Benjamin Stone

Benjamin Stone was an Executive Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order, portrayed by Michael Moriarty. Stone worked under Alfred Wentworth (in the pilot episode) and Adam Schiff. It was Schiff with whom he is closest, treating him as a kind of surrogate father (his own father having been an overbearing alcoholic, as revealed in the episode "Prescription for Death".) The last straw is in the episode Old Friends, which portrays a racketeering case in which the main witness, whose safety Stone had personally guaranteed, is murdered by the Russian Mafia. Wracked with guilt, he resigns. He is succeeded by Jack McCoy as Executive ADA.

After he left he is mentioned in the 1996 episode Custody as a possible witness against a judge. When his former assistant Paul Robinette, now a defense attorney, wants a judge to recuse himself for past comments showing bias against drug addicts and support for forced sterilization, Robinette threatens to subpoena Stone as a witness against the judge. Upon hearing of the threat, Adam Schiff informs Jack McCoy that Stone "is traveling in Europe, not available to testify at any hearing." However, the judge by this time has already declared himself "unavailable" to hear the case.