Law & Order (TV Series)

Vendetta (2004)

Giancarlo Esposito: Defense Attorney Rodney Fallon

Quotes 

• Rodney Fallon : So far, the New York Exoneration Project has gotten almost fifty innocent people released, and we're looking at hundreds of other cases.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : And I'll bet each and every one of them didn't do it.

  Rodney Fallon : Oh, well, obviously they're not all innocent. But even if a single one is, don't you think it's our obligation to see to it that they don't spend a minute longer in jail?

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : I bet you can count the number of guys in jail who are genuniely innocent on one hand. You know how many felonies the average criminal commits before he gets caught, let alone convicted?

  Rodney Fallon : I'm well aware of the police statistics.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : It's about the same as the number of times you speed on the throughway without getting a ticket.

  Rodney Fallon : So what you're saying, detective, we shouldn't try to exonerate defendants who were wrongly convicted?

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : Yeah, sure we should try, but just don't tell me they're all innocent.

• Ed Green : Can we talk about Walter Grimes, please?

  Rodney Fallon : An outright travesty of justice. His lawyer was a twenty-five year old legal aid attorney trying his third case.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : Well, he caught a bad break.

  Rodney Fallon : Oh, that alone should have got him a new trial. DNA proved he didn't kill Leanne Testa.

  Ed Green : Which won't happen this time. Look, we may not have DNA, but we got your client's fingerprints on the bottle he used to fracture Brendan Donner's skull.

  Rodney Fallon : Well, we don't what happened that night. Maybe Walter was defending himself.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : Why don't we ask him ourselves?

  Ed Green : Yeah. Where can we find him? We got a warrant for his arrest.

  Rodney Fallon : I'd rather you didn't speak to Walter if I'm not present.

  Ed Green : What, are you still his lawyer?

  Rodney Fallon : If you have a warrant, I am.

  Ed Green : Then you should know that you have an obligation to surrender your client.

  Rodney Fallon : I know what my obligations are.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : Then you won't mind giving us his address.

• Rodney Fallon : You asked me where Walter lived. I gave you his primary address.

  Ed Green : Hey, man, don't get smart with us!

  Rodney Fallon : Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. You couldn't keep up.

  Anita Van Buren : [entering]  All right, let's all just take it down a notch. Mr. Fallon, this is way past zealous representation here.

  Rodney Fallon : I can't tell you where he went. It's arguably privileged information.

  Anita Van Buren : Well, consider it negotiating a fugitive's peaceful surrender.

  Rodney Fallon : I'll get him to come in.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : Not a chance.

  Rodney Fallon : I have no idea what he's capable of if he feels threatened. I... I can do this. He trusts me.

  Anita Van Buren : All right. You've got two hours. Either way, we're going to arrest him for murder or you for hindering prosecution.

• Detective Lennie Briscoe : [finding Fallon bound and gagged in a motel room closet]  Mr. Fallon, it looks like you put up a hell of a fight.

  Ed Green : Where's your client? And the first words out of your mouth better not be "privileged".

  Rodney Fallon : [Green undoes his gag]  He's not here.

  Ed Green : I can see that. So where is he?

  Rodney Fallon : You said you weren't going to interfere.

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : You said you were gonna bring Grimes in. Looks like we both failed on our promises.

  Rodney Fallon : Well, I tried to convince him to surrender himself to the authorities for his own good, but he was in no mood to go back to prison.

  Ed Green : How long has he been gone?

  Rodney Fallon : About ten minutes.

  Ed Green : Did he say where he was going?

  Detective Lennie Briscoe : And don't forget what we said about that word "privilege".

  Rodney Fallon : He took my wallet. Said he needed to get to his cousin's in Providence.

• Jack McCoy : I don't think Mr. Grimes is eligible for the Exoneration Project's services this time, Mr. Fallon.

  Rodney Fallon : Well, I don't see why he wouldn't be. Walter is innocent.

  Jack McCoy : Then can he explain his fingerprints on the murder weapon and the eyewitnesses at the bar?

  Serena Southerlyn : Or his behavior when he saw two NYPD detectives? Taking a hostage isn't exactly consistent with innocence.

  Rodney Fallon : Well, that depends on how you define innocence.

• Jack McCoy : I define an innocent person as someone who didn't commit the crime.

  Rodney Fallon : Or someone whom the law recognizes should not be held responsible for his actions. A defendant can't be convicted if he didn't act with mens rea - criminal intent.

  Serena Southerlyn : He brained a man with a liquor bottle.

  Rodney Fallon : Walter Grimes was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. If he hadn't gone to prison for twenty years, as an innocent man, he never would have attacked Brendan Donner.

  Serena Southerlyn : What are you saying? Prison made him do it?

  Rodney Fallon : It certainly changed him. Profoundly. He absolutely wasn't the same man when he came out.

  Jack McCoy : I'm sorry the system failed you, Mr. Grimes, but a wrongful conviction does not earn anyone a free pass on murder.

• Judge Antonia Mellon : You're moving to preclude this defense, Mr. McCoy?

  Jack McCoy : Your Honor, it's ridiculous. Under Mr. Fallon's theory, every ex-con would have a dense for murder.

  Rodney Fallon : But we're not talking about men who were criminals before going to prison. We're talking about a man who was completely innocent before being sent to Green Haven, and was profoundly and irrevocably changed, and not for the better by the experience.

  Serena Southerlyn : And prison erased his sense of right and wrong?

  Rodney Fallon : In a manner of speaking, yes. It maimed him. It dehumanized him. It replaced traditional notions of right and wrong with a "kill or be killed" reflex that led, tragically, to Brendan Donner's death.

  Jack McCoy : That doesn't meet the New York standard, Your Hononr. Either Mr. Grimes didn't know what was doing was wrong or he didn't understand the nature of his behavior. Simply reacting to a perceived threat because he thought he was in a hostile environment doesn't cut it.

  Serena Southerlyn : He wasn't in prison. He was in a bar, Your Honor. He completely overreacted.

  Rodney Fallon : Exactly. Walter Grimes completely overreacted because of how his prison experience shaped him.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : You have an expert who'll back your theory, Mr. Fallon?

  Rodney Fallon : I've got five of them, Your Honor.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : Fax their C.V.s over to me. If they're credible, I'm inclined to let this go to a jury.

• Rodney Fallon : The knife was planted in my client's apartment.

  Jack McCoy : By a police officer. The chain of custody remained intact.

  Rodney Fallon : This is outrageous. I can't believe you can stand there and say that to me with a straight face. You're forgetting how that officer found the knife in the storm drain in the first place.

  Serena Southerlyn : Your client told him where it was.

  Rodney Fallon : He beat it out of him! An improperly obtained confession. The knife is poisonous fruit.

  Serena Southerlyn : You're assuming that the police wouldn't have found it without Grimes' confession.

  Rodney Fallon : They canvassed all over the city. They would have never found it, and you know it.

  Jack McCoy : Let's see what a judge thinks. In the meantime, consider this your notice of our lab work.

  Serena Southerlyn : We exhumed her body and extracted DNA from her bones. The blood on the knife was Julie Sayer's.

  Jack McCoy : DNA is a double-edged sword, counselor.

  Rodney Fallon : DNA is persuasive. Only if it's admissible.

  [handing Jack a blueback] 

  Rodney Fallon : My motion to suppress the knife.

• Rodney Fallon : First the People concede that Detective Daniels, who was then Officer Daniels, questioned my client without counsel present in clear violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. And then they concede he assaulted my client to obtain a confession in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, used that illegal confession to seize the knife in violation of my client's Fourth Amendment rights. And as if that wasn't enough, they freely admit he then planted the knife to frame my client for a crime he didn't commit, in violation of, at the very least, his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Are there any amendments the People *haven't* violated? And now, in what has to be the single greatest demonstration of legal chutzpah in the history of jurisprudence, he contends the knife shouldn't be suppresed.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : Mr. McCoy, is this true?

  Jack McCoy : Every word, Your Honor.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : Then how can you argue in support of the knife's admission?

  Jack McCoy : Because of the inevitable discovery doctrine. The knife is admissible if the police would have eventually discovered it without the impropriety.

  Rodney Fallon : Well, how is that possible? They only found the knife because Officer Daniels planted it in my client's home.

  Serena Southerlyn : You said it yourself. The police canvassed the area where the knife was originally hidden.

  Jack McCoy : I have an affidavit from Detective Johnson, the primary on the case, who searched the storm drain where Grimes had hidden the knife.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : But it wasn't there to be found.

  Jack McCoy : Because Officer Daniels had already removed it. Under inevitable discovery, the issue is what would have happened but for Officer Daniels' wrongful conduct?

  Judge Antonia Mellon : The knife would have been in that storm drain for Detective Johnson to find.

  Jack McCoy : Exactly.

  Rodney Fallon : Oh, this is outrageous. You're basically saying that Daniels' illegal conduct makes the knife admissible.

  Jack McCoy : It isn't that I don't see the irony, but the evidence is admissible.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : He's got you, Mr. Fallon. Look, Mr. Grimes' confession remains inadmissible, but the knife comes in.

• Kenneth Daniels : Planting the knife was wrong. What I did was wrong. I was trying to do right, but now I see the ends didn't justify the means.

  Jack McCoy : I'm sure you understand people may view whatever testimony you'd offer against Walter Grimes with a certain amount of skepticism.

  Kenneth Daniels : I made one mistake twenty years ago.

  Jack McCoy : Since then?

  Kenneth Daniels : I've told the truth and played by the rules.

  Rodney Fallon : [standing up as Jack sits down]  Have you?

  Kenneth Daniels : Yes.

  Rodney Fallon : "One mistake." You admit you framed my client for the murder of Leanne Testa.

  Kenneth Daniels : I admit to framing him for one murder because he committed another; the one he's on trial for here.

  Rodney Fallon : You don't get to be judge and jury this time, Mr. Daniels.

  Kenneth Daniels : He confessed to me that he killed Julie Sayer.

  Rodney Fallon : A confession you beat out of him. Which mistake do you regret, beating my client or planting evidence against him?

  Kenneth Daniels : Both.

  Rodney Fallon : So that's two mistakes.

• Rodney Fallon : Tell me, is there anyone who can corroborate your story?

  Kenneth Daniels : Just your client.

  Rodney Fallon : My client maintains his innocence. Which means we're left with your word.

  Kenneth Daniels : Then you're left with my word, and I'm telling the truth.

  Rodney Fallon : But I don't believe you, Mr. Daniels. You've been obsessed with getting my client for decades, since he was a kid haven't you?

  Kenneth Daniels : No.

  Rodney Fallon : You arrested him for a liquor store robbery that was committed by someone else.

  Kenneth Daniels : I stand by that arrest.

  Rodney Fallon : Even though the owner said the robber was Latino? And then, on another occasion, you assaulted Mr. Grimes.

  Kenneth Daniels : He was a suspect. He attacked me, counselor, and I defended myself.

  Rodney Fallon : He was in your custody and you beat him bloody.

  Kenneth Daniels : Like I said, I regret that.

  Rodney Fallon : Then you framed him for Leanne Testa's murder.

  Kenneth Daniels : And I've got nothin' to gain by admittin' it. In fact, I'm throwing away my career and my pension.

  Rodney Fallon : Your career and pension mean nothing to you, do they? Not compared to your vendetta against Walter Grimes.

• Jack McCoy : Your fingerprints are on the knife. Julie Sayer's blood is on the knife. How did all that get there?

  Rodney Fallon : Objection!

  Walter Grimes : Daniels put it there.

  Jack McCoy : How did Detective Daniels get your knife?

  Rodney Fallon : It is not incumbent upon the defendant to prove how Detective Daniels did anything.

  Jack McCoy : He's making all these assertions. He must have some idea.

  Walter Grimes : I don't know how! He framed me, okay? I never killed anybody!

  Jack McCoy : You didn't kill Brendan Donner three months after being released from prison...

  Rodney Fallon : Objection, Your Honor! Objection!

  Jack McCoy : ...by smashing his head in with a liquor bottle?

• Rodney Fallon : This is outrageous. Accusing him of murder?

  Jack McCoy : The defendant denied it. I have every right to attack his credibility.

  Rodney Fallon : He hasn't been convicted in that case! He hasn't even been tried.

  Jack McCoy : But he did raise a "not responsible" defense. Which is an admission that he killed Brendan Donner. And if the defendant denies that, I'll put Dr. Olivet on the stand to impeach him.

  Rodney Fallon : You goaded him into that denial so you could bring in the other case to poison the minds of the jury.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : They call that cross-examination, Mr. Fallon. Sorry, counsel. Your client opened the door and put out the welcome mat. If I were you, I'd talk to Mr. McCoy about a plea.

• Rodney Fallon : Forget it, McCoy. I'll argue that Grimes killed Donner because Daniels' vendetta against him turned him into a murderer.

  Jack McCoy : You don't have to posture, Mr. Fallon. Your client's not here.

  Rodney Fallon : I don't have to posture because I still have Kenny Daniels to vilify.

  Jack McCoy : Which means nothing unless you can paint Grimes as the victim here.

  Rodney Fallon : A victim is exactly what he is! A victim of police misconduct. A victim of the entire criminal justice system.

  Jack McCoy : The jury's not here, either, so let's not pretend we don't know the crimes your client committed as a juvenile. Let's not pretend he didn't kill Julie Sayer.

  Rodney Fallon : And let's not pretend Daniels wasn't out there playing judge and jury.

  Jack McCoy : Detective Daniels is not on trial here. Grimes is. And Grimes is the one who slit a woman's throat. Grimes is the one who crushed a man's head. You seem to forget that. But I'm going to make sure the jury remembers. They're going to want someone to pay. Trust me, it won't be Kenny Daniels.

  Rodney Fallon : Twenty years in prison almost killed Walter Grimes.

  Jack McCoy : I'll give him credit for those twenty years. If he allocutes.

• Walter Grimes : I killed Julie Sayer. I knew her from around. I had the hots for her. But she... doesn't matter why I did it. I just... I followed her one night. I grabbed her. She said no. I stabbed her. That's it. There's nothing more to say.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : Mr. Grimes, since you're pleading guilty to murder in the second degree with a sentence of twenty-five years to life, and since the terms of your plea agreement are that in exchange for this allocution, you are to be given credit for the twenty years you served in Green Haven, your remaining sentence on the murder of Julie Sayer is five years.

  Walter Grimes : I understand, Your Honor.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : And the parties have also reached a plea with respect to the murder of Brendan Donner?

  Rodney Fallon : We have. The defendant has waived his right to trial and will plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

  Judge Antonia Mellon : I'm accepting the defendant's plea and imposing a sentence of seven and a half to fifteen years, to be served consecutively with the aforementioned five.