'Law & Order: SVU' Season 28 Premiere Echoes Cornell Case; Mariska Hargitay Says Script Was Written in July
The Season 28 premiere of NBC's long-running crime drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which aired Oct. 9, bore a striking resemblance to the Cornell University sexual assault case that has drawn national attention in recent weeks. Star Mariska Hargitay told The Hollywood Reporter the episode was written and filmed back in July, well before the Cornell case hit national headlines in September.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the premiere episode titled "Volition" follows a young woman named Emily who ends up in the hospital after a disoriented late-night subway ride, telling Capt. Olivia Benson (Hargitay) she believes three men raped her after she passed out from drinking too much alcohol. Emily knew two of the men and had gone back to one's home for drinks after trivia, but she struggles to recall details of the night, including whether she verbally said "no."
"This was written and shot in July, well before the Cornell story hit national headlines in September," Hargitay told The Hollywood Reporter. "That said, it does speak to how common these stories are. Every 68 seconds someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. All too often these assaults are perpetrated on people who are intoxicated. So few of these survivors get the justice they seek due to the system breaking down, especially when they need it the most."
In the episode, detectives track down the three men and bring them to trial, but acknowledge it will be a tough case to win given the victim's memory gaps and a New York state law holding that severely intoxicated people can still consent if they willingly chose to drink — a legal detail at the heart of the episode.
Showrunner Michele Fazekas said she, like most people, did not know about the Cornell case until the lawsuit hit national headlines in September. Her inspiration came instead from New York's 2025-26 legislative battle over the legal definition of sexual consent: lawmakers attempted to amend a rape law that does not expressly protect voluntarily severely intoxicated victims, but the proposal never reached a vote before the session ended. Under current law, Fazekas explained, intoxicated victims generally must be deemed "physically helpless" or have been intoxicated involuntarily.
"What we were tapping into was the general misconception that being voluntarily intoxicated — even severely intoxicated — does not affect one's ability to consent to sex," Fazekas said. "You can be extremely inebriated, and the law says you can still give consent. What does that mean if you're 'black out drunk'? What does that mean if you are being coerced by others, if you are unable to make informed decisions because of your level of intoxication?"
In the Cornell case, a former Cornell student identified as Jane Doe in court filings sued the university and seven fraternity members on Sept. 16, alleging several men at the Chi Phi fraternity house forced her to consume drugs before gang-raping her on Oct. 19, 2024, when she was 20. The lawsuit alleges one man posted in a Snapchat group chat called Chi Phi Actives that there was "free" companionship upstairs, after which more men joined an assault lasting until about 5:45 a.m. According to The Cornell Daily Sun, the seven defendants are Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. The investigation has been reopened by the Tompkins County District Attorney's office, and Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to review the case.
Hargitay has also spoken out repeatedly on Instagram about the Cornell case, jointly with her Joyful Heart Foundation: "We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story. Cornell has failed to protect its students." The statement added: "Survivors deserve to be believed and kept informed. Silence protects no one. To her: we support you."
"Law & Order: SVU," on air since 1999 and famous for stories "ripped from the headlines," has long explored sexual violence, abuse, exploitation and the justice system through fictional cases. In this episode, Benson turns to jury consultant Gwen Sharpe (played by "Succession" star J. Smith-Cameron), a move that strains her partnership with Assistant District Attorney Dominick "Sonny" Carisi (Peter Scanavino).
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Mariska Hargitay, photo by Shannon (SMPhotography), CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
