Law & Order (TV Series)

Purple Heart (1995)

Michael Beach: Mr. Elliot

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Quotes 

• Mr. Elliot : I see. She had motive to kill Kovac, because she hired him to kill her husband - and you know she hired him to kill her husband, because she killed Kovac... You're driving in circles, and the jury's gonna be very dizzy.

• Executive ADA Jack McCoy : Mrs. Johnson, nobody likes to let a murderer walk; the appellate judges will know what you did.

  Denise Johnson : ...What are my choices?

  Mr. Elliot : ...Man two; she does three to nine.

  Executive ADA Jack McCoy : She's lucky the death penalty isn't the law yet. Murder two - 15 to life. If you wait for the jury to convict, it'll be 25.

  Denise Johnson : ...I grew up in a two-room apartment. My mother sent me and my sisters to school with mashed potato sandwiches for lunch. I pulled myself above that - and no one helped me. Not Danny; people thought he was charming. When he took that fifteen thousand dollars from me, it was not charming.

• Mr. Elliot : You said Danny Johnson borrowed $8,000, but the night he died, he was supposed to repay you 15.

  Steven Breck : Well, there's interest.

  Mr. Elliot : Almost 100%? Oh, that's - well, that's not legal, is it?

  Steven Breck : I don't know. I didn't go to law school.

  Mr. Elliot : I see. When someone doesn't repay an illegal loan, what do you do?

  Steven Breck : I convince 'em it's in their interest to make good.

• Executive ADA Jack McCoy : We've changed our theory of the case. We'll be arguing that Mrs. Johnson killed Kovac for revenge.

  Mr. Elliot : Revenge?

  ADA Claire Kincaid : He killed her beloved husband; she wanted to get even.

  Mr. Elliot : That's fiction, and they know it!

  Executive ADA Jack McCoy : We don't need your permission to present a different motive to the jury.

• Mr. Elliot : Jack Ruby guns down Oswald. It might seem like whoever killed Kennedy wanted Oswald silenced - but only if you've already come up with the conspiracy theory.