Law & Order (TV Series)

City Hall (2004)

Sam Waterston: Executive ADA Jack McCoy

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Arthur Branch : Verdict in the Rubin case?

  Jack McCoy : Guilty on all counts.

  Serena Southerlyn : The jury was only out thirty-five minutes.

  Arthur Branch : What in the world would you expect? Smoking gun and an eyewitness. He got convicted for the same reason they always do.

  Jack McCoy : He pulled the trigger.

• Serena Southerlyn : This case must be high-profile if you're bird-dogging the arraignment.

  Jack McCoy : I wasn't there to second-guess. The mayor's office is all over Arthur, so Arthur is all over me.

  Serena Southerlyn : Well, tell him not to worry. Did you see Rubin's lawyer?

  Jack McCoy : I saw him hand you a blueback.

  Serena Southerlyn : It's a suppression motion, but it doesn't make any sense.

  Jack McCoy : [she hands him the motion]  Civil lawyer who's out of his element?

  Serena Southerlyn : He's under the impression that the police found a .38 Special during the search.

  Jack McCoy : So they think we have the murder weapon but we don't?

  Serena Southerlyn : If the search of Rubin's apartment turned up anything, it's news to me.

  Jack McCoy : Talk to Briscoe. If they found the smoking gun, it would be nice if they kept us in the loop.

• Serena Southerlyn : [leaving the U.S. Attorney's office]  Bureaucratic doublespeak and non-denial denials.

  Jack McCoy : But if you read between the lines, it looks like the men who searched Rubin's apartment were FBI.

  Serena Southerlyn : Yeah, but even if we knew the agents' names, I doubt they'd talk to us.

  Jack McCoy : Probably not, but Cagnetta as good as told us they had a warrant.

  Serena Southerlyn : And a warrant means a paper trail.

• Danielle Melnick : The People of the State of New York vs Peter Rubin. The prosecutors aren't the people; you are. You are the people. You speak for all of us, and not only on guilt or innocence, but on the government's conduct in this case. How fitting that the incident in question should take place at City Hall, because evidence here shows how the government systematically victimized Peter Rubin. How they took his business, his livelihood, even his privacy. The government that was supposed to protect him tormented him instead. And Peter Rubin and his family were the third victim in this case. Now, we're all terribly sorry about what happened to Councilman Johnson, but nothing you do today can bring him back. You can do something about how the government treated Peter Rubin, or next time the home they enter in the dead of night could be yours.

  Jack McCoy : The government's conduct has nothing to do with this case. Peter Rubin took a gun to City Hall and shot two people, one of them fatally. How ironic that he should murder a lawmaker and now emplore you to ignore the law. While his story might be sympathetic, the actions that he took are reprehensible. As the judge will instruct you, the Rubins knowingly violated federal law. The search of Peter Rubin's home by federal agents was legal and beyond reproach. And the law that permitted it was not applied randomly or capriciously. You may not like the law, but no one in this room has the authority to pass judgment on it in this forum. When we disagree with the laws, we take it up with the people who write them; we speak out with our pens, our voices, our votes. Not with guns. We don't settle grievances or perceived injustices with violence.