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| “ | I murdered a man for no reason other than I wanted to. He pissed me off, so he deserved to die. | „ |
| ~ Warner describing the murder he committed. |
Clay Warner is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Genius". He is a violent ex-con and a brilliant writer who is convicted of murder and demands to be put to death rather than serve life in prison.
He was portrayed by David Wike.
Early life[]
Warner grew up in an abusive, dysfunctional home; his father was an alcoholic who eventually drank himself to death, and his mother treated him with cruelty, calling him "a bad seed" and refusing to have anything to do with him after he turned 18. As a result of his parents' abuse and neglect, Warner grew up consumed with a violent rage and a contempt for virtually everyone around him.
Despite these flaws, however, Warner was a gifted writer whose fiction and poetry earned him a scholarship to New York University, where he worked toward a graduate degree in creative writing. When his mother refused to help him with tuition, he began selling marijuana to his classmates, one of whom gave him up to the police after getting arrested for soliciting a prostitute. He was imprisoned for 10 years, during which his anger grew even more violent and uncontrollable; at one point, he killed another inmate simply because he didn't like him.
Warner met Nelson Lambert, a celebrated, but fading, author after sending him a manuscript of a novel as part of a prison writing program. Lambert was so impressed by Warner's writing that he took out ads in the New York Review of Books calling for his release from prison, arguing that someone with Warner's gifts would better serve society as an author than a prisoner. He also hired a lawyer to petition the parole board on Warner's behalf.
Lambert's efforts were successful, and Warner was granted early parole. He also got Warner a job as a creative writing professor at Hudson University, and helped him publish his debut novel, Twilight, which won universal praise from critics and became a bestseller. Despite his newfound success, however, Warner remained consumed with an increasingly intense anger, and often wrote down his violent fantasies of murder and revenge.
In "Genius"[]
One night after work, Warner gets drunk at a bar with Lambert, and calls a taxi to take him home. When Warner lights a cigar in the cab, the driver, Bobby Lee Redburn, yells at him to put it out. Warner flies into a violent, drunken rage, pulls Redburn out of the cab and stabs him to death. He then stashes the body under the cab and takes $300 Redburn had earned that night from fares - but accidentally leaves behind a copy of Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell, which Lambert had lent to him. The next day, he goes back to teaching his class as if nothing had happened.
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green investigate Redburn's murder and question Lambert after finding out that he had purchased the book. Briscoe and Green question Warner, who says that he and Lambert left the bar at 1:00 am - two hours earlier than the time supplied by the bartender who served them - and says that he does not remember where he left the book. Forensic examination of the book and the empty bottle of scotch the detectives found in Lambert's trash yields Warner's DNA, which leads Briscoe and Green to uncover his prison record. They ultimately arrest Warner in the middle of a class, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn charge him with first-degree murder.
Southerlyn interviews one of Warner's colleagues, who reveals that he found a knife and a wad of $20 bills in the office that he shares with Warner. Realizing that he will be found guilty of murder, Warner tells McCoy that he will confess on one condition: that he be given the death penalty. Warner's lawyer, Ira Simpkis, tries to have Warner declared legally incompetent to be executed, so McCoy has him examined by forensic psychiatrist Emil Skoda. Warner tells Skoda that he killed Rayburn simply because he wanted to, and that he feels no guilt for what he did. Skoda reports to McCoy and Southerlyn that Warner knows that what he did was wrong, but doesn't care, which convinces them to pursue the death penalty.
Simpkis meets with McCoy and argues that Warner's life as a writer who influences and inspires people is worth more than that of Redburn, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and collected and distributed child pornography. Lambert also testifies on Warner's behalf, saying that, while he should be punished for committing murder, he should be allowed to live so he can continue writing. Warner, meanwhile, testifies that he would rather die than go back to prison, which he argues makes him completely sane. The presiding judge, Carla Soloman, sides with Warner, and sentences him to be executed; Warner is then put to death.
Trivia[]
- Warner is loosely based on two real-life criminals:
- The late Jack Henry Abbott, a writer and convicted murderer and armed robber who was granted early parole thanks to the advocacy of author Norman Mailer, only to commit another murder six weeks later and go back to prison.
- The late Gary Gilmore, who in 1977 successfully petitioned to be executed after being found guilty of murder.
External links[]
- Clay Warner on the Law & Order Wiki
