- Steven Breck: [being interrogated by detectives] Buddy of mine was a no-show. Took a dump, then I left.
- Detective Lennie Briscoe: Nice detail.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: If I can't reopen, I'll put the hitman on as a rebuttal witness.
- DA Adam Schiff: Rebuttal to what?
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: I'll drag some statement out of Mrs. Johnson on cross-examination that he can rebut.
- DA Adam Schiff: What cross-examination? Your case is such a shambles that the defense attorney would have to be brain dead to put her on! She doesn't take the stand, your witness doesn't take the stand.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: Then I'll just have to convince the defense attorney that it's in his best interest to call Mrs. Johnson.
- Denise Johnson: All I wanted was to make something of myself - for myself, and my son, and my husband.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: But your husband was hardly helping.
- Denise Johnson: He was the father of my child; I did not want him dead.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: I see... You just didn't care much, one way or the other.
- 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.
- [last lines]
- ADA Claire Kincaid: She killed two men - still believes they're the bad guys.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: They interfered with her cash flow.
- ADA Claire Kincaid: No - it wasn't about money.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: Maybe it wasn't the motive, but it was her cue for passion.
- DA Adam Schiff: At least you got one redeeming factor.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: And what's that?
- DA Adam Schiff: Saving the citizens a little money, losing two cases for the price of one.
- Detective Mike Logan: It's a positive match - the gun from Contini's killed Charles Kovac.
- Detective Lennie Briscoe: That oughta be enough.
- Lieutenant Anita Van Buren: For Kovac; what about her husband?
- Detective Lennie Briscoe: Well, it's sort of a boxed set, isn't it?
- Detective Mike Logan: She knew her husband stole her money, she had contact with Kovac...
- Lieutenant Anita Van Buren: We don't know what went on between her and Kovac.
- Detective Lennie Briscoe: Yeah - because the best witness is dead, because she killed him.
- Lieutenant Anita Van Buren: We let her shoot her way out of a murder charge, we're setting a pretty bad precedent.
- ADA Claire Kincaid: Why didn't she just divorce him?
- Duane Johnson: When she was getting started, she needed his signature for the lease documents. If she divorced him, she probably would have to give him half the place. Now she doesn't have that problem... does she?
- DA Adam Schiff: This defense lawyer makes suspects out of your own witnesses. Are we lucky this isn't on TV.
- 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.
- Detective Lennie Briscoe: You looked right at a picture of Kovac, and told us you'd never seen him before.
- Denise Johnson: You know how many repair people go to a restaurant?
- Detective Mike Logan: But how many of them end up killing your husband?
- 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.
- Dewey Lattimer: Read my label, miss - Attempted Armed Robbery, two to six; that's it.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: If you were hired to kill that cab driver, and you can tell us by whom, we can change those numbers.
- Dewey Lattimer: You want me to cop to attempted murder, man? Nah, that's aight. That ain't good for this mack man's health.
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: We're not after you. We want the person who hired you.
- Dewey Lattimer: ...And if I give it up?
- Executive ADA Jack McCoy: You can call a cab, and go home.