Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Mercy (2003)

Stephanie March: ADA Alexandra 'Alex' Cabot

Quotes 

• A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : Andrea's lawyer is going to argue that this was a crime of love.

  Detective John Munch : It doesn't matter what intentions the road is paved with, Alex, it all leads to the same place.

• A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : I take it you side with the defense.

  Detective John Munch : Oh ye of little faith.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : I thought you were pro- euthanasia.

  Detective John Munch : Yeah, for adults competent enough to ask for it.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : But not for children?

  Detective John Munch : If first we kill babies with diseases, then children who are disabled, where does it all end?

• A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : Your client provided the murder weapon; we're not going to send a message you can kill a terminally ill child and get off with a slap on the wrist.

• A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : Olivia, would you want somebody digging through your medical records?

  Detective Olivia Benson : Look, I had a pregnancy scare in college, that was bad enough. I can't imagine the police knocking at my door, but this is our best lead.

• A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : [during her closing argument]  Andrea Brown ground up a lethal dose of antidepressants and fed it to her baby. The defense doesn't dispute these facts, but they argue... Mrs. Brown acted out of the noblest of motives. Let's examine these motives. Andrea Brown had an extramarital affair and got pregnant. When she found out the baby wasn't her husband's, did she tell him? No. Did she tell Steve Kellerman that he was the father? No. Did she tell Dr. Platner when pressuring him for a prescription, an act she knew could land him in prison? No. From the start, Andrea Brown's primary concern was preserving her marriage, her image, and her lifestyle by hiding at all costs her affair. She knew that the longer Sarah was alive, the greater the chances someone would find out that Daniel Brown was not the father, so she killed her daughter, a helpless child who had not yet begun to suffer the effects of Tay-Sachs, all of this to conceal the fact that she'd slept with another man. The defense would have you believe this was an act of mercy. It wasn't. This is a clear-cut case of murder.

• Detective John Munch : [to Cabot]  Good work, Counselor.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : She didn't deserve 25-to-life.

  Detective John Munch : Jury thought so.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : Because I turned her into a whore.

  Detective John Munch : Doesn't matter. She killed her child.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : What if it was your daughter? What would you have done?

  Detective John Munch : Whatever I could.

• Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : Someone killed a child. It's our duty to speak for the victim.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : So now we're the pregnancy police? We're violating a woman's rights for what amounts to a... Hail Mary.

  Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : This isn't about abortion rights, Alex. We are talking about a one-month-old infant.

  A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot : Okay, so what if that doesn't work, what are we supposed to do - question every single woman who bought an EPT kit at the drugstore?

  Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly : I'm afraid you're missing the point. We all worked hard to pass the Baby Safe Haven law. That mother could have dropped her child off at any fire station, any hospital without fear of prosecution - instead, she chose to murder.