Clifford Banks

Clifford Banks is a fictional character introduced during the second season of the television program Murder One. Banks was portrayed by character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince. Banks is introduced in the 1997 episode "Chapter Seventeen", and appears in five more episodes

Banks is a serial killer wanted for several murders. He views himself more as an executioner than a murderer, however; all of his victims are criminals who he feels the justice system has not properly punished. Usually, Banks dispenses his form of justice shortly after his victim have been released from prison. For this, he is dubbed "The Street Sweeper."

Banks claims that he began killing after his mentally retarded brother, Tommy, was killed during a robbery of the Banks home. When the man charged with the murder avoided a long prison sentence by entering into a plea bargain with the district attorney, Banks snapped and began his killing spree.

Banks' killing spree comes to an end when he is arrested during a routine traffic stop; the police officer who stops him claims to see a leg protruding from a duffel bag in the back of Banks' van. Banks ultimately hires Jimmy Wyler (Anthony LaPaglia) to represent him in his trial. Wyler, a former assistant district attorney, had prosecuted Tommy's killer (Robert LaSardo). Just as Banks' trial is set to begin, he, through Wyler, seeks permission from the court to marry a woman with whom he has been corresponding. The request is granted by the court, and Banks is married on the eve of trial. Banks would later discover that his wife was merely using the marriage as a means to profit from his notoriety.

Banks' criminal trial spans several episodes of the second season of Murder One. The plotline resolves itself in the series finale, "Murder One: Diary of a Serial Killer".

Banks' relationship with his attorneys is often fractious, as he wants to use the trial to publicly condemn the American criminal justice system. Banks, however, regains some level of respect for his attorneys when Wyler discovers that the officer who initially detained Banks during the traffic stop could not have seen a leg protruding from the duffel bag. After finding a paramedic who testified that the bag was fully zipped at the time of the traffic stop, Wyler moves to have all of the evidence against Banks excluded as the result of an illegal search of the vehicle. This evidence includes materials discovered at Banks' home. Ultimately, the trial court judge reluctantly grants this motion and dismisses all charges against Banks.

In the aftermath of the ruling, Wyler worries that Banks will kill again. Shortly thereafter, Wyler learns that Banks himself killed Tommy, and the resulting trauma prompted his vigilantism. When Wyler confronts Banks with this knowledge, Banks flies into a rage and attacks him at his office with a gun, but is overcome with guilt and drops the weapon. The series ends with Banks pleading guilty to the murder of his brother and requesting the maximum allowable sentence under the law.