Lewin quotes from Law & Order

With any luck, we'll be able to strap him to a gurney before he's 21. God help us all.

Walk softly, and carry a big subpoena.

I wonder if Burrows will still have a problem with minorities once he gets to prison and finds out he is one.

How much time will Andrews serve with good behavior?

Carmichael

Under a year.

Good, that means jail, not state prison. He'll serve it at Rikers. Let's hope he has a good immune system.

You need to understand that when it comes to trying someone for murder, particularly someone like Carl Reger, who's given so much of himself to the city, that Jack McCoy doesn't get a free one.

And you need to understand that veiled threats disguised as friendly advice sound an awful lot to me like judicial bias. Especially when delivered ex parte.

First off, I don't have to justify my decisions to you. Second, that sound you hear is the ice cracking underneath your feet.

With all due respect, your honor, you weigh more than I do. I request that you recuse yourself from the case of the People v. Reger.

Request denied.

Then you can explain yourself to the grievance board.

You file a complaint against me, and your A.D.A.'s will never get to first base inside my courtroom, based strictly on the merits of their cases.

If you threaten me again, I'll report this conversation and our last conversation to the presiding judge of the appellate division. And if you step over the line in court just once, I'll take you down. And you won't get up again.

If the case depends on the jury believing a career criminal who's cut a deal, I'd say we're in trouble.

McCoy

We have a defendant who left the country rather than stand trial.

Which the defense will attribute to a combination of panic and religious fervor.

Carmichael

We could also establish that he was stealing from the business.

A business his father half-owned.

McCoy

Are you suggesting that we offer him a deal?

After what we went through to get him back here? Not on your life!

Don't beat yourself up too badly over this one, Jack.

McCoy

A guy shoots a New York City police officer in the line of duty and I can't convict him.

Enough of the jury identified with his fear of cops.

McCoy

Used to be a fear of cops didn't justify shooting them.

Used to be a lot of things.

McCoy

Man's dominion over the animals remains intact.

Carmichael

The jury decided to follow the law.

And a hero is born.

What should be the standard to take the life of a teenager?

Carmichael

Where I come from, it's where the crime committed is so vicious, so cruel, he forfeits the right to get any older.

Where I come from a person can't forfeit that right. We can only take it from him.

McCoy

Two murders, Nora. We're supposed to let him off easy?

I said make a deal. I didn't say pony up the courthouse.

Richardson stays in jail.

McCoy

He can hire an attorney, file for a writ of habeas corpus.

With what, his mother's public assistance?

McCoy

He can file pro se, like any other prisoner... or I can do the writ.

Aren't you worried about the precedent it sets?

McCoy

I can file it as a private citizen, if you think it's more appropriate.

I don't think the public will see the distinction.

McCoy

I think the only distinction they see is between right and wrong.

[smiling] Make sure my name is on the writ.

McCoy

[about the case against Wilder] Difficult or not, we have an obligation to prosecution.

We also have a burden of proof. And since it's going to be my ass they'll use as target practice, I'd like to test that proof.

[about Semple] With what's waiting for him, it might have been kinder to give him the needle.

Carmichael

Either works for me.

I'd like to think I can do this job without becoming a cynic.

McCoy

I'm not a cynic. I get up every morning hoping to find an honest man.