Small Sacrifices (1989)

Graham McPherson: Judge Foote

Quotes 

• Psychiatrist : As a psychiatrist, it is my professional opinion that Diane Downs' personality disorders qualify her as a dangerous offender. She is a sociopath: an antisocial personality without any concern for the rights of others. She has a brilliant mind with no conscience to guide it. A narcissist who sees herself as the center of everything, who will get what she wants no matter what means that she has to employ, no matter who or what stands in her way. She's not able to have or understand love.

  Judge Foote : The death of a child is one of life's greatest tragedies, what might have been. When it comes intentionally, at the hands of a parent, it is just an outrage. I've fought my own battles between emotion and reason. To prevent some future parole board from forgetting the enormity of the crimes, I hereby sentence you to the following: for assault in the first degree, counts three and five, twenty years with a ten year minimum; for attempted murder, counts two and four, thirty years with a fifteen year minimum; for first-degree murder, life plus five years minimum. The court hopes the defendant will never again be free; I've come as close to that as possible.