Law & Order quotes

McCoy: Let's be clear that just because we couldn't state with certainty in this courtroom here today just what Mr. Seleeby's motive was, it doesn't mean that he didn't have one. And just because the Defense Counsel has presented you with a touching story, it doesn't mean that it's the whole story. Mr. Fenwick omitted the part about his client admitting to killing Norman Pratt. He left out the part about his client enlisting his friends to help him cover up the crime. He omitted the part about his client trying to evade the consequences of his act. Just in case anyone has forgotten, taking steroids is illegal. It's cheating. Kevin Seleeby didn't care. Why would he? After all, it isn't really cheating if you don't get caught. But this time he did get caught. He cheated at his chosen profession. He cheated at life. And now he's trying to cheat the justice system. But you have to ask yourselves. Is it really justice if it's obtained fraudulently? Can cheating become its own defense for murder?

McCoy: I'm willing to go down to Man Two.

Randolph J. Dworkin: Now, don't think I'm not an appreciative sort, but I'm going to have to say no on this one. As it turns out, there are considerations beyond innocence and guilt.

McCoy: Like a stacked jury?

Randolph J. Dworkin: Yeah, that's right. Those people. They all stick together. It's kind of like back in the day, when Billy Bob was on trial for lynching poor Willie for looking at Betty Lou the wrong way, and the jury was Goomer and Gomer and Beau.

Serena: It is hardly the same thing.

Randolph J. Dworkin: Why, because we're the chosen people? [affects a Southern accent] Well, if that's the case, I wish y'all would choose someone else for a change.

McCoy: Mr. Dworkin is a first-rate attorney. Hell, he's a magician. He put the facts into a box, sawed the box in half, and out popped thousands of years of the most despicable hatred known to man. Like any good magician, he kept you busy with what he was saying, hoping you wouldn't notice what he was doing with his hands. Hoping you wouldn't catch him trying to hide a corpse, trying to make a murdered man disappear. I'm betting you saw through the trick. So the only question is, will you pretend it worked, or will you make this illusion disappear? One bookie killed another bookie. That's it. Period. The defense hardly bothers to say otherwise. Mr. Dworkin just now all but said his client killed Mr. Meeks. Not once did he claim Mr. Strelzik was innocent. Like I say, he's a good attorney. He knows no one would believe him. Instead, he had the deeply offensive idea to use your sympathy for Israel to put a killer back on the street. Mr. Dworkin wants you to choose culture over citizenship. Visceral hatred over codified laws. He's counting on at least one of you saying to himself, "I'm a Jew first, and only after that, an American." I asked you back when you were selected for this job whether you could look at the facts presented without passion or prejudice, and each one of you swore under oath that you could. I know it's hard, but if you don't, all of this is meaningless.

Randolph J. Dworkin: [joining Jack and Serena for dinner after Strelzik is convicted] Hell of a job. You're top of the legal food chain, Jack. No question about it.

Serena: You're not upset?

Randolph J. Dworkin: Hey, giving money to Israel is a good thing. Everyone should do it. Murder, on the other hand? [raises his glass] Here's to hoping the Big Guy upstairs has a little more sympathy for Mr. Strelzik than did the People of the State of New York.

[Briscoe tries to get a murder suspect to confess by talking about his own murdered daughter]

Briscoe

She was 24. A guy like Giddens killed her.

Briscoe

Yeah. Thing is, I get up every morning, I shave, I brush my teeth, and I kick myself for not putting a .38 slug between his eyes. Maybe then...

Briscoe

Not a thousand, Bill. Just one.