Law & Order Episode 16.03 Ghosts

DEATHBED CONFESSION PUTS FONTANA BACK ON COLD-CASE MURDER OF GIRL THAT ONLY HEAPS MORE PAIN ON VICTIM'S FATHER -- A criminal makes a surprising deathbed confession that compels Detective Fontana (Dennis Farina) to re-open his own 10-year-old cold case file concerning the murder of a 12-year-old girl. Instead of the victim's father, whom Fontana is certain committed the crime, the new prime suspect is a former drug-addict whose jailhouse confession to the prosecution's most viable witness is disqualified on the grounds it was made in a spiritual context. Despite dwindling options, Assistant D.A. McCoy (Sam Waterston) continues to pursue a murder-two conviction despite a stern warning from his wary boss, D.A. Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson), who cautions against the fallout of losing this high profile case again.