- Claire Kincaid: They strap you down. They stick a needle in your arm and run poison through your veins. It's barbaric.
- Jack McCoy: I wouldn't weep for Paul Sandig.
- Claire Kincaid: Revenge is sweet, huh?
- Jack McCoy: Yes, it is. It's a natural human instinct and there's no need to apologize for it.
- Claire Kincaid: No, except for the fact that it's illegal.
- Jack McCoy: That's exactly my point. There is no private right of action under the criminal justice system and so the state has obligation to mete out fitting punishment.
- Claire Kincaid: And that's why we have prisons. Because life without parole is fitting enough.
- Jack McCoy: Let me ask you, Claire: Why do you suppose 38 states, and the federal government, and the military have all of a sudden adopted or readopted the death penalty?
- Claire Kincaid: Like you said, people are sick of crime.
- Jack McCoy: And the death penalty gives the feeling of control demanded by society. People are frustrated by the uncertainty of the system. They want to know for sure that Charles Manson won't ever be walking the streets again.
- Claire Kincaid: You don't think there are less Draconian ways to gain the public's confidence?
- Jack McCoy: No. I don't. And, believe me, if the state doesn't seek retribution then, the people will. There'll be more Ellie Nessler's walking into courtrooms with loaded pistols. You kill a cop; how long do you think it will be before the cops kill you? Legal execution is a means to prevent street justice.
- Ted Quinlan: Maybe you haven't been watching your Court TV, but I'm supposed to squeal on the other guys, not myself.
- Lyndon Whitney: Ted, a deal's a deal. Don't worry about their reasons.
- Ted Quinlan: Mr. Fat Retainer here. Like he's got my best interest at heart. Okay, tell me again what you need.
- Jack McCoy: Simple. Testify that you personally sold drugs to the man you knew as Bobby Cassidy.
- Ted Quinlan: What do I get?
- Jack McCoy: Two years for money laundering.
- Ted Quinlan: Forget it.
- Lyndon Whitney: It's a good deal, Ted.
- Ted Quinlan: This is why lawyers never make it in business. Don't you see what's going on here? He needs me to fry his cop killer and I'm guessing he's willing to pay heavy.
- Jack McCoy: A year, a year pro.
- Ted Quinlan: I'll tell you what, counselor. You wan't my testimony? You drop the laundering charges completely, and I get blanket immunity for anything that I may say that might tend to incriminate me.
- Claire Kincaid: That's ridic...
- Jack McCoy: You got it.
- Ted Quinlan: [to lawyer] You should be paying ME.
- Judge Albert Parsons: Since you hold no absolutes, then there are circumstances where you'd be comfortable with the death penalty?
- Adam Schiff: Objection - assumes facts not in evidence. I called you...
- Judge Albert Parsons: ...to be taken off the hook. You wanted to be able to file it under murder two? Question. Can anything be moral if it doesn't apply to all men equally? Sandig kills Croft in the Bronx he lives, in Manhattan he dies? Answer. Morality is not now and never has been a significant part of the criminal justice system.
- Adam Schiff: Very nice speech.
- Judge Albert Parsons: Oh, no. You make the speeches, you get your picture in the Times. The price of the party.
- Rey Curtis: Well, what'd you find out about Cassidy?
- Marty Prince: First of all, it wasn't his real name. No credit history.
- Lennie Briscoe: Sandig didn't need you for that.
- Marty Prince: Yeah? How about this: I knew he was a cop.
- Lennie Briscoe: How'd you figure that out?
- Marty Prince: Nothing gets by these eyes, gentlemen. Mr. X drives a car repo'ed in an NYPD drug sting. The car is never resold. Now, unless the department started a leasing company I don't know about, he had to be one of New York's finest.
- Lennie Briscoe: Well, now he's one of New York's deadest.
- Ted Quinlan: Now, you here to buy or just browsing?
- Lennie Briscoe: Was Bobby Cassidy one of your regular customers?
- Ted Quinlan: A punk. Wanted me to unload some cheap VCRs.
- Lennie Briscoe: So you offered him some smack instead, huh?
- Ted Quinlan: I offered him a Queen Anne chair.
- Rey Curtis: What you do say we cut the crap here? His name wasn't Cassidy, it was Croft and he was on the job. He's dead now and that pisses us off extra special, you catching on?
- Ted Quinlan: A cop? No way he could afford the Queen Anne.
- Lennie Briscoe: I don't know much about Queen Anne chairs, but I know how to add one plus one.
- Ted Quinlan: You should ask for a promotion.
- Rey Curtis: Now my partner, he's a patient man. Me, I get pissed off real easy, especially when I'm lied to.
- Ted Quinlan: I told you already, I didn't kill that cop.
- Rey Curtis: The more you lie, the more impatient I get.
- Ted Quinlan: Well, I suggest a change of underwear.