Law & Order/Season 16


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Law & Order (1990–2010, 2022-) is a long-running police procedural and courtroom drama television series, created by Dick Wolf.

Red Ball [16.01]

 * Jimmy: I didn't do nothin'!
 * Green: You run pretty fast for someone who didn't do nothin'!


 * Judge Hellstrom: Mr. Jacobs, this negotiated arrangement with the People is something I find contrary to the interests of justice. A child taken by you against her will, returned by you to her lawful custodian in exchange for your freedom is an agreement against public policy. Therefore, I find that mandating enforcement of an agreement reached under these circumstances would be a perversion, not a fulfillment, of jurisprudence. I will not honor it. Your sentence is my discretion, Mr. Jacobs. I'm imposing the maximum time allowed by law.
 * Bell: Your Honor, my client withdraws his guilty plea.
 * Judge Hellstrom: That's certainly his right. He wants a trial, we'll conference tomorrow afternoon to set a date.
 * Jacobs: What are you talkin' about? We had a deal! You can't do this.
 * Judge Hellstrom: You had no deal with me, Mr. Jacobs.


 * McCoy: If you want to fire me, Arthur, go ahead. I'm not going to apologize for what I did.
 * Branch: Well then, you just don't get it, Jack. You know, you're a great prosecutor, but you'll never be a district attorney.

Flaw [16.02]

 * Benson: Real piece of work. That's Lorraine Dillon. The blonde is April Troost, her daughter. 25, IQ off the charts, but good luck trying to find a heartbeat.
 * Fontana: You had 'em on racketeering?
 * Benson: And they walked. Not this time.
 * Fontana: You realize this is a long shot?
 * Benson: Sullivan died trying to call me. You were right. This was personal.


 * Fontana: [points at Lorraine's black eye] What happened to your face?
 * Lorraine: Would you believe it? A sailing accident.
 * Fontana: No, I wouldn't.
 * Lorraine: Too bad. It's the truth.
 * Fontana: From what I know, you wouldn't know the truth if it handed you a business card.


 * [Borgia interviews April's ex-lover, who now has AIDS]
 * Borgia: You're on a medication cocktail?
 * Driver: I shared a needle with a friend. Now he's dead, and my white-cell count is in the toilet. My life went from April to crap.

Ghosts [16.03]

 * McCoy: If I were you, Mr. Dolan, I'd hate the police too. The press, the D.A.'s office, me ... But I'd hate the person who killed my daughter more.


 * Borgia: I'll cancel my date.
 * McCoy: You sure?
 * Borgia: Yeah, he's pretty annoying anyway.

Age of Innocence [16.04]

 * Dwyer: There was no personal interest in this for me.
 * Borgia: Your press conferences say different.


 * Dwyer: You arrested me because of what I stand for, not because of what you think I did.
 * Fontana: We arrested you because you're a bomb-throwing phony.

Life Line [16.05]

 * Dr. Rodgers: If she's a hooker, she's the first one I've seen who wears better underwear than I do.


 * Drucker: You can't protect me or my son in there, and you know that but you don't really care, so you're negotiating in bad faith, Mr. McCoy.
 * McCoy: I'm not sure what else we can do here. Please explain to your client that there isn't a better deal.
 * Drucker: Your deal will kill my son.
 * McCoy: You understand what you're facing, Mr. Drucker, a life in prison.
 * Drucker: Actually, I think I understand it better than you do, Mr. McCoy.

Birthright [16.06]

 * Fontana: You need a license to drive a car, but they'll let anyone have kids.


 * McCoy: A white woman sterilizing delinquent girls because she judged them unfit to reproduce? Eugenics.
 * Borgia: I thought that ended in Nazi Germany.


 * McCoy: The jurors shouldn't have to think Nurse Rhodes is Dr. Mengele to know that she broke the law.

House of Cards [16.07]

 * Walters: Post-partum psychosis. Makes post-partum depression look like a day at the beach.


 * Borgia: Her neighbor says they were near divorce, until Arlene got pregnant. It's kind of sad, don't you think?
 * McCoy: This woman did a murder-kidnapping. Breaks my heart.

New York Minute [16.08]

 * Ken: I knew something was going down with his hauls.
 * Green: Who maintains the rigs?
 * Ken: I do.
 * Green: So when you were cleaning out blood, hair, loose fingernails from people who tried to claw their way out of a boiling hot trailer box, you classify that as "something going down"?


 * Dorn: [while getting arrested] What kind of country locks up its patriots?
 * Green: The same kind that gives you the right to remain silent. Exercise it.

Criminal Law [16.09]

 * Borgia: Jack, Arthur gave you the out. You could have handed off this case.
 * McCoy: Would you let intimidation effect the way you prosecuted a crime?
 * Borgia: I'm not talking about intimidation, I'm talking about getting killed.
 * McCoy: It doesn't make a difference. It's about the law. It doesn't work if we don't make it work.


 * [after the shooting outside of the courthouse]
 * Borgia: Fontana and Green are on the way. They wanna get our statements.
 * McCoy: Fine.
 * Borgia: Jack, are you okay? Jack?
 * McCoy: I thought he was aiming at me.

Acid [16.10]

 * Lt. Van Buren: I want you to find the son of a bitch who did this.
 * Fontana: I was hoping you'd say that.


 * McCoy: If I don't leave here with a guilty plea, Mr. Corley, I promise, you'll do forty-five years hard time. They'll wheel me out of my retirement home to be at your parole hearings.

Bible Story [16.11]

 * Branch: Religious fervor.
 * McCoy: The nitroglycerin of the 21st century.


 * Barry: I killed a man. For what? I can't go through with this now.
 * McCoy: It isn't your decision, Mr. Speicher. A man has been murdered, and everyone who was involved needs to held responsible.
 * Barry: The people who are really responsible are all dead.

Family Friend [16.12]

 * Cerullo: Justice at any cost. That it, McCoy? Go after me. It's gonna cost you plenty.


 * McCoy: Juries aren't stupid.
 * Krahulik: Really. We must be working different courtrooms.

Heart of Darkness [16.13]

 * Tadhg: [in his video suicide] My name is Tadhg Ruane. I am of sound body and mind, and I'm making this recording because I'm just tired. I'm tired of the pain. I'm tired of living. I'm sorry, Ma, I just can't do it anymore. Please understand that I want to. I need to. I need to die.


 * Gerald: You're supposed to protect your kid brother, and I did that, his whole life. And every second of helping him plan his exit, I swear that's what I was doing. I was being an older brother. But that last moment, when he wanted to breathe ... [chokes up] God forgive me.

Magnet [16.14]

 * Green: Did Loomis give you a big Christmas bonus this year?
 * Englander: Yes, he did. But I still don't know where they went.

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 * Shane: You know, my firm has been talking about expanding. Have you ever considered going into private practice?
 * McCoy: Considered it and rejected it. A long time ago, I learned to accept my place in the world.
 * Shane: I suppose that's a virtue. Though personally, I can't see it.

Choice of Evils [16.15]

 * Fontana: You know, it's amazing. You gave this kid a life, somebody stole it, and you just don't give a damn. You're as dead as he is.

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 * Borgia: He tormented his family, he battered his girlfriend. Danny Ashburn wasn't a victim, he was an argument for birth control.
 * McCoy: He's not the one on trial here.
 * Branch: You oughtta put his pregnant girlfriend on the stand. The jury will admire the mother for not killing him sooner.

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 * McCoy: Justice beyond the law is above my pay grade.

Cost of Capital [16.16]

 * Sophia: I won't be bullied into jail by a bunch of second-rate lawyers threatening me with the testimony of a confused 14-year-old girl.
 * Borgia: She's your daughter, Ms. Keener.
 * Sophia: She's your witness now. Put her on the stand. That's exactly how we'll treat her.

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 * Sophia: [about her father raping her daughter] I got past it. So will she.

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 * Borgia: Andrew Keener's attorney has been trying to reach you all day.
 * McCoy: I got his messages.
 * Borgia: He wants to avoid the humiliation of a trial.
 * McCoy: What's he offering, a seat on his board?
 * Borgia: He says he wants to spare his granddaughter from having to testify.
 * McCoy: I hope you told him what to do with that.
 * Borgia: I did.
 * McCoy: Good. No more deals.

America, Inc. [16.17]

 * Diamond River Rep: Damn it, can you people not take a hint?
 * Fontana: Here's a hint for you, Johnny. You can either answer our questions here, or downtown chained to a wall.

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 * Melnick: You're in checkmate, Jack. We're not going back three moves for a do-over.

Thinking Makes It So [16.18]

 * Borgia: Let's not forget that we have a Constitution. Call me a stickler, but I think we should at least pretend to follow it.
 * McCoy: And I think that the Constitution should be used less as a shield for the guilty, and more as a sword for their innocent victims.

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 * Mr. Dworkin: Suppose Lowell wasn't the one who was tortured. Suppose Fontana got him to talk by dunking his wife, or his mother, or his poodle in the toilet. Are we fine with that one, too? [McCoy says nothing] Yeah, I don't know either.

Positive [16.19]

 * Dr. Copelan: How many people have you watched wither away and die, Mr. McCoy?
 * McCoy: You didn't want to suffer her fate, so you pushed her treatment until it was lethal. Isn't that true, doctor?
 * Dr. Copelan: How many nights have you sat by a dying child's bedside, praying that a treatment might work?
 * McCoy: But for the child, doctor? Or for yourself?
 * Dr. Copelan: I did what I thought was right to save a young girl from a wasting hell. Did I hope it might help my chances? Yes, I did. For Emily, for me, for thousands of others. Yes, Mr. McCoy, I admit that.

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 * McCoy: They wouldn't convict a dying man.
 * Borgia: Maybe they figured if Emily had survived, Dr. Copelan would have won a Nobel Prize. Maybe they're right.
 * McCoy: Maybe they figured a vaccine that could save their own lives was more important than the life of a kid who was dying anyway.

Kingmaker [16.20]

 * Prescott: Just who the hell do you think you are, McCoy? Who do you think you're dealing with?
 * McCoy: Someone who sends other people to do his dirty work for him.

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 * Branch: Democracy is still the worst form of government, except for all the others.

Hindsight [16.21]

 * Tyrell: When Moses was asked to part the waters, he didn't ask questions. There are those who doubt, and those who do.

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 * [Henry is being arrested]
 * Henry: What's it about this time?
 * Green: The murder of Sonya Vasquez.
 * Henry: I got no connection to that!
 * Fontana: You won't be upset if we don't take your word for it, will you?

Invaders [16.22]

 * McCoy: Let me do my job, Arthur.
 * Branch: When we exploit our authority, it corrupt us, too.
 * McCoy: Don't wax philosophical on me. Our colleague spent the last, terrified moments of her life alone in a trunk, beaten to a pulp by these thugs, choking on her own...
 * Branch: Listen to yourself. Your whole plan is fueled by outrage.
 * McCoy: Outrage is all we have right now.