Law & Order, Season 4

Schiff:
You can't force the other side to play. You put a check in the win column and you count your blessings.

Stone:
In any other circumstances, that's exactly what I'd do.

Schiff:
Why does this kid deserve such special attention?

Stone:
Because he's pleading for the wrong reason. His lawyer tells him that he's born bad. We tell him he's raised bad. He buys both stories. Sees his life as a dead end.

Schiff:
Maybe he knows his life better than you do. Your job is to convict, not to rehabilitate.

Stone:
He's a 14-year-old kid who gave up.

Schiff:
So you're doing him a favor.

Stone:
If he gave up his illusions, right, but he gave up hope and I drove him to that. Now anything might happen to that kid in prison.

Schiff:
Gary Gilmore. Westley Dodd. 2 unrepentant killers. Everybody wants them dead until they agree, and then we turn them into folk heroes.

Stone:
We had nothing to do with their fates.

Schiff:
You want them to start naming churches after you, I'd get another profession. Take the kid's plea. Move on to the next case.