawyer. Hartley says her firm has asked her to take on Mrs. Payton's case pro bono. McCoy is surprised a tax lawyer would be asked to try a criminal case. Later, Southerlyn is approached by Hartley while exercising in Central Park. Hartley reveals Danny Payton was her cousin and Diane Payton is her aunt. Hartley has taken a leave of absence from her firm to defend her aunt. Danny Payton had schizophrenia and Hartley wants to introduce his medical records into evidence, but Diane Payton refuses to allow this. Hartley wants to make a motion to enable this new evidence to come to life. Partially through sympathy, the DAs agree not to oppose the motion, which is granted. In the trial, psychiatrist Dr. Trask testifies Danny Payton was diagnosed with schizophrenia several years earlier and was held in a psychiatric hospital, but was eventually released, as medication proved effective in controlling his condition. He confirms Mrs. Payton recently requested her son be re-admitted to the hospital as his condition had worsened. However, Dr Trask refused his readmission once he established Danny had stopped taking his medications. When Diane Payton takes the stand to be questioned by Hartley, she admits her son had stopped taking his medication as it made him feel extremely depressed and nauseous. Subsequently, he began hearing voices urging him to kill. Following the refusal of the hospital to take Danny in, Mrs. Payton lent Danny her car ("long drives calmed him down.") It was on this drive he hit Emily Milius.