- Dr. Edward Auster: You solve every case you work on?
- Detective Mike Logan: We can tell a felony from a traffic ticket.
- Dr. Edward Auster: Look, a patient walks in with a headache. She could have a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a berry aneurysm, a retro-orbital tumor... or does she just have a headache? Do you give her an aspirin? Or do you saw open her skull?
- Sgt. Max Greevey: You make this speech at funerals?
- Dr. Edward Auster: When you practice medicine, Mr. Stone, sometimes the patient dies.
- Executive A.D.A. Benjamin "Ben" Stone: And when you're a lawyer, Dr. Auster, some of the people you prosecute are convicted.
- Phillip Nevins: Isn't it possible that pneumonia killed Suzanne Morton?
- Medical Examiner: It's possible that death rays from Mars killed her. But I don't think so.
- Narrator: [opening narration] In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.
- Executive A.D.A. Benjamin "Ben" Stone: You know the difference between Auster and a serial killer?
- A.D.A. Paul Robinette: The weapon.
- Dr. 'Ekballa' Raza: My children want to stay in this country, my wife wants to stay, and to stay, all I have to do is to be perfect all the time!
- Detective Mike Logan: Well you, uh, fell a little short of perfection on Suzanne Morton's chart.
- Dr. Edward Auster: Well, people like to believe that medicine is pure science. Medicine is a science. But doctors know it's also a lottery.
- Sgt. Max Greevey: '82, my partner and I go into this fleabag SRO to pick up some junkie robber. I'm putting the cuffs on him, his girlfriend comes from out of nowhere, jumps me. We're rolling around, I hit my head on the radiator, it hurt like hell but it's no big deal. A week later I start slurring words, I go see a neurologist, quote, "Top guy in Manhattan". He looks at me and says "I want you in the hospital, I'm gonna do a CAT scan."
- Detective Mike Logan: Yeah well, I would definitely freak.
- Sgt. Max Greevey: The next day, Dr. God comes in, he says, "You have an inoperable brain tumor in your cerebellum." He said it like he'd said they were serving chicken for dinner. We decided to get a second opinion, I go see another top neurologist. He does another CAT scan, he says "You don't have a brain tumor in your cerebellum, you have a subdural hematoma here." A month later, I was fine.
- Detective Mike Logan: Hey, at least they caught the mistake, alright?
- Sgt. Max Greevey: Yeah, and when they *don't*, they just *bury* them.
- Executive A.D.A. Benjamin "Ben" Stone: We got what we needed from Dr. Simonson.
- Dr. Edward Auster: An intern, Mr. Stone. Are you planning on asking the cleaning lady to testify, too? About the time I threw the tissue into the wastepaper basket and missed?
- Sgt. Max Greevey: [Smiling] Congratulations. How did you know?
- Executive A.D.A. Benjamin "Ben" Stone: My father. Every day at lunch.
- Sgt. Max Greevey: There's a difference in having a couple of drinks, and having a bourbon every five minutes.
- Detective Mike Logan: Come on, Max, the kid was exaggerating.
- Sgt. Max Greevey: What if he wasn't?
- Detective Mike Logan: The dad was a medic in 'Nam. He said she wasn't sick enough to die, he was *very* convincing.
- Captain Donald Cragen: I'm not saying no.