The Crossing Quotes
"A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this."
"That’s my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies."
"Woodson, a twenty-seven-year-old drug dealer from Compton, was accused of robbing and killing two college students from Westwood."
"I work for the Public Defender’s Office and represent Barnett Woodson. Have we met before?"
"That guy’s a lying sack of shit. I didn’t kill two black guys. They were white."
"The defense asks that the file in front of Mr. Torrance be admitted into evidence as defense exhibit one."
"You should’ve just taken the nickel and kept your mouth shut."
"It’s a food chain. If Dr. Vogler wants to send a message, believe me, it will be sent."
"I’m talking about two weeks ago. Hayley said a woman was there. I believe her name was Lanie? She felt very awkward about it."
"Being mobile is the best way to do business."
"I make it a practice not to be heard of. Celebrity lawyers bring too much attention to their clients."
"It was a strange way of referring to double charges of murder."
"The plan had been to finesse my way through the arch and then be the one to personally tell Elliot his lawyer was dead."
"Being innocent is not enough. Innocent men sometimes get convicted and deep down everybody knows it."
"Because when she goes into battle, she always knows she is going to win."
"That’s the feeling you get when you know you have to look over your shoulder. When you know you’re in danger."
"When lawyers get into trouble, most of the time it’s because of the money."
"We tried that," Maggie said from my left. "Remember? You jumped on the teacher so badly about Hayley’s math grade—the circumstance of which you knew nothing about—that they asked me to handle communications with the school."
"I understand exactly the position I am in. So don’t dare tell me I am not taking it seriously."
"I want somebody who is already on my side or can easily be pushed there. I want twelve lemmings in the box."
"The truth is that a fair-minded person is the last person I want on my jury."
"The bottom line in any trial is that I want a biased jury."
"I want them biased against the state and the police."
"A computer can’t hear how someone gives an answer. It can’t see someone’s eyes when they lie."
"You never know who might see what outside the courtroom and what the effect might be."
"I knew that Golantz had made a tactical error."
"He had eliminated the sanitation worker with one challenge and had ended up with a juror seemingly even more detrimental to his cause."
"He would now have to live with the mistake or use his final challenge to remove the artist and run the same risk all over again."
"People don’t get arrested without good reason. The police usually have it right and arrest the right people."
"I believe that everybody makes mistakes from time to time—including the police—and you have to look at each case individually."
"No, because that wouldn’t be beyond a reasonable doubt."
"In general, having lemmings on the panel was good. Jurors with no indication of forceful personality and with middle-of-the-road convictions could oftentimes be manipulated during deliberations."
"If you’re innocent, why wait? We’ve been working almost around the clock to be ready and I think we are."
"Common sense will lead you. I urge you not to get confused or sidetracked by the roadblocks to justice the defense will put before you."
"This case is not that complicated. What the prosecution’s case amounts to is a labyrinth of smoke and mirrors."
"But anybody who has ever stepped foot into a courtroom as a lawyer or defendant knows that presumed innocence is just one of the idealistic notions they teach in law school."
"There’s a saying that people don’t get arrested in church for singing too loud. In other words, where there’s smoke there’s fire."
"I don’t think Mr. Elliot is going to have any drop-off in his defense whatsoever. We’re locked and loaded and ready to go."
"It’s not a gas. It doesn’t dissipate like a gas. It is microscopic but solid and it has to be someplace at the end of the day."
"I’m paid to be here, not paid to testify to anything other than my own opinion—whether it’s in line with the defense or not. That’s my deal and I never change it."
"I don’t think you’re guilty of the charges you’re facing. And that’s all I need."
"We had a gunshot residue examination that came back positive. In my mind that connected Mr. Elliot to a gun."
"I think almost everything he put on his J-sheet is false."
"You’re supposed to. Realistically, unless you’ve got puke in the backseat, nobody does that."
"He said that they’d had enough of American justice and were going back home."
"All this time they’ve concentrated on coming after me, the real killer’s been out there running around free!"
"After court you had dinner with your client at Water Grill. You both had the fillet of sole and both of you raised your voices at times. Your client drank liberally, which resulted in you driving him home in his car."
"I have my own jury to face and that the coming verdict is guilty."
"No hard feelings on anything, Mickey. You're a damn good lawyer."