You know, Serena, if you were right, you were right for the wrong reasons.
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?
PPollack
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.
PPollack
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.
PPollack
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.
JSJudge Shiro
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?
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.
JKJudge Karan
Witness may answer.
PPeters
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.
It's a parallel situation, Your Honor. I think the analogy is apt.
There's a famous scene on a ferris wheel.
PPeters
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?
PPeters
That they'd sell it to someone else.
And it would eventually be used as vaccine?
PPeters
[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.
And if they suddenly stopped moving, who'd care? Not you!
JKJudge Karan
All right, Mr. McCoy. You've made your point.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
