It's frustrating, as a prosecutor, when you're sure someone's a murderer but the only thing you can convict him of is tax evasion or assault. It's frustrating. But it's fundamental. You can't punish a crime that you can't prove. That's where the penal code meets the Declaration of Independence. What do you do as a cop if you're sure there's a bad man on your beat but you don't have a made case against him? You don't frame him, you can't harass him, you make the case. You definitely don't shoot him. So, what should you do as a citizen if you're sure a monstrous predator has been released from prison because they couldn't hold him anymore under the law? Write your own law? Run him down in the street? You make sure that the state enforces its rules. You get him for violating parole. The day he moves in with Sheryl, you have the cops at the door. You make sure they watch him. And if they don't, if the system messes up, if he hurts someone like Lowenstein could've hurt Sheryl's little girl, you sound the general alarm, you call the police and the papers. You go on TV. You make a scandal, not a plan to commit murder. Joyce Draper is talented and brilliant. She might be the smartest person in this room. She's a sympathetic defendant, and Jacob Lowenstein was a repulsive victim. It doesn't matter. Joyce Draper murdered Jacob Lowenstein, deliberately, with malice aforethought. And there's no reasonable doubt about that whatsoever. She didn't even really try to explain his blood on her car because she's betting on you to let her get away with it. Citizens, no matter what their role, if it's a doctor or a police officer, a prosecutor or a juror, may not take the law into their own hands. Joyce Draper belongs in jail, long enough to make it plain that we as a society will not tolerate citizens choosing who lives and who dies. And it's up to you to put her there.
S15 E11Fixed
S15 E12Mammon
[during a search of his apartment] You guys gonna put everything back?
That's your problem.
Doesn't seem fair.
The Fourth Amendment protects you against unlawful search and seizure. It doesn't say anything about being neat.
Why would anyone take up with a man accused of murdering his lover?
You're not a woman. I get it - he's charming, attractive, he's an outlaw. He's a classic bad boy.
[Branch and McCoy look at her questioningly]
What?
S15 E13Ain't No Love
[about rap music] Makes me wanna go home and listen to some Tony Bennett records.
You know, Serena, if you were right, you were right for the wrong reasons.
Meaning?
Emotions, not facts. What was it you said, everyone you talked to said they couldn't have killed that man?
My emotional responses make me...
...an advocate. You're a superb attorney; you ought to be involved in cases that feed your passion.
Well, that would be wonderful.
Serena, you must know, that will not happen in this office. It can't. Now, a prosecutor can be zealous, but not passionate. Advocacy is warm-blooded, enforcement's got to be cold-blooded, and blind, and even angry.
Does Jack feel as strongly about this as you do?
No, but it's my office and my decision, and he accepts it.
A decision? You've already made a decision?
Yes. I have. You're fired.
Is this because I'm a lesbian?
No. Of course not. No.
Good. Good.
S15 E14Fluency
Do me a favor and read this crumb his rights. I don't have the guts for it.
Me, neither. But I don't want there to be any technical difficulties.
19 manslaughter counts? Your Honor, my client is accused of selling sterile saline solution, a harmless substance.
Hardly harmless if it's passed off as flu vaccine. Mr. Peters recklessly caused the death of these people by providing a useless vaccine to a marketplace driven by panic and hysteria.
The definition of recklessness is the conscious disregard of a substantial risk.
The phony vaccines were sold to at-risk groups. The elderly, young children, people with chronic medical conditions. The victims didn't get the vaccinations they needed because they wrongly believed they were protected by Mr. Peters' worthless version. If I could charge him with 19 counts of murder, too, I would.
Your Honor, my client allegedly sold sterile saline solution to one party who sold it to another, who sold it to a third, who gave it to someone else who may or may not have gotten the flu. And if they did, may or may not have died from it.
Gave it? It was injected into their bodies in lieu of the real vaccine, one that these individuals desperately needed. This "harmless" saline solution would be used by physicians who mistakenly thought they were protecting their patients from a life-threatening illness.
Your Honor?
Save your breath, Mr. Pollack. I, too, regret that your client can't be charged with murder. No bail. Defendant is remanded.
Mr. Peters, did you ever see an old movie called The Third Man?
Your Honor?
Mr. McCoy?
The defendant says he couldn't foresee any substantial risk to his actions. I'd like to explore that state of mind a little further.
Witness may answer.
The Third Man, with Orson Welles. It's been a long time.
Orson Welles plays a black marketeer who steals penicillin, and then dilutes and sells it with tragic consequences. Death, amputation, children dying.
Objection.
It's a parallel situation, Your Honor. I think the analogy is apt.
Overruled.
There's a famous scene on a ferris wheel.
I remember that scene.
Orson Welles goes on a ride on a ferris wheel with his friend, and it stops when they get to the top. His friend, who's played by Joseph Cotton, asks, "Why? Why did you do this?" Orson Welles says, "For the money." Joseph Cotton is horrified. "Have you no conscience? How do you live with yourself?" Orson Welles points to the people on the ground far below, and the people on the ground are very small, walking around in the square. And Welles says, "Would you really feel anything if one of those dots down there suddenly stopped moving?" What was your expectation when you labelled your saline solution as flu vaccine and then sold it in bulk to people like Sklar?
That they'd sell it to someone else.
And it would eventually be used as vaccine?
[chokes up] Sure, eventually.
And you couldn't foresee the risk to those patients? They were just dots to you, weren't they? Far away, insignificant.
Objection!
And if they suddenly stopped moving, who'd care? Not you!
Your Honor!
All right, Mr. McCoy. You've made your point.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
S15 E15Obsession
She pleads to Man-1 and testifies against Miranda Shea. 10 years.
She's gonna hand you the person who masterminded the murder, Mr. McCoy.
She's the one who pulled the trigger.
This trial's starting to look like Rashomon.
S15 E16The Sixth Man
Have a seat, Mr. Levin.
I have a meeting in an hour. [Green pushes him into a chair] I could reschedule if you think this is gonna take a long time.
How does 20 to life sound to you?
Docket #47238. People vs. Silas Inwood. Charge is murder in the second degree.
Guess Philly won't be goin' to the playoffs this year.
Don't count them out just yet, Your Honor.
S15 E17License to Kill
A bolt action Remington model 700. A fine deer rifle. I had one just like it as a kid.
You hunt?
Oh yeah. My uncle Phil used to take us up to Door County, Wisconsin to hunt whitetail. Of course, I always preferred using a bow. It kinda levels the playing field.
Mm-hmm. And the deer, what kind of weapons did they use?
Same as the cow.
You're treating me like I killed those people up there.
What about the people you did kill? Don't they count?
[to the jury] Hold Randall Stoler accountable. There are real heroes out there. You don't have to settle for a fake.
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