Donny Carlson is the son of the late Frank Goren and Evelyn Carlson, the paternal half-nephew of Robert Goren, and the grandson of Frances Goren and her husband William. In the episode he appears in, his father Frank asks Robert Goren to transfer Donny because Donny witnessed brutality in the prison he was in (he was incarcerated for driving a car with drugs). The transfer goes through, but then he is transferred back to his old prison, where his uncle has gone undercover to prove the brutality and protect his nephew. After the prison hierarchy is shut down due to the actions of his uncle, he disappears until his 'heart' is found on a bed in a crate, but testing proves it isn't his, but Nicole Wallace's.