The Practice (TV Series)

We the People (2003)

Kenneth Welsh: Judge Harrod

Quotes 

• Aisha Crenshaw : The observation posts are a joke. Those drug deals are captured on tape just as clearly as what I did, but the police don't respond. I doubt they even look at those tapes.

  Jimmy Berluti : Is crack a big problem in your neighborhood, Aisha?

  Aisha Crenshaw : Is it a big problem? My 2-year-old daughter was killed in a drive-by three years ago. I've seen my friends' children become dealers, addicts. My street has become Crack Lane, Mr. Berluti. It's almost impossible for a child to grow up in our neighborhood without it being shoved in his face. There are drive-by shootings, random killings, intentional killings, and at the root of it all are drugs: cocaine, crack. All being dealt openly and notoriously by Marcus Thayer and others. And the police do nothing.

  Judge Harrod : Counsel.

  Jimmy Berluti : So what happened that day?

  Aisha Crenshaw : What happened is I decided to do something to save the kids on our street. I decided to protect the lives that Marcus Thayer was so intent on destroying.

  Judge Harrod : Miss Crenshaw, as I have advised your counsel, I would advise you. "Defense of others" is not a justifiable theory...

  Aisha Crenshaw : It's justifiable to the parents who live in our neighborhood.

  Judge Harrod : Miss Crenshaw, I would instruct this jury not to accept self-defense or defense of others...

  Aisha Crenshaw : Why don't you instruct the mayor to instruct the police to clean up our streets?

  Judge Harrod : You have the right to present your testimony, but as you move forward...

  Aisha Crenshaw : These dealers are arrested over and over, and never do time. It has to stop.

• Jimmy Berluti : I believe quite strongly in law and order. We are a nation of laws, and it would be wrong for me or any lawyer to say it's okay for one person to take the law into her own hands. So I won't argue that. Even if children were dying in front of her, as was the case with my client. Even if she had to witness teenage drug addiction, gunfire, sometimes the killing of innocent people such as her own 2-year-old daughter. As I said, it would be wrong for me, as an officer of the court, to argue that she be allowed to take the law into her own hands. So I won't argue that. I won't argue self-defense or defense of others, but you all heard what was in her mind. It is within the power of this jury to vote your conscience, and I would implore you to dig into your conscience today.

  Judge Harrod : Mr. Berluti...

  Jimmy Berluti : Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "When confronted with an unjust law, the moral and ethical thing to do is to break that law." He said that. It would be wrong for me to say it.

  Judge Harrod : Counsel...

  Jimmy Berluti : My client had no right to take the law into her own hands. Of course not. It is totally irrelevant that the police weren't protecting her neighborhood. Also irrelevant that the conviction rate for drug arrests in Boston is below ten percent. Below ten percent! Put that out of your minds. Drug use is going up while drug arrests are going down. It's out of control. But it has no relevance here. What are we as parents supposed to do? That's a rhetorical question, of course. Not an issue for today.

  Judge Harrod : Mr. Berluti...

  Jimmy Berluti : As a matter of law, Aisha Crenshaw should have waited for the police to respond even though they weren't responding. She should have let the children become drug addicts or drug dealers. She should have let them continue to die. She should have done nothing and let all this happen because after all, we are a nation of laws.