Law and Order Observations

Aside from how one of the detectives was wearing a plaid tie that matched my high school's plaid, the first thing I noticed was the brutality toward the two living suspects in the prison van. I feel like any defense attorney with a brain could use this harm done to his or her client against the state's case, and although it may not persuade a jury of the defendant's innocence, it could cast enough doubt on the motives of the investigators to let the defendant walk. On a side note, I feel like detectives and cops on tv are always casually beating up suspects, which makes me wonder if it actually happens, and I hope it doesn't.
Another thing I noticed (and yet another common, re-occurring theme in cop dramas) was the conflict and tension and animosity between the feds and the local cops. They were completely unable to work with each other because of overlapping jurisdictions and whatnot. It seemed that once any cop had worked with the feds, he had a sour feeling toward them and wouldn't hesitate to make his opinions clear. The entire case was almost lost to the hard-headedness and of both the New York police department and the FBI, who refused to cooperate or share evidence or knowledge of undercover agents.
The final aspect of the episode that hit me as strange was the fact that the state won its case not by proving (beyond reasonable doubt) that the leader in the IRA killed the other prisoner, but by proving that he had lied about not being a violent man. It was the testimony of a woman whose children and husband had been murdered by the Irishman's bomb that handed the state its conviction. While I understand this to be normal procedure, as it demonstrates to the courtroom character flaws in a defendant, I am bothered that this led a ruling of guilty. While the Irishman was a horrible man, and had probably committed more murders than just the three (in Ireland, by the way), his committing those murders does not convict him of the murder of the prisoner. His lying to the jury and judge about not being a violent man makes him guilty of perjury, not murder. Do I believe he was guilty? Absolutely yes. Do I have problems with the way that the state made its cases? You bet.