Watching this show now from the new millenia and the advances in treatment of AIDs gives this Law And Order episode a certain air of unreality.
A closeted gay man is found shot to death in his apartment with the place completely trashed. Bullet to the back of the head so it isn't a suicide at least in the classic sense.
The investigation leads to Peter Frechette who apparently has started a new business, assisting fellow gay men who want to commit suicide. He's traced by George Dzundza and Chris Noth to cases in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
I well remember these years and did see first hand what AIDs did to many friends. Some I suspect did take the out of suicide with methods that could never be proved.
The issues raised are real and genuine yet for me a weakness in the story telling is the fact that a certain point in the story the related cases in California were just dropped. I suspect there would be more than passing interest in Michael Moriarty's prosecution from the related jurisdiction.
At least AIDs is not an automatic death sentence any more.