Law Abiding Citizen

Many You having fun, sweetheart?

Girl: Yes.

Ahh.

Well, l hope you're doing better than me, baby.

- What are you making? - A necklace for Mom.

Yeah? Let me see.

- Wow. Another one? - ( banging at door )

- Yes. - Woman: Honey?

That's two today.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- ( banging ) - Honey?

- Yeah? - Waiting for the help to get that?

l thought you and l were the help.

- Go wash up for dinner, pumpkin. - Okay.

Mmm, smells nice. That takeout?

Mommy, look at--

No!

No! Ahh!

Oh! No no no!

You can't fight fate.

Man: We gotta get the fuck out of here. Come on!

Oh! Oh no!

Thug: No!

- What the fuck are you doing? - No!

Fucking stop! Let's go!

Just shut the fuck up!

No!

- It's cool. - ( zips pants )

Kids like me.

No! Heather!

No no!

- Nick. - Bray, what's happenin'?

Willis is a rowing buddy of mine. Where are we on his kid's case?

- Willis? - Yeah.

- Oh, l kicked it down to juvie. - Why did you do that?

'Cause the case was a dog. The kid was only 1 5 years old

when he committed the murder.

You wouldn't want to jeopardize your 95% conviction rate.

- It's actually 96%. - 96% now?

Yes. You gotta keep your books better than that.

You know, if l didn't know any better, I'd say you were gunning for my job.

You do know better.

And you know that I'm aiming much higher than that.

Woman: They filed a motion to dismiss,

but there's no way that Judge Abrams honors it.

l think that we can get him on RICO.

All that time and that's what you come back with, Sarah?

You might want to reevaluate your research skills.

- What else have we got? - Nick: She's right.

Mr. Rice?

RICO's designed for this kind of thing.

Check out section 901 of the Organized Crime Control Act.

And you should let Sarah try this case too.

Mr. Rice, last I checked, I was running this room.

She's already done the leg-work. I'll oversee it.

I mean, Helen Keller could try this case.

Okay, Boy Wonder, she fucks up, it's on you.

Cantrell wants to see you.

All right, I'll be right there.

No, Nick. He wants to see Nick.

You still torturing Bringham?

Nick: Let's just say I'm less impressed with his Harvard degree than he is.

Well, we can't all have gone to Fordham.

l went to Fordham night school.

You know what l learned in Fordham night school?

Law school's got nothing to do with law.

Guess you skipped the course on inter-office politics.

All l need is a jury to like me. Isn't that what you told me, Jonas?

The Shelton case-- where are we?

It went sideways last night-- Judge Burch.

Ahh.

Bad news. What now?

- Let's make the deal. - They killed a little girl, Nick.

- It's an imperfect system. - And we its imperfect servants.

- However you could win this case. - No, can't take that chance.

Some justice is better than no justice at all.

You need to tell the husband.

Okay. That's part of my job.

Good, because he's waiting for you right now.

What?

- How are you doing? - Good. How are you doing?

Good. Sit. Sit.

Well, I didn't hear back from you

and made some notes on the case.

I had some good ideas.

Yeah, let me take a look at it.

Well, they're just--

I was gonna talk to you about those.

Do you trust me?

Do you trust me, Clyde?

Yeah, of course.

Darby has agreed to testify against Ames.

With Darby's testimony,

Ames will go to death row.

Um, what about-- what about Darby then?

Darby will plead guilty to murder.

- In what degree? - Third.

He serves, what? Five years...

at best?

I don't understand. I'm sorry.

We had a setback. The judge ruled that the DNA was inadmissible.

- What? - Exclusionary rule.

The opposing counsel maneuvered it.

You said this part of the case was clear-cut.

We had the blood on his shirt--

It's covered under the same rule.

What about the rest of the forensic evidence?

It's not conclusive, Clyde.

Okay, that's okay. 'Cause I saw-- I saw their faces.

I saw them do it. I mean, he killed my little girl, Nick.

You blacked out, Clyde. Your testimony won't be reliable.

You get on the stand and the defense will tear you apart.

No no, the jury's gonna believe me though.

- Because it's the truth! We can-- - We can lose.

And then we'd have nothing.

You will waste a whole year, spend millions of dollars,

and then both of them could end up going free.

Nick, both of them are guilty, especially Darby!

- You know that. - It's not what you know, Clyde.

It's what you can prove in court.

Please don't make a deal with this man.

Please don't make a deal with this man. He's a monster--

I'm sorry, the deal is done. I'm sorry.

I made the deal.

What? How could you do that?

This is just how the justice system works.

Listen, I know you don't think it right now,

but this is a victory for us.

Woman: Your office has certified this agreement?

Yes, Your Honor.

Mr. Reynolds, any great insights to share with the court today?

I'm a defense attorney, Your Honor. I don't have many of those.

No, Your Honor. No insights.

Good, then I trust that we can move forward with Mr. Ames's trial

unimpeded by continuances. A trial date is imminent.

Yeah?

There's no cell phones in my courtroom, Mr. Rice.

- We've been over this-- - I'm sorry.

-and over this, over this...

Yeah, I had some exigent business I--

Next time it's mine.

- Ah, you married? - Excuse me?

Are you married?

Please fuck this up so l can destroy you.

I wish ill for no man,

but Ames deserves to suffer for what he did.

I mean, you can't fight fate, right?

Nick.

Cantrell: Once you make a decision, live with it-- move on.

This job, your best asset's a short memory.

Don't beat yourself up. Too many other people out there doing that already.

Look, there's some of them right now.

Isn't this where you tell me some type of old fable

or wives' tale--

All right, all right, I got one.

Marcus Aurelius hired a servant to walk behind him

as he made his way through the Roman town square.

And this servant's only job

was to whisper in his ear when people praised him,

"You're only a man. You're only a man."

- Okay, man? - Okay, man.

- Okay, man. - That's some bullshit.

That's good.

Nick: I don't think you even know what that story means.

You're missing the point, Nick. It doesn't matter what they say.

Okay, I got this now.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, one at a time, one at a time.

So you'll be seeking the death penalty?

- For Rupert Ames, we will be. - And for Darby?

He has pled guilty to murder, but he is a cooperating witness.

The DA's office has committed all of its resources

to ensure that justice will be served.

Woman: Did you make any kind of--

Man: Do you think this is a fair sentence for Darby?

I just wanted to say thanks for being in my corner.

It's nice when the system works, right?

Get away from me.

Officer: Move. Move.

Let's go.

- Nick? - Hey.

Nuh-uh, what happened?

What happened to what?

What's wrong?

You call my job boring. "C-"?

Yes.

Well... okay now...

you gonna tell me what's wrong?

Can I talk to my daughter for a little bit?

- Oh, please. No no no. - Gonna lay down.

- Please? - ( sighs )

First of all, this is your father speaking.

- Yeah, she didn't know that. - You never know.

I want you to stay in there as long as you can.

'cause there's a lot of crazy-ass people out here.

Language.