- 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.
- Alan Shore: Mr. Markham, why kiss this woman?
- Randy Markham: Because I wanted to embarrass her the way she embarrassed me. I walked my smelly ass into her office, I walked my disgusting self right up to her and I kissed her to humiliate her.
- [to Debbie Huber, pointing his finger at her]
- Randy Markham: Make you feel the way I felt! The way I still feel. Sitting in a courtroom, listening to you tell this judge and everybody that it took you three showers to get the smell off of you.
- [pounds the dais in front of him 4 times]
- Ellenor Frutt: [during a press conference] It doesn't even matter whether the judge allows cameras in the courtroom or not. You're already in that room. More importantly, and alarmingly, you're in the jury room. Every article being written about Brad Stanfield presupposes his guilt. He's the horrible husband who murdered his pregnant wife. Amazing! That you can all know that without being privy to the facts. The prosecution has guarded this case tightly. We don't even know the evidence. And yet, with the media, the world, and possibly the potential jury pool, he already stands guilty. Get this: Molly Stanfield took her own life. And when the facts finally and appropriately come out in trial, you will all know what I know now. My client is innocent.
- 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.
- Ellenor Frutt: [to Brad Stanfield] We need Emma at the trial.
- Brad Stanfield: [shakes his head] I can't allow that.
- Ellenor Frutt: Brad...
- Brad Stanfield: She's 10 years old.
- Ellenor Frutt: [shakes her head] I understand that.
- Brad Stanfield: I said no. She's a child.
- Ellenor Frutt: Listen to me. You have serious monster issues here. To the world and to the potential jury pool, you are the man who murdered his pregnant wife and unborn son. The best way to humanize you is to let the jury see you as a father and not a killer. And the best way to accomplish that is to have your daughter by your side at your side.
- Brad Stanfield: And what will that do to her? To have to sit there and listen while her father is... demonized before the...
- Ellenor Frutt: She's already hearing that everywhere she turns. I think the real question is what will it do to her to see you go to prison which is exactly what we're looking at.
- Alan Shore: I have issues with homeless people.
- Ellenor Frutt: What issues?
- Alan Shore: They don't like me. I think it must be cultural.
- A.D.A. Kate Barron: You're Alan Shore. What are you doing at a criminal bench trial?
- Alan Shore: Looking to meet women.
- Alan Shore: [to Randy] So, how are we today, sir?
- Randy Markham: I... I just Halle-Berry'ed her. That's all I did.
- Alan Shore: I beg your pardon?
- Randy Markham: Like at the Oscars? Look, I just planted one on her 'cause when else would I get a chance? That's all I did.
- Alan Shore: I see.
- Ellenor Frutt: [to Emma] We wanted to talk to you about your dad's trial which starts next week.
- Emma Stanfield: He told me. You want me to come?
- Ellenor Frutt: Yes.
- Jamie Stringer: We also were thinking of calling you as a witness. Did your dad tell you that?
- Emma Stanfield: Yes. You want me to say my mom seemed really sad so people will believe she committed suicide.
- Ellenor Frutt: We just want you to tell the truth.
- Emma Stanfield: She seemed really sad.
- Jamie Stringer: Do you think your mom killed herself?
- Emma Stanfield: I know my dad didn't kill her. He loved her. She seemed so sad, so I think she must have committed suicide.
- Ellenor Frutt: Emma, did your dad ask you to say that?
- Emma Stanfield: No.
- Aisha Crenshaw: [to Young] Murder two?
- Eugene Young: It allows for the possibility of parole. We think you should take it.
- Aisha Crenshaw: What would my sentence be?
- Eugene Young: Life. But again, with murder one...
- Aisha Crenshaw: Forget it.
- Eugene Young: Aisha...
- Aisha Crenshaw: I said forget it.
- Eugene Young: I heard what you said. Listen to me, please. We have nothing. Our only hope, if you can even call it a hope is for a hung verdict. Our only chance to get that is to convince a juror to say, "To hell with the law."
- Aisha Crenshaw: Good. Get one to say that.
- Jimmy Berluti: If they come back guilty, which truthfully, how could they not? You get life, no parole.
- Eugene Young: There's no point in being a martyr.
- Aisha Crenshaw: [shakes her head] I know you care. You care because we're all on the same side. Problem is with too many voices, you get noise. So let's speak with one voice. And since I'm the client, since I'm the one who's going to be sittin' in that prison cell, let's let the voice be mine. Jimmy, I want you to look those jurors in the eye and tell them that the law is wrong. Marcus Thayer had it coming. The law is wrong.
- Alan Shore: [to Debbie Huber] Debbie. Hello.
- Debbie Huber: You're dishonest, you know. Dressing him up like that in a suit! That is not what accosted me and you know it.
- Alan Shore: Debbie, this case was assigned to me. Certainly you know that. Do you think I like defending these kinds of people? You know this isn't technically relevant to the case, but I touched myself with you in mind last night. Your hair was very different, but anyway...
- [takes her by the elbow and starts walking with her]
- Alan Shore: Just between you and me, it turns out Mr. Markham has a homeowner's insurance policy; cheap, but not totally worthless. If you were to, say, sue him civilly, you might get, say, $10,000.
- Debbie Huber: I would?
- Alan Shore: [puts his briefcase down next to Debbie] The policy covers defamation of character. For you to allege his kissing you defamed you. Perhaps people thought you were a couple. The claim would be colorable with the assistance of a good attorney, which I am. Of course, I would need you to drop the criminal complaint. We'd wanna throw Randy a bone, wouldn't we? I bet you could use $10,000? Think of the shopping, Debbie?
- Debbie Huber: Isn't that like an illegal bribe?
- Alan Shore: Which means this would have to be our little secret.
- D.A. Asher Silverman: The law Mr. Berluti suggests you defy is the one against murder, and what he's asking you to embrace is terrorism. The defendant decided someone was not worthy of life, and so she acted to execute, and her lawyer now stands before you, mocking our allegiance to law and order. There are many countries in the world who tolerate street justice. You don't like somebody, you just shoot them. There are places where this happens. But this is America. We don't commit vigilantism. We don't tolerate murder when the killer sees fit, no matter what his or her conscience. And we certainly don't embrace terrorism. My heart goes out to Ms. Crenshaw for the loss of her child. Could the police do a better job? Perhaps. If they had the resources, I'm sure they would, but what's the answer? For citizens to pull out guns and shoot the bad guys? Is that a country we want to live in? Is it? I, too, believe a jury should reflect the conscience of America.
- [triggers a TV set next to the juror's box to replay the videotape of Aisha Crenshaw shooting Marcus Thayer]
- D.A. Asher Silverman: That is not in my conscience. And I pray to God, for all our children, it's not in yours.
- Tara Wilson: [to Shore] Little advice: You might mock the law and get away with it, but don't make sport of me. Are we clear, Al?
- Alan Shore: So, you are attracted to me.
- Aisha Crenshaw: [during a press conference after being acquitted of murder] Am I surprised? Yes. But I'm also heartened. The jury sent a message not just to me or the police, but to all of us. We need to take back our streets. The Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms to defend our homes, our streets. It's time that the good people start exercising that right to defend our children. We, the people, need to rise up. We need to put these dealers down before they take any more of our children. And it's not just in Boston. All over you hear about tax cuts. Well, it's service cuts. And it's the poor neighborhoods suffering these service cuts across this country. We need to rise up and do a job.
- Tara Wilson: [to Shore] We can't expense new clothes for clients. Ah, not in the budget.
- Alan Shore: This is a top criminal firm in Boston. Surely we can afford $200?
- Tara Wilson: Ah, the top firm that you speak of is Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt. Donnell is gone, Dole is gone, Washington is gone and we don't take clients shopping.
- Alan Shore: Do we take each other shopping?