Law and Order Quotes

McCoy: (his closing argument) This country has always been a beacon to the world for liberty and justice. That's why we keep our borders open. But we're also a beacon for another kind of people, for criminals and con men; we rely on the law to protect us from them. Sometimes, that's not enough. Do we need more law, less freedom? Do we cross out parts of the Constitution? I've learned that's not the answer. The answer is that each one of us is responsible to everyone else. Not one of us can afford to turn a blind eye. By respecting the laws we do have, by living up to the true meaning of the word "citizen," we preserve our common good. Through his deliberate ignorance, Mr. Radford allowed a criminal enterprise to flourish, innocent people to be killed. He allowed a cancer to grow. This is where it has to stop. Here in this court room, with you. (The scene closes with a close up of Carmichael, as a single tear runs down her face.)

TV Show: Law and Order
Webber: We weren't ignoring your requests. As a matter of fact, we had a meeting with our lawyers about it.
Carmichael: What did ya'll decide?
Webber: Much as we'd like to cooperate, it would force us to reveal trade secrets which would damage our ability to remain competitive.
Carmichael: Trade secrets? Mr. Webber, you make guns, not soda pop.

TV Show: Law and Order
Defense Lawyer: You're taking the death penalty off the table with the city screaming for blood?
McCoy: The victims families need closure, not blood.
Defense Lawyer: My client's a healthy young man. Life without parole, that could be fifty or sixty years.
Carmichael: He could always take up smoking.

TV Show: Law and Order
McCoy: Rolff makes a product that any clever twelve-year-old can turn into a weapon of mass destruction.
Schiff: I'm appalled. Write them a letter.

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: Jack wants the jury to make a finding of emotion, not of fact. This isn't a trial. It's gun control by other means.
McCoy: They can sell guns on the internet. Talking about control is a joke.
Carmichael: So this is your answer? Putting gun makers in jail?
McCoy: I'd like to start by putting Rolff Firearms out of business!
Carmichael: Responsible adults can own firearms without the entire country sinking into criminal anarchy.
McCoy: What's the point? Maybe when the redcoats were coming over Bunker Hill.
Carmichael: How about somebody six foot five coming through my door? The people have a right to defend themselves!

TV Show: Law and Order
Judge Wright: Mr. McCoy, I'm not going to sanction a verdict that cannot possibly be sustained on appeal. This conviction isn't based on any proven facts. It's based on the jury's outrage at Mr. Webber's irresponsible and inexcusable conduct. You want to end the violence, the bloodletting. So do I, Mr. McCoy. In my thirty years on the bench I've seen every permutation of it and it sickens me when somebody profits from it! But tempted, though I may be, putting Mr. Webber in a jail won't end the carnage. Until we cure what ails the human heart it won't make a dent in the body count. In the meantime, no matter how profound our grief, our indignation, I can't let you use this court to raise a lynch mob. I won't allow you to exploit the same base actions that Mr. Webber counts on to beef up his bottom line. It's not about being right, Mr. McCoy. It's about doing right.

TV Show: Law and Order
Skoda: Jenny's been emotionally abused, maybe physically. She lashes out when her anger reaches the boiling point.
Carmichael: So we lock this girl up?
Skoda: Get used to it. There are more and more girls committing violent crimes. I don't see anything from Jenny except a future of escalating antisocial behavior.
McCoy: What makes you say that?
Skoda: Emotional abuse. The snuffed cat. Blacked out photographs. Her lack of response when I went after her.
McCoy: Fantasies about hurting little boys.
Skoda: Previews of coming attractions. She's graduated to murder, she's not going to stop.
Carmichael: You sound pretty sure.
Skoda: The kid's a done deal. She's a textbook serial killer. You just got her early.

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: The laws for the rich are different.
McCoy: What laws for the rich?

TV Show: Law and Order
Van Buren: [to Briscoe] You were never a kid?
Green: Old Spice forgot to take his gingko.

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: How do you wash it off, Jack?
McCoy: Wish I knew.

TV Show: Law and Order
Joseph Dantoni, Sr.: I appreciate you seeing me, Mr. McCoy.
McCoy: This isn't a courtesy. You have information regarding this homicide?
Joseph Dantoni, Sr.: I have. We do.
Jack McCoy: You understand there's no offer of immunity, for either you or your son?
Mr. Dantoni's Attorney: Mr. Dantoni merely seeks the same offer your office provides any other crime victim.
Jack McCoy: Crime victim?
Joseph Dantoni, Sr.: This is a strange situation for all of us. I'm used to handling my own problems my own way, but this is different. My son did not commit any murder.
Jack McCoy: That's the extent of your information?
Joseph Dantoni, Sr.: My son's a moron, but he's not a murderer.
Carmichael: So he's only half a chip off the old block.

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: What do you call this?
Green: Besides a bunch of crazy, rich white people with too much time on their hands?

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: [dealing with a defendant who makes wild changes to his story] It's a suicide, it's an accident, it's a breath mint! This guy gives me a headache!

TV Show: Law and Order
Carmichael: She denied knowing her mom had Parkinson's, she lied about the money, she's 0 for 2 and counting.
McCoy: Getting her paws on that money is a pretty good motive for a murder.
Carmichael: Except it's her step-dad who pulled the trigger. Wow, what a cozy little family this is turning out to be.
McCoy: Once you turn to necrophilia, incest doesn't seem so bad.
Carmichael: Moore must be feeling pretty stupid sitting in Riker's while Debbie is out spending up a storm. He might be in the mood to deal.
McCoy: I'm not. Get a search warrant for her office and home. We find evidence they had an affair, they can both rot.

TV Show: Law and Order
Schiff: Have you arrested this girl?
Carmichael: Not yet.
Schiff: Are you waiting for an invitation?

TV Show: Law and Order
McCoy: Your Honor, this is nothing more than Mr. Peck's conceit that he can pull a rabbit out of a hat, and his never ending love for an opportunity just to hear himself talk.

TV Show: Law and Order
McCoy: It's possible she suppressed her memory of that night. It's possible she felt too guilty to fully participate in her own defense.
Carmichael: It's also possible that her lawyer isn't the idiot that we take him for. He held on to this until he thought it would do the most good.
McCoy: No, he's an idiot.

TV Show: Law and Order
Lewin: You have a defendent responsible for sending a dangerous psychotic out among the citizens of New York. Whatever excuses he has, whatever excuses the two of you have, now that you've gone after him I want you to run him to ground.

TV Show: Law and Order
Lewin: How much time will Andrews serve with good behavior?
Carmichael: Under a year.
Lewin: Good, that means jail not state prison. He'll serve it at Rikers. Let's hope he has a good immune system.

TV Show: Law and Order
Judge Wright: 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.
Lewin: 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.

TV Show: Law and Order
Judge Wright: First off, I don't have to justify my decisions to you. Second, that sound you hear is the ice cracking underneath your feet.
Lewin: With all due respect, your honor, you weigh more than I do. I request that you recuse yourself from the case of the people versus Reger.
Judge Wright: Request denied.
Lewin: Then you can explain yourself to the grievance board.
Judge Wright: You file a complaint against me then your ADAs will never get to first base inside my courtroom. Based strictly on the merits of their cases.
Lewin: 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.

TV Show: Law and Order
Lewin: 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.
Lewin: Enough of the jury identified with his fear of cops.
McCoy: Used to be a fear of cops didn't justify shooting them.
Lewin: Used to be a lot of things.

TV Show: Law and Order
Lewin: 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.

TV Show: Law and Order
Sherri Quinn: He was scared for our sake. King was a good dog
(King is brought in on a leash with a metal muzzle over his mouth, snarling, barking and lunging)
Mccoy: You just described your dog as friendly, Miss Quinn. Would you like to pat him now?

TV Show: Law and Order
Briscoe: Vega hasn't had a gig in ten years and he socked away millions of dollars. Maybe I should get a manager.
Green: Singing in a Karaoke Bar doesn't count.

TV Show: Law and Order
Danielle Melnick: Hello Jack. Okay, let's talk turkey. What are you up to? And don't give me that party line about Preuss being a threat to society.
McCoy: When you argue, I have this compulsive need to argue back.

TV Show: Law and Order
[the detectives want Southerlyn to deal with a gang of white supremacists]
Southerlyn: What, you think they'll talk to me?
Green: Blonde hair, blue eyes...Hell, if you're lucky, they'll put you in a poster.
Southerlyn: [sarcastically] Gee, thanks.

TV Show: Law and Order
[after Danielle Melnick has been shot]
Briscoe: Better be careful, Jack. Looks like it's open season on lawyers.
[last lines of the episode]

TV Show: Law and Order
Briscoe: You're in luck. It's opera week down at Rikers.

TV Show: Law and Order
[a parcel deliveryman has been murdered moments after completing a delivery]
Briscoe: When you absolutely, positively have to kill somebody overnight.

TV Show: Law and Order