The Best Rodney Fallon Quotes

E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy: No one denies the Brotherhood is dangerous. The issue is whether the defendant was allowed to make an anticipatory strike against one of their members. And hundreds of years of jurisprudence say no.
Rodney: A hundred years ago there was no Brotherhood. How long are you supposed to stand on the tracks with a freight train coming at you?
Trial: Mr. Fallon's argument is a convincing one, Mr. McCoy. This is how the law evolves. The defendant's belief may well have been objectively reasonable under the circumstances. It's pushing the envelope, but I'm going to let the issue go to the jury.

Detective: [finding Fallon bound and gagged in a motel room closet] Mr. Fallon, it looks like you put up a hell of a fight.
Ed: Where's your client? And the first words out of your mouth better not be "privileged".
Rodney: [Green undoes his gag] He's not here.
Ed: I can see that. So where is he?
Rodney: You said you weren't going to interfere.
Detective: You said you were gonna bring Grimes in. Looks like we both failed on our promises.
Rodney: Well, I tried to convince him to surrender himself to the authorities for his own good, but he was in no mood to go back to prison.
Ed: How long has he been gone?
Rodney: About ten minutes.
Ed: Did he say where he was going?
Detective: And don't forget what we said about that word "privilege".
Rodney: He took my wallet. Said he needed to get to his cousin's in Providence.

Rodney: So far, the New York Exoneration Project has gotten almost fifty innocent people released, and we're looking at hundreds of other cases.
Detective: And I'll bet each and every one of them didn't do it.
Rodney: Oh, well, obviously they're not all innocent. But even if a single one is, don't you think it's our obligation to see to it that they don't spend a minute longer in jail?
Detective: I bet you can count the number of guys in jail who are genuniely innocent on one hand. You know how many felonies the average criminal commits before he gets caught, let alone convicted?
Rodney: I'm well aware of the police statistics.
Detective: It's about the same as the number of times you speed on the throughway without getting a ticket.
Rodney: So what you're saying, detective, we shouldn't try to exonerate defendants who were wrongly convicted?
Detective: Yeah, sure we should try, but just don't tell me they're all innocent.

Trial: [Receiving a note] Counsel, in my chambers. This was addressed to me. If Worley gets off, you're dead. Court officer said it was left in the gallery by a woman.
E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy: You should have the police take custody of the note.
Trial: They've already been called.
Rodney: And what are we going to do about the trial?
Trial: We're adjourned for today. I'll meet with counsel tomorrow at 9:30.

Ed: Can we talk about Walter Grimes, please?
Rodney: An outright travesty of justice. His lawyer was a twenty-five year old legal aid attorney trying his third case.
Detective: Well, he caught a bad break.
Rodney: Oh, that alone should have got him a new trial. DNA proved he didn't kill Leanne Testa.
Ed: Which won't happen this time. Look, we may not have DNA, but we got your client's fingerprints on the bottle he used to fracture Brendan Donner's skull.
Rodney: Well, we don't what happened that night. Maybe Walter was defending himself.
Detective: Why don't we ask him ourselves?
Ed: Yeah. Where can we find him? We got a warrant for his arrest.
Rodney: I'd rather you didn't speak to Walter if I'm not present.
Ed: What, are you still his lawyer?
Rodney: If you have a warrant, I am.
Ed: Then you should know that you have an obligation to surrender your client.
Rodney: I know what my obligations are.
Detective: Then you won't mind giving us his address.

Rodney: First the People concede that Detective Daniels, who was then Officer Daniels, questioned my client without counsel present in clear violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. And then they concede he assaulted my client to obtain a confession in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, used that illegal confession to seize the knife in violation of my client's Fourth Amendment rights. And as if that wasn't enough, they freely admit he then planted the knife to frame my client for a crime he didn't commit, in violation of, at the very least, his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Are there any amendments the People *haven't* violated? And now, in what has to be the single greatest demonstration of legal chutzpah in the history of jurisprudence, he contends the knife shouldn't be suppresed.
Judge: Mr. McCoy, is this true?
Jack: Every word, Your Honor.
Judge: Then how can you argue in support of the knife's admission?
Jack: Because of the inevitable discovery doctrine. The knife is admissible if the police would have eventually discovered it without the impropriety.
Rodney: Well, how is that possible? They only found the knife because Officer Daniels planted it in my client's home.
Serena: You said it yourself. The police canvassed the area where the knife was originally hidden.
Jack: I have an affidavit from Detective Johnson, the primary on the case, who searched the storm drain where Grimes had hidden the knife.
Judge: But it wasn't there to be found.
Jack: Because Officer Daniels had already removed it. Under inevitable discovery, the issue is what would have happened but for Officer Daniels' wrongful conduct?
Judge: The knife would have been in that storm drain for Detective Johnson to find.
Jack: Exactly.
Rodney: Oh, this is outrageous. You're basically saying that Daniels' illegal conduct makes the knife admissible.
Jack: It isn't that I don't see the irony, but the evidence is admissible.
Judge: He's got you, Mr. Fallon. Look, Mr. Grimes' confession remains inadmissible, but the knife comes in.

Jack: I don't think Mr. Grimes is eligible for the Exoneration Project's services this time, Mr. Fallon.
Rodney: Well, I don't see why he wouldn't be. Walter is innocent.
Jack: Then can he explain his fingerprints on the murder weapon and the eyewitnesses at the bar?
Serena: Or his behavior when he saw two NYPD detectives? Taking a hostage isn't exactly consistent with innocence.
Rodney: Well, that depends on how you define innocence.

Jack: I define an innocent person as someone who didn't commit the crime.
Rodney: Or someone whom the law recognizes should not be held responsible for his actions. A defendant can't be convicted if he didn't act with mens rea - criminal intent.
Serena: He brained a man with a liquor bottle.
Rodney: Walter Grimes was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. If he hadn't gone to prison for twenty years, as an innocent man, he never would have attacked Brendan Donner.
Serena: What are you saying? Prison made him do it?
Rodney: It certainly changed him. Profoundly. He absolutely wasn't the same man when he came out.
Jack: I'm sorry the system failed you, Mr. Grimes, but a wrongful conviction does not earn anyone a free pass on murder.

Rodney: This is outrageous. Accusing him of murder?
Jack: The defendant denied it. I have every right to attack his credibility.
Rodney: He hasn't been convicted in that case! He hasn't even been tried.
Jack: But he did raise a "not responsible" defense. Which is an admission that he killed Brendan Donner. And if the defendant denies that, I'll put Dr. Olivet on the stand to impeach him.
Rodney: You goaded him into that denial so you could bring in the other case to poison the minds of the jury.
Judge: They call that cross-examination, Mr. Fallon. Sorry, counsel. Your client opened the door and put out the welcome mat. If I were you, I'd talk to Mr. McCoy about a plea.

Rodney: The knife was planted in my client's apartment.
Jack: By a police officer. The chain of custody remained intact.
Rodney: This is outrageous. I can't believe you can stand there and say that to me with a straight face. You're forgetting how that officer found the knife in the storm drain in the first place.
Serena: Your client told him where it was.
Rodney: He beat it out of him! An improperly obtained confession. The knife is poisonous fruit.
Serena: You're assuming that the police wouldn't have found it without Grimes' confession.
Rodney: They canvassed all over the city. They would have never found it, and you know it.
Jack: Let's see what a judge thinks. In the meantime, consider this your notice of our lab work.
Serena: We exhumed her body and extracted DNA from her bones. The blood on the knife was Julie Sayer's.
Jack: DNA is a double-edged sword, counselor.
Rodney: DNA is persuasive. Only if it's admissible.
[handing Jack a blueback]
Rodney: My motion to suppress the knife.

Kenneth: Planting the knife was wrong. What I did was wrong. I was trying to do right, but now I see the ends didn't justify the means.
Jack: I'm sure you understand people may view whatever testimony you'd offer against Walter Grimes with a certain amount of skepticism.
Kenneth: I made one mistake twenty years ago.
Jack: Since then?
Kenneth: I've told the truth and played by the rules.
Rodney: [standing up as Jack sits down] Have you?
Kenneth: Yes.
Rodney: "One mistake." You admit you framed my client for the murder of Leanne Testa.
Kenneth: I admit to framing him for one murder because he committed another; the one he's on trial for here.
Rodney: You don't get to be judge and jury this time, Mr. Daniels.
Kenneth: He confessed to me that he killed Julie Sayer.
Rodney: A confession you beat out of him. Which mistake do you regret, beating my client or planting evidence against him?
Kenneth: Both.
Rodney: So that's two mistakes.

Jack: Your fingerprints are on the knife. Julie Sayer's blood is on the knife. How did all that get there?
Rodney: Objection!
Walter: Daniels put it there.
Jack: How did Detective Daniels get your knife?
Rodney: It is not incumbent upon the defendant to prove how Detective Daniels did anything.
Jack: He's making all these assertions. He must have some idea.
Walter: I don't know how! He framed me, okay? I never killed anybody!
Jack: You didn't kill Brendan Donner three months after being released from prison...
Rodney: Objection, Your Honor! Objection!
Jack: ...by smashing his head in with a liquor bottle?

Rodney: You asked me where Walter lived. I gave you his primary address.
Ed: Hey, man, don't get smart with us!
Rodney: Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. You couldn't keep up.
Anita: [entering] All right, let's all just take it down a notch. Mr. Fallon, this is way past zealous representation here.
Rodney: I can't tell you where he went. It's arguably privileged information.
Anita: Well, consider it negotiating a fugitive's peaceful surrender.
Rodney: I'll get him to come in.
Detective: Not a chance.
Rodney: I have no idea what he's capable of if he feels threatened. I... I can do this. He trusts me.
Anita: All right. You've got two hours. Either way, we're going to arrest him for murder or you for hindering prosecution.

Rodney: Tell me, is there anyone who can corroborate your story?
Kenneth: Just your client.
Rodney: My client maintains his innocence. Which means we're left with your word.
Kenneth: Then you're left with my word, and I'm telling the truth.
Rodney: But I don't believe you, Mr. Daniels. You've been obsessed with getting my client for decades, since he was a kid haven't you?
Kenneth: No.
Rodney: You arrested him for a liquor store robbery that was committed by someone else.
Kenneth: I stand by that arrest.
Rodney: Even though the owner said the robber was Latino? And then, on another occasion, you assaulted Mr. Grimes.
Kenneth: He was a suspect. He attacked me, counselor, and I defended myself.
Rodney: He was in your custody and you beat him bloody.
Kenneth: Like I said, I regret that.
Rodney: Then you framed him for Leanne Testa's murder.
Kenneth: And I've got nothin' to gain by admittin' it. In fact, I'm throwing away my career and my pension.
Rodney: Your career and pension mean nothing to you, do they? Not compared to your vendetta against Walter Grimes.

Rodney: Isn't it a fact, Mr. Marsden, that you authorized Mr. Trammell to murder my client?
Kyle: [Just smiling]
Rodney: Your Honor, would you instruct Mr. Marsden to answer the question?
Trial: Your answer, Mr. Marsden.
Kyle: [Looking at the Judge] What are you gonna do, Judge? Hold me in contempt?
Trial: Consider it done.
Kyle: Ooh, are sure you want to do that?
Trial: Are you threatening me, Mr. Marsden?
Kyle: Why would I want to threaten you, Judge?
Trial: You wouldn't if you know what's good for you.
Kyle: [Just keeps on smiling]
Rodney: No further questions, Your Honor.

Judge: You're moving to preclude this defense, Mr. McCoy?
Jack: Your Honor, it's ridiculous. Under Mr. Fallon's theory, every ex-con would have a dense for murder.
Rodney: But we're not talking about men who were criminals before going to prison. We're talking about a man who was completely innocent before being sent to Green Haven, and was profoundly and irrevocably changed, and not for the better by the experience.
Serena: And prison erased his sense of right and wrong?
Rodney: In a manner of speaking, yes. It maimed him. It dehumanized him. It replaced traditional notions of right and wrong with a "kill or be killed" reflex that led, tragically, to Brendan Donner's death.
Jack: That doesn't meet the New York standard, Your Hononr. Either Mr. Grimes didn't know what was doing was wrong or he didn't understand the nature of his behavior. Simply reacting to a perceived threat because he thought he was in a hostile environment doesn't cut it.
Serena: He wasn't in prison. He was in a bar, Your Honor. He completely overreacted.
Rodney: Exactly. Walter Grimes completely overreacted because of how his prison experience shaped him.
Judge: You have an expert who'll back your theory, Mr. Fallon?
Rodney: I've got five of them, Your Honor.
Judge: Fax their C.V.s over to me. If they're credible, I'm inclined to let this go to a jury.