Homicide: Life on the Street
Three Men and Adena
Season 1, Episode 5 · Aired 1993-03-03
Synopsis
Bayliss and Pembleton bring in arabber Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), the prime suspect for the murder of Adena Watson. Since Tucker has already been interviewed by police multiple times, the detectives have only one more chance to get a confession before Tucker goes free. The three men spend 12 hours in the interrogation room, nicknamed "The Box", and the detectives try multiple tactics to get him to confess, from intimidation to emphathy to lying. Tucker remains adamant that he did not kill the girl, and eventually turns the table on the police by identifying their hidden insecurities. Although Tucker admits to harboring pedophilicfeelings for Adena, the interview ends without a murder confession and Tucker goes free. Bayliss now questions whether Tucker was the killer at all, but Pembleton believes he was, and expresses a new respect for his partner Bayliss.
In the series
This episode is part of Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999) on NBC.
Baltimore detectives, handheld grit, and cases that don’t tidy up for sweeps.
Key cast
- Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton
- Yaphet Kotto as Al Giardello
- Kyle Secor as Tim Bayliss
- Richard Belzer as John Munch
- Clark Johnson as Meldrick Lewis
- Melissa Leo as Kay Howard