Live! From Death Row (1992 TV Movie)

Michael D. Roberts: Silsbee

Quotes 

• Laurence Dvorak : Bring the camera over here. Turn it on. Mr. Lockhart, Albert, has been in this situation before, haven't you, Albert? See, Albert's first year here at the penitentiary was an eventful one: there was a riot in cell block 11, the prisoners took hostages, Albert had just been at the penitentiary oh 3 months I think it was. He was a fresh young man out of military service, heard he was one of the good guys, used to treat all the prisoners like human beings.

  Lockart : [grunts in pain]  I learned better.

  Laurence Dvorak : Albert was taken hostage, they didn't hurt him at first but then negotiations broke off and, well the inmates got a little restless.

  Lockart : Alright, Dvorak, I'll shut up, just turn the camera off.

  Laurence Dvorak : Well I'm sure the viewing audience wants to hear your story, Albert. You see for the next 17 days, until negotiations were completed, Albert became, Albert became what Miss Powers termed in one of her shows, 'a sex slave'.

  [laughs] 

  Laurence Dvorak : A sex slave. How about that, Alana? Being repeatedly raped in all possible ways if the records are accurate, for 17 days, some of it must've been pretty brutal too because well, Albert was in the hospital after that for about a month. One of his knees was permanently damaged, but that was just physical, I'm sure the real damage was psychological and emotional. Now I know that you didn't want this to become public knowledge but, well, I'm sure that your drinking buddies and your pals and your fellow guards will comiscerate with you and sympathize with your plight now that they know you've been a victim of a repeated brutal rape. Until, you developed a great hatred for the prisoenrs, and for the prison itself I'm sure. Question is, why did you come back to work at the very location of your shame?

  Silsbee : So's he can get some payback.

  Laurence Dvorak : Correct. Yes because we all know of another riot about five years ago, hmm? And when negotiations broke off there and guards were ordered to attack, you were on the wall with a rifle, weren't you? And the guards were ordered to fire, but fire over the heads of the inmates, but 9 men in the yard were hit, 4 died, and 3 of them were leaders in the previous riot. There was an investigation and ballistics tests, but there was only one man reprimanded. Albert. He was given 3 months' suspension, for murder.

  Silsbee : Bastard. Treats us like animals, he just as bad, but he gets away with it.

  Laurence Dvorak : Well I can understand why Albert treats us the way he does, simple anger. I can even understand the foolish act of bringing a loaded pistol into a place where weapons are forbidden, it's simple fear What I cannot understand are the minds that excuse the murders that he committed. Turn it off.

• Silsbee : I want to say it's cruel and unusual punishment to make the only damn window we got face Big Mama Payback.

  Alana Powers : I think you'll have to explain that for our audience, Mr. Silsbee.

  Silsbee : The chair. You know? I can't look out the only damn window I got without looking at that... thing. That ain't cruel and unusual, what is?

• Alana Powers : For the last two hours we've watched Lawrence Harwin Dvorak terrorize, manipulate and assault, in addition he's provoked two suicides. I think he is a coward and a fake.

  Laurence Dvorak : Careful now.

  [wielding gun] 

  Laurence Dvorak : I still have the power here.

  Alana Powers : Obviously. Now, Mr. Dvorak, do you want to live?

  Laurence Dvorak : Well I don't have the usual preoccupation with living that most people have.

  Alana Powers : Will you sit in this chair? Or is this all a bluff?

  Laurence Dvorak : Um, well I will sit in the chair when the time comes.

  Alana Powers : Meaning?

  Laurence Dvorak : After Reyes and Silsbee.

  Alana Powers : Those two hoodlums will never volunteer for death.

  Reyes : Me and Sils, we been thinking and uh, we're in a good position to negotiate right now. Governor's not gonna want anymore people popping off on TV.

  Laurence Dvorak : You want to live like this?

  Reyes : Well, at least it's living.

  Silsbee : Man can get used to anything.

  Alana Powers : You picked the wrong crew, Mr. Dvorak. Two low rent petty crooks. Reyes here, the poor put upon war veteran, who spent most of his Vietnam tour in the stockade for drug offenses, much like he had spent his earlier life. From the age of 12 he's been in and out of jail, always making excuses for himself: a broken home, lack of a job, no education, Vietnam is no more a legitimate reason for his criminal behavior than any other lie he's told, and the fact is he's a lazy, a-moral petty thief, who got too drunk to realize he'd hit a man too hard and too many times and killed him. And Silsbee, Mr. Silsbee, the poor victim of racial subjugation, one of those brave soldiers in the war against racial discrimination. Is this the man who when the paint on his new car got scratched, he went home, got a shotgun, and slaughtered the offending man, the man's wife, his two children? Blew away an entire family because the paint on his car got scratched, an entire *black* family. Are you the same man who shot and killed a black man, a black woman, and two black children? Now where does that fit into your racial war, Mr. Silsbee, where? You picked two losers, they'll never sit in that chair voluntarily.

  Laurence Dvorak : Oh they will.

  Alana Powers : And now it's time to return to the agreed upon theme of our show: you're the star of the hour, and the question is, Mr. Dvorak, will you sit in this chair? You want a grand exit? Sit in this chair and I'll give you a moment they'll be talking about forever.

  Laurence Dvorak : Who'll throw the switch?

  Alana Powers : I will.

  Laurence Dvorak : You'd do that for me?

  Alana Powers : You said so yourself, we'll both go down in history, I'll be the most famous woman on television.