- Jacob Reese: I was just trying to protect my daughter.
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: So you broke the Fifth Commandment. You not only killed, you killed the wrong man.
- Detective Nina Cassady: [observing a burnt church where a body was found] Whoever did this is going to burn, too.
- Detective Ed Green: [on an SUV with no plates used at church burnings] Did you check the doorjamb?
- Uniform: Yeah. DMV says it's registered to Emily Barton, 44, lives in Poughkeepsie.
- Detective Nina Cassady: [pointing to a bumper sticker labelled "Death Ferrets"] And she listens to death metal?
- Danielle Melnick: [Jack is watching a game at a bar. Danielle comes up behind him and leans on the bar next to him, her chin on her fist] So who's winning? The Christians, or the lions?
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Who are you, and what have you done with Danielle Melnick?
- Danielle Melnick: The First Amendment isn't just about free speech, Jack. It also protects religious practice.
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: And on that pretext, you'd turn a courtroom into Alice in Wonderland?
- Danielle Melnick: Oh, come on Jack. Don't you think that I realize what this sounds like?
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Then why sign on?
- Danielle Melnick: I suggested ten other options - this was the only defense he would endorse. And I believe, he believes it.
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Then maybe *you* need a 730 exam.
- Danielle Melnick: Look - a jury may laugh this out of the courtroom, but you have to allow the argument. The minute you start challenging its veracity, you're, you're... you're making dangerous value judgments!
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: If faith is an excuse for murder, then let's just give a free pass to Osama Bin Laden.
- Danielle Melnick: It is not the government's place to tell people what they can and cannot believe!
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: But you're not protecting Jacob Reese's religious choice - you're helping him hide behind it.
- Danielle Melnick: Maybe it's self-delusion on his part - or maybe, it's faith.
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Or maybe it doesn't have anything to do with religious principle at all and the man just snapped. So let's call it what it is - a Hail Mary.
- Danielle Melnick: You know... not everybody thinks this is such a joke. Tomorrow's Daily News just hit the stands.
- [drops a newspaper on the bar with a picture of the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel and a rather unflattering picture of Jack headlined "D.A. vs. God"]
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: Hmm.
- Danielle Melnick: Goodnight and God bless, Jack.
- Jacob Reese: AIDS doesn't target homosexuals and fornicators by sheer dumb luck. Hurricane Katrina didn't wipe out New Orleans by chance.
- Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy: You feared that a hurricane could strike your daughter, Mr. Reese?