Accomplice to Murder begins with a woman arriving home and surprising a burglar. The burglar is just as frightened as she is and insists he will just leave, but as the woman is backing away she falls onto a couch and dies inexplicably. Later at the coroner lab, Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs the autopsy and identifies old injuries which may have contributed to her death of a cerebral hemorrhage. The burglar is brought into custody by Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) and maintains his story that he never touched the victim, and Quincy is inclined to believe him which leads to further investigation into the relationship she had with her abusive ex-husband.
While this episode does a good job of putting the spotlight on domestic violence and its horrendous effects, there isn't really any type of mystery involved as we quickly learn who and what caused the death and the focus becomes gathering the evidence to prove it as well as stressing the importance of the problem. Some may find this type of episode intriguing, but it is just not my preference.
There is also another plot involving a woman who Quincy meets at an abuse shelter who ends up going back to her abusive husband and being beaten up again. Quincy offers her a job in the lab to help get her away from her abuser, but at the conclusion she tells him that they are going to counseling together and working things out. While I understand that the writers and production team were probably trying to demonstrate that some abusive relationships can be salvaged, in this instance the husband tracked his wife to an abuse shelter, pressured her to come back home and then continued to beat her. Sorry, but I was just not buying that the sick and violent behavior of the husband was resolved in a few counseling sessions and found this to be a very inappropriate conclusion, you're not putting a happily ever after bow on that type of relationship.
All in all, a fair Season 3 episode that deals with a very serious problem which continues in the present and must be counteracted through prevention and awareness.