Law & Order (TV Series)

Hunters (1999)

Sam Waterston: Executive ADA Jack McCoy

Quotes 

• Jack McCoy : No crime, no coverup. Three people dead, and no one's accountable.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Justice on a budget. What did you end up charging them with?

  A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael : Tampering with evidence. An "E" felony.

  D.A. Adam Schiff : Oh.

  A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael : We arraigned them. They posted bail: 2000 dollars. And they walk away from three murders.

  Jack McCoy : We can always hope they jump bail.

• A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael : Correctional Assistance Services filed a federal habeas corpus petition in district court. They want to take Sheridan back to Georgia.

  Jack McCoy : First their bounty hunters treat our city like a shooting gallery; now they want to take home the kewpie doll.

• Spellman : Mr. McCoy, I'll say this again. This is nonsense. I'm filing a motion to have all charges dismissed.

  Jack McCoy : On what basis?

  Spellman : Why would my clients cover up something that wasn't a crime?

• Mark Branson : For better or worse, the bounty hunter may use force, including deadly force, to effectuate a just recapture. Doug Bender's shooting was lamentable, not criminal. Ron Difka's zealousness just doesn't rise to the level of homicide

  Jack McCoy : A shooting in anger? Covering it up by killing unarmed women?

  Mark Branson : Mr. McCoy is using the first shooting as evidence of a criminal motive for the other two. Yet the first shooting was in no way criminal.

  Jack McCoy : Mr. Branson's position would give these men unfettered discretion.

  Mark Branson : They're bail agents. The Supreme court gives them just that discretion.

  Jack McCoy : Taylor and its progeny are nearly 100 years old.

  Mark Branson : And they've never been overruled. Your honor, the bail bondsman and his agent serve a legitimate societal need. Without the bail bondsman, most criminal defendants could not post bail. And without the bail agent, the bail-jumper would threaten the existence of the entire system.

  Jack McCoy : A properly trained and regulated bail agent may be a necessity, but as it stands there are no regulations. A society that tolerates or turns a blind eye to this kind of behavior is one step from barbarity.

• Jack McCoy : I don't know what I find scarier, Abbie: clowns like these having a free pass to break the law, or one of our own ADAs taking their side.

  A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael : Max Sheridan is the bad guy here.

  Jack McCoy : He's alive. His sister and the babysitter are dead.

  A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael : It's overkill. But Max Sheridan is a cold-blooded murderer. Like it or not, Granada and Difka did us a service by catching him.

  Jack McCoy : A service? They're outlaws!

• Jack McCoy : They're outlaws! I'm going to check on their weapon permits. I don't care if they forgot the period after their middle initial; I'm having their permits yanked.