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I don’t wanna talk to some flunky pig trying to calm me man. … What’s he doing? Go back there man! He wants to kill me so bad he can taste it! Huh? ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! REMEMBER ATTICA?
All right. All right, that’s enough! I want ’em dead, both of ’em. I want this no-face dead and I want Tracy dead. What’s the matter, you bums forgot how to kill people? Doesn’t your work mean anything to you anymore? Have you no sense of pride in what you do? No sense of duty, no sense of destiny? I’m looking for generals; what do I got? Foot soldiers! I want Dick Tracy dead!
I don’t know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we’re gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we’re finished. We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell… one inch at a time. Now I can’t do it for ya, I’m too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I’ve made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I’ve pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me. And lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that’s… that’s… that’s a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin’ stuff. You find out life’s this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I’ll tell you this, in any fight it’s the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I’m gonna have any life anymore it’s because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that’s what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can’t make you do it. You’ve got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That’s a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That’s football guys, that’s all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?
Your Honor, Mr. Foreman, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my name is Arthur Kirkland, and I am the defense counsel for the defendant, Judge Henry T. Fleming. Now, that man over there he’s the prosecuting attorney, and he couldn’t be happier today. He is a happy man today, because today he’s going after a judge, and if he gets him, if he gets him, he’s going to be a star. He’s going to have his name in this month’s Law Review . Centerfold. Lawyer of the Month. Now, in order to win this case, he needs you, naturally. You’re all he’s got, believe me. So he’s counting on tapping that emotion in you that says “Let’s get somebody in power. Let’s get a judge.” However, these proceedings are not about that. These proceedings are here to see that justice is done. And justice, as any reasonable person will tell you, is the finding of the truth. And what is the truth today? One truth, a tragic one, is that that girl has been beaten and raped. Another truth is that the prosecution doesn’t have a witness, does not have one piece of substantiating evidence other than the testimony of the victim herself. Another truth is that my client voluntarily, and the prosecution is well aware of this fact, voluntarily took a lie detector test and told the truth.
Sorry, Your Honor. Let’s get back to justice. What is justice? What is the intention of justice? The intention of justice is to see that the guilty people are punished and the innocent are freed. Simple, isn’t it? Only it’s not that simple. However, it is the defense counsel’s duty to protect the rights of the individual, as it is the prosecution’s duty to uphold and defend the laws of the State. Justice for all. Only we have a problem here. And you know what it is? Both sides want to win. We want to win. We want to win regardless of the truth. And we want to win regardless of justice. Regardless of who’s guilty or innocent. Winning is everything! That man there wants a win so badly today, it means so much to him, he is so carried away with the prospect of winning, the idea, that he forgot something absolutely essential to today’s proceeding. He forgot his case. He forgot to bring it. I don’t know, I don’t see it, do you? The prosecution’s case. He’s got to have one. Not a witness, not one piece of substantiating evidence other than the testimony of the victim herself. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a case to end all cases. I have witnesses for my client, I have character references, testimonials that are backed up from here to Washington DC!
The one thing that bothered me, the one thing that stayed in my mind and I couldn’t get rid of it, that haunted me was “why?” Why would she lie? What was her motive for lying? If my client is innocent, she’s Lying. Why? Was it blackmail? No. Was it jealousy? No. Yesterday, I found out why. She doesn’t have a motive. You know why? Because she’s not lying. And ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, the prosecution is not going to get that man today. No! Because I’m going to get him! My client, the Honorable Henry T. Fleming, should go right to fucking jail! The son of a bitch is guilty!
That man is guilty! That man there, that man. That man is a slime! He is a slime! If he’s allowed to go free, something really wrong is going on here!
You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They’re out of order! That man, that sick, crazy depraved man raped and beat that woman there, and he’d like to do it again! He told me so! It’s just a show! It’s a show! It’s “Let’s Make a Deal!” Let’s make a deal! Hey, Frank, you want to make a deal? I got an insane judge who likes to beat the shit out of women! What do you want to give me, Frank? Three weeks probation? You son of a bitch, you! You’re supposed to stand for something! You’re supposed to protect people! But instead you fucking murder them! You killed McCullough!!
You killed him! Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!
You know your problem Henry is that you are hung up on words, on labels, that you believe they mean what they seem to mean. AIDS, homosexual, gay, lesbian, you think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with? They don’t tell you that. No. Like all labels they tell you one thing and one thing only: where does an individual’s sole identity fit in the food chain. In the pecking order. None of ideology or sexual taste but something much simpler, clout. Not who I fuck or fucks me but who will pick up the phone when I call, who owes me favors. This is what a label refers to. Now to someone who does not understand this, homosexual I what I am because I have sex with men but really this is wrong. Homosexuals are not men who sleep with other men. Homosexuals are men who in 15 years of trying can’t pass a pissant anti-discrimination bill through city council. Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows, who have zero clout. Does this sound like me Henry? No. I have clout. Lots. … I don’t want you to be impressed. I want you to understand.