Law & Order (TV Series)

Compassion (2003)

Sam Waterston: Executive ADA Jack McCoy

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Jack McCoy : What can I say? Nobody's made of steel. Not even someone with a 160 IQ.

  Serena Southerlyn : Turns out neither are you.

  Jack McCoy : What?

  Serena Southerlyn : It's called compassion, Jack.

  Arthur Branch : Don't make it a habit, my friend. Sometimes the good you do doesn't do you any good.

• Jack McCoy : Four minutes.

  Swift : Always have to play the tough guy, don't you?

  Jack McCoy : Tough has nothing to do with this.

  Swift : You feel for the woman, Jack. It doesn't make you weak.

  Jack McCoy : Three minutes.

  Swift : I could win this case, you know.

  Jack McCoy : Not when the judge instructs the jury on the definition of legal insanity.

  Swift : Ten years is a long time.

  Jack McCoy : She killed a man.

  Swift : A scoundrel. Ten years, or... until a panel of three medical professionals certify she's not a threat to herself or others.

  Jack McCoy : Doctors to be chosen by my office.

  Swift : But in the private psychiatric facility of her choice.

  Jack McCoy : To be approved of by me and located within my jurisdiction. One minute.

  Swift : Done.

  Jack McCoy : I tell the judge.

  Swift : It's not a bad thing, Jack.

  Jack McCoy : What?

  Swift : Having a heart.

• Dr. Emil Skoda : What can I tell you? She's one of the smartest people I've ever examined. Warm, compassionate.

  Serena Southerlyn : [teasing him]  You are still married, aren't you, Emil?

  Jack McCoy : As long as you can say she was legally sane, I don't care how warm she is.

  Dr. Emil Skoda : Well, she was sane at the time of the murder.

  Jack McCoy : But?

  Dr. Emil Skoda : She pisses me off. Any rational doctor with her specialty knows the emotional toll it can have. They take measures to protect themselves.

  Serena Southerlyn : You mean like therapy?

  Dr. Emil Skoda : Medical counseling, religious counseling. And not some John Edwards/Dionne Warwick hocus pocus. And then to actually use that as an excuse to commit murder, it's unconscionable.

  Jack McCoy : So you're saying this is an act?

  Dr. Emil Skoda : Yeah. Unfortunately, this woman is smart enough and sympathetic enough to just maybe get away with it.

• Serena Southerlyn : On my last birthday, I got three gift certificates for three different psychic networks.

  Jack McCoy : That doesn't say much for your taste in friends.