Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Chameleon (2002)

Dianne Wiest: Interim DA Nora Lewin

Quotes 

• Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : I love a good fight.

  Alex Cabot : I can't believe that turned into a women's rights debate. We don't have the right to execute a woman just because she's a woman?

  Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : The majority of the Capital Committee agreed with your recommendation. We get Lewin to sign it, we make the world a safer place... and you're labelled the enemy of feminism.

  Alex Cabot : Hey! As far as I'm concerned, this is a coup for women's rights everywhere. Maggie Peterson has the right to a needle in the arm just like any other cold-blooded killer.

  Nora Lewin : So she should just take it like a man.

  Alex Cabot : Gender has nothing to do with it. The fact that she murdered four people in this jurisdiction alone does.

  Nora Lewin : Oh, but she's only charged with three? The fourth was ruled self-defense against a known rapist and murderer, I have a real problem with this.

  Alex Cabot : That one incident does not change the circumstances of the other murders.

  Nora Lewin : You think that the first woman New York state executes should be a single mother/prostitute/rape victim?

  Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : Serial killer. She knew those guys were violent - that's why she chose them, to feel morally justified.

  Nora Lewin : You're saying she asked for it.

  Alex Cabot : Being the victim of a violent crime does not mitigate capital punishment. Neither does being a woman or being a mother. I-if this was a man we were talking about who was abused as a child and then, murdered four women... would we even be having this discussion?

  Nora Lewin : If you were seeking the death penalty? Of course we would.

  Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : I don't think so, Nora. Because executing a man wouldn't offend the female constituents who put you in office.

  Nora Lewin : Whom we choose to execute is always a political decision. But I'm not gonna kill anyone, male or female, if there's a possibility that they acted in self-defense. You don't like it... you can always run against me next term.