Jack McCoy quotes from Law & Order

Schiff

Danielle Melnick. She ought to have you on retainer. Dig up this other crime, it strengthens her case.

McCoy

I get it. I was supposed to ignore the fact that Leslie Harlan shot up a liquor store.

Schiff

It answers the unanswered question of why the girl didn't try to escape.

If it really was because Trapp forced her to act like a criminal, why didn't Leslie tell us about it?

Schiff

Because she knew that you'd try to use it against her. Now, look what you tried to do with it.

McCoy

Look at what her lawyer did do with it.

Schiff

She's not as smart as her lawyer. You are.

It's a disgrace, McCoy. My client should be home helping his kids with their schoolwork.

McCoy

I saw the crime scene photos. I know how much his family means to him.

But I'm innocent. I didn't kill anybody.

McCoy

You've already learned the Rikers Island theme song. Good for you.

So, do you think Danforth will keep it in his pants next time?

McCoy

[pause] Probably not.

McCoy

Doesn't the Bible tell us not to kill, Mrs. Coleman?

I am already suffering for what I did.

McCoy

So now you know what you did was wrong?

Yes.

McCoy

Did you know it was wrong when you woke up that morning?

Yes.

McCoy

Did you know it was wrong when you ate your cereal?

Yes!

He's badgering, your honor!

McCoy

Sit down and shut up, Mr. Fineman!

Overruled. And you will address the court from now on, Mr. McCoy.

McCoy

[to the waiter] Send it back.

You can't forgive anyone, can you?

McCoy

No, I can't. Besides, that was bourbon. I'm drinking scotch.

They voted 11 to 1 to convict.

McCoy

One juror.

Schiff

So what else is new? Next case.

Marks just held a press conference. She actually thinks she righted a 30-year-old wrong.

McCoy

And I bet she hopes to be the centerfold of next month's Bar Journal.

Christopher's horse-trading records are insanely complicated. He covered his tracks. He wasn't so cautious about his mating rituals.

McCoy

Should I be taking notes?

[smiles] If you want to go broke.

McCoy

You're a long way from the district attorney's office.

Paul Robinette

Ben Stone once said I'd have to decide if I was a lawyer who is black or a black man who is a lawyer. All those years, I thought I was the former. All those years, I was wrong.

Schiff

Isn't your theory getting to be like theirs? They say he's an outraged boyfriend, you say he's an outraged would-be boyfriend.

McCoy

There's a world of difference between a jealous lover and some horny bastard who's mad he can't get to first base.

Schiff

Eloquent. Can't wait for your closing argument.

Schiff

This kid falls in love with a girl he has no chance in the world to get.

McCoy

And in a stupid, hopeless attempt to impress her, he shows her a million dollars worth of cocaine.

Schiff

Yeah, I guess etchings don't work anymore.

And as a result he ends up having to kill her.

Schiff

A story for Sophocles.

McCoy

Or Larry, Moe and Curley.

Schiff

Yeah. I always loved those guys.

McCoy

His first trial, and he knows just enough law to turn it into a circus.

Schiff

A circus? 3 counts of murder? He's taking it seriously.

McCoy

Then why doesn't he plead insanity?

Schiff

Because he's insane!

I never did like chasing my tail.

McCoy

But it's a lot of fun when you catch it.

McCoy

[about his father] He had things the way he liked them. And, if anybody screwed it up, he had these big, thick hands. Sometimes my mother had to lock herself in the basement.

Son of a bitch hit her?

McCoy

Ten years. I'm still scared of those hands. He smoked like a chimney. Cancer. He'd lay there in that hospital room, with tubes coming out of his arms. They pumped him full of morphine, so he wouldn't know how much he hurt. He didn't know where he was. This tough ... He just lay there. He was breathing, and then he was gone. I don't know why I'm talking about this. I never talk about this. Let's play darts.

McCoy

[looks at Mercer's motion for suppression] Tough to suppress the fact that the car was in his fiancée's possession.

Well, then charge her with the carjacking.

What?!

[laughs] Oh, that's a lawyer's joke, son. [to McCoy and Jamie] He's very much in love with her.