Law & Order (TV Series)

I.D. (1996)

Sam Waterston: Executive ADA Jack McCoy

Quotes 

• Jack McCoy : I thought he was gonna ask your favorite sexual positions next.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : I grew up with four brothers. Marks is an amateur.

  Jack McCoy : You don't mind that kind of thing?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Would you rather he ruled against us?

  Jack McCoy : Guess I'll have to unlearn some of my sensitivity training. If we have another hearing, you'll model silk for him, again?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Trust me - he would have been just as big a fan of rayon.

• Judge Nathan Marks : [after Ross arrives late in court]  Ah - Miss Ross! How nice of you to join us... I gather you stayed later than 8 am this morning. Was the gentleman more... impressive today?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : [taken aback]  Your honor, I've been very busy.

  Judge Nathan Marks : What I'm suggesting.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : On a matter of business for this court.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Oh - and I thought our business was here. Whatever kind of romp you've been up to...

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : ...is relevant to this case, if you'd stop focusing on my sex life.

  Judge Nathan Marks : You're in contempt. I want a check for two hundred dollars.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : [shouting]  If you try to fine me...

  Jack McCoy : [cutting her off]  Not now... Approach, your honor?

  Judge Nathan Marks : If she brings her checkbook.

  Jack McCoy : [quietly to Ross]  ... Pretend he's your brother.

• Judge Nathan Marks : Miss Ross, when you leave a man's apartment at 8 o'clock in the morning, did you just drop in for a coffee and a sweet roll?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Am I a defense witness, judge?

  Judge Nathan Marks : You're an officer of the court, aiding in the search for the truth. You sample a man's hospitality once. Are you likely to return to sample it again soon?

  Jack McCoy : Your honor, this is not appropriate.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : If I left at 8 am... I wasn't too impressed. I don't think I'd be rushing back.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Can't argue with that.

• D.A. Adam Schiff : [visiting Jack in jail cell for contempt of court; Jack smiles at him]  Nice.

  Jack McCoy : [introducing cellmates]  Adam... Mr. Barton, Mr. Jasperson, Mr. Montoya, Mr. Schiff.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : We're in a good mood, aren't we?

  Jack McCoy : All except Mr. Jasperson; he was just convicted of murder.

  Jasperson : [approaches Adam and Jack]  Man, that was bull; I'm gonna be gettin' out of here soon.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : [unruffled]  Young man - sit down... I understand you *were* in contempt.

  Jack McCoy : Just a little. Are you gonna get the transcript to the chief administrative judge?

  D.A. Adam Schiff : I'm gonna see Judge Marks first, about bail.

  Jack McCoy : [shakes head]  I'm OK... But if you go, wear silk.

• Stan Gillum : The police seized the evidence in question when they entered William Dunbar's apartment with an out-of-state arrest warrant.

  Jack McCoy : That had been properly lodged with a clerk of this court.

  Stan Gillum : At most, they had the right to ascertain whether or not William Dunbar was present. They had no right to search beyond that.

  Jack McCoy : One of the detectives opened a closet door. He saw the gun.

  Stan Gillum : On a shelf, two feet over his head.

  Judge Nathan Marks : The issue here is the plain-view exception?

  Jack McCoy : It is, your honor.

  Judge Nathan Marks : So we're going diagrams, and room layouts, and sight lines - what was where, who was standing on top of what.

  Stan Gillum : I can have 'em by tomorrow.

  Judge Nathan Marks : [pointing to McCoy]  But he'll come in with different diagrams, and we'll all sit around with rulers, protractors... I've got a better idea. Let's go to the apartment.

  Stan Gillum : ...All of us?

  Judge Nathan Marks : Yes. We'll have a picnic.

• A.D.A. Jamie Ross : We have the facts. I think we'll convince Judge Marks.

  Jack McCoy : Nathan Marks?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Luck of the draw.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Make sure your airbags are working.

• Jack McCoy : With all due respect, your honor, when you change the rules of the game in the middle of a trial, there ought to be at least the appearance of impartiality.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Officer, place Mr. McCoy under arrest for contempt of this court!

  Jack McCoy : I move for an adjournment, so that the people may appeal your honor's ruling.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Denied! Cuff him!

• Jack McCoy : It's outrageous. Jamie won't play footsie with him; new facts disrupt his perfect trial. So he takes it out on us.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Right. Had nothing to do with the fact that all this time, you didn't know what you were talking about.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Dismissal of the charge was excessive.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Right. You know who's who now?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : Yes.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : This is *Joanne* Sullivan you got there in Rikers?

  Jack McCoy : Who else could it be?

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Please don't ask.

• Chief Administrative Judge : The district attorney brought this matter to me with some reluctance.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Well-deserved. I'm trying to run a trial; I don't have time to...

  Chief Administrative Judge : Make some. I'm taking this seriously.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Because a young woman can't take a joke?

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : I'm not pressing any charge.

  Chief Administrative Judge : She could! You should thank her.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Fine; thanks. Goodbye.

  Chief Administrative Judge : I'm more concerned about the general tenor of this trial.

  Judge Nathan Marks : You know how I run a trial, George.

  Chief Administrative Judge : Yes - expeditiously. And usually, fairly.

  Judge Nathan Marks : *Always* fairly.

  Jack McCoy : You've been hostile to the people. Demeaning to their representatives, interfering with their witnesses...

  Judge Nathan Marks : You expect me to sit there like a lump, while he springs surprise witnesses? Half-baked appeals, revised indictments? To turn my courtroom inside out - to win a case he should have lost the first time!

  Chief Administrative Judge : Nathan - you're not supposed to care who wins, remember?

  D.A. Adam Schiff : ...Your honor, I'd like to request...

  Chief Administrative Judge : No need. Nathan, you just caught a bad case of the flu, and are unable to continue presiding over this trial. I'm assigning Judge Bryant.

  Judge Nathan Marks : George...

  Chief Administrative Judge : Would you rather be sick? Or be facing the commission on judicial conduct?

• Jack McCoy : This issue was decided! It was your own ruling!

  Stan Gillum : Yeah - he ruled the search was illegal.

  Jack McCoy : And that the evidence was nevertheless admissible against Miss Sullivan.

  Stan Gillum : Because she had no standing! That was before we knew she was married to William Dunbar. A wife certainly has an expectation of privacy in an apartment she shares with her husband.

  A.D.A. Jamie Ross : You had an opportunity to bring that fact to the court's attention then.

  Stan Gillum : Not without incriminating my client - which I certainly am not obliged to do.

  Judge Nathan Marks : Anything else, Miss Ross? Mr. McCoy? Fine. Objection sustained. There'll be no mention of anything found in that apartment. By the way, Mr. McCoy - I never had a chance to congratulate you on your victory in appellate court.

• Jack McCoy : A retrial is permitted if the ends of public justice would otherwise be defeated. The public is certainly entitled to retry a murderer, when a mistrial has resulted through no fault of the people.

  Judge John Sierra : The people aren't at fault when they proceed to trial misinformed?

  Jack McCoy : Misinformed by a professional confidence woman who committed perjury, and a fraud upon the court. It would be repugnant to reward her.

• [last lines] 

  D.A. Adam Schiff : When Nathan Marks became a judge, most of his colleagues cared only about getting re-elected and getting Fridays off. Marks made himself a royal pain - he cared mostly about justice.

  Jack McCoy : It went to his head, Adam. He brought himself down.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Yeah... Pardon me if I don't celebrate.

• Stan Gillum : I move for a dismissal. If the people don't even know who killed whom, I'd say reasonable doubt is manifest.

  Jack McCoy : On the contrary. The evidence against the defendant is even stronger now, if you will allow us to reopen the case.

  Judge Nathan Marks : It would be stronger - is that why you're trying to turn my courtroom into a hall of mirrors?

  Jack McCoy : I want to put the truth before the jury.

  Judge Nathan Marks : What you can have is a mistrial.

  Jack McCoy : Fine. With leave to re-present.

  Stan Gillum : Excuse me - jeopardy has attached. A defendant can't be re-tried unless there is a manifest necessity for a mistrial. The only necessity here is Mr. McCoy's ignorance of the facts of his own case.

  Jack McCoy : We were all ignorant of the facts, because the defendant withheld them!

  Stan Gillum : She is under no obligation to incriminate herself.

  Jack McCoy : By telling us her name?

  Stan Gillum : Which would have incriminated her - you just said it does.

  Judge Nathan Marks : You and your free-spirited associates have not done your homework, Mr. McCoy. You've wasted all of our time.

  Jack McCoy : Your honor...

  Judge Nathan Marks : Your motion is granted - I'm declaring a mistrial. Mr. Gillum's motion is granted also; the murder charge is dismissed.