The fallout of the execution also leads to Kincaid leaving the district attorney’s office as she comes to terms with her role in the man’s death.
Sure, the criminal was guilty and received the punishment that was decided upon by a jury, but it still doesn’t prevent the detectives and attorneys from feeling human with human emotions.
Unlike pretty much every other episode of Law and Order, this one focuses less on a crime that has to be solved as much as it deals with the ramifications of the characters’ actions.
And then there’s the classic Season 6 finale “Aftershock,” which as the title suggests, deals with Jack McCoy, Claire Kincaid, Lennie Briscoe, and Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) dealing with the fallout of watching the execution of a convict they all were responsible for nabbing in the first place.