Final Justice (1998 TV Movie)

Annette O'Toole: Gwen Saticoy

Quotes 

• Faher Halligan : [after Damon is acquitted for George's murder, Gwen is asked to resign from teaching at her Catholic grammar-school]  ... Gwen, you know all of us have been moved by your courage during this trying time in your life. Last night, the Board of Directors decided to reward you with a sabatical, so that you could have time to heal properly.

  Gwen Saticoy : I thought the summer vacation would do that.

  Faher Halligan : In my experience, a trial such as the one you've been through can take a long while to heal.

  Gwen Saticoy : So this "healing period" would overlap next year's school calendar?

  Faher Halligan : Well, much as that would be a disappointment to us all, we're willing to sacrifice your tremendous services for the sake of your well-being.

  Gwen Saticoy : [realizes that, in effect, she's being fired]  Not to mention the sake of St. Augustine's coffers. What happened, Father Halligan? Did the contributors threaten to cancel those big checks if I'm still teaching their kids?

  Faher Halligan : What the contributors did or didn't do is entirely beside the point.

  Gwen Saticoy : On the contrary, I believe it entirely IS the point.

  Faher Halligan : I TOLD them what a fine teacher you are, and how lucky the school is to have you. In the end, there was nothing else I could do.

  Gwen Saticoy : Wasn't there?

• Merle Hammond : [Gwen has stolen Hammond's car from his country club, after forcing him into the trunk at gunpoint]  ... You know, if you wanted to drive my car, you could have just asked...

  [She waves a revolver in his face] 

  Merle Hammond : ... Do you even know how to use that thing?

  Gwen Saticoy : My boyfriend's a cop. What do you think?

  [She forces him into a cage, in the back of her Range-Rover] 

  Merle Hammond : ...Is this about money? Ransom? Extortion? The usual motives for kidnapping?

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, I never considered that option before. But now that you mention it, do you know anyone who'd actually pay to get you back?

  Merle Hammond : All right, then... Is this about revenge?

  Gwen Saticoy : No, it is not about revenge or punishment... although, for what you put my mother through on the stand, I should rip your tongue out!... If this is about anything, it's finding out what makes you tick.

  Merle Hammond : If that's all there is to it, I can tell you everything over a bottle of brandy. I seldom do my best work in a dog kennel.

  Gwen Saticoy : No, I'm sure you do your best work in a litter box.

• Merle Hammond : [at Gwen's secluded mountain hideaway, the morning after kidnapping Hammond]  ... Miss Saticoy, surely you've got something better to do than hole up in a cabin with me.

  Gwen Saticoy : I used to, until I got fired by my school. It seems my blood-ties to a murder victim don't make me fit to teach 5th-graders. Of course, that could be since George is no longer seen as the victim.

  Merle Hammond : It's not as if the term has much meaning anymore... Everybody's a victim nowadays. Damon Benning was a victim of threats from your brother, and your brother in turn became a victim of Benning's gun. You're a victim because you lost, and now I'm a victim because I won.

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, thank you for setting me straight. I guess, from now on, I'll simply refer to George as "existence-challenged!"

  [waves a gun in Hammond's face] 

  Gwen Saticoy : ... *My brother is DEAD!* That's not your fault. But leaving him to rot in a grave of lies, while his killer gets rich, sure as hell is!

• Gwen Saticoy : [Hammond stutters over some thunderously-loud rap music]  ... Wow! This must be the first time, since you were two, that you haven't spoken in complete sentences.

  [shuts off the boombox] 

  Merle Hammond : No wonder they fired you! You're sick and demented! And you're not fit to be a teacher!

  Gwen Saticoy : You could be right. I don't know what I would tell my students anymore.

  Merle Hammond : Start with, "Kidnapping is a felony!"

  Gwen Saticoy : Along with, "The truth doesn't always matter"; and, "The ends justify the means".

  [forces him to play Russian roulette] 

  Gwen Saticoy : ... Aren't you just DYING to know what I'll do next?... You're quite a gambler in court. How are your instincts out in the wild?... Oh, that spin didn't feel lucky for you? Okay, I'll give it another.

  [Hammond clicks out] 

  Gwen Saticoy : ... I'll be darned, you were right!

• Gwen Saticoy : [serving dinner for Hammond, which he hesitates to touch]  ... Go ahead. See, I'm eating the poisoned one.

  Merle Hammond : Why have you done this?

  Gwen Saticoy : Maybe some of your court strategy rubbed off on me: to keep everyone off-balance... Why *did* you become a lawyer?

  Merle Hammond : Because it required less time than becoming a doctor.

  Gwen Saticoy : You almost became a doctor? Wow, scary thought... Have you ever loved anything?

  Merle Hammond : The law. It's the best mistress I've ever had, with all these seductive rules and procedures that tempt the inquiring mind to figure a way around. And when you do, that feeling of conquest and victory... there's nothing else like it.

  Gwen Saticoy : That sounds more like lust than love.

  Merle Hammond : Well, love is an emotion I try to avoid. It confuses, causes ridiculous behavior. Much like yours, for example. The love you feel for your dead brother has prompted you to kidnap me... a crime that will send you to jail, and will ruin your life.

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, now... Merle, aren't you jumping the gun a little? I could get myself another lawyer just like you, and end up a celebrity.

  Merle Hammond : Miss Saticoy, there *are* no other lawyers just like me.

• Gwen Saticoy : [En route to the Osborne residence]  ... You used to be a prosecutor. Why'd you change sides?

  Merle Hammond : Same reason everyone does. Money.

  Gwen Saticoy : Doesn't it ever feel strange, defending people you used to prosecute?

  Merle Hammond : ...I learned some of my best tricks in the DA's office.

  Gwen Saticoy : Is that a term they teach in law school? "Trick"?

  Merle Hammond : I can feel that sanctimonious lecture on truth and ethics just hovering over those self-righteous lips of yours.

  Gwen Saticoy : ...I'm curious: Is the whole point to trick everybody? The judge, the witnesses, the jury?

  Merle Hammond : Juries aren't bright enough to trick. After all, these are people too dumb to figure a way out of jury duty. Not that I'm complaining, mind you; as far as I'm concerned, the dumber they are, the better.

  Gwen Saticoy : Okay... Let's say I get a group of shoppers from the grocery store. I take them to a hospital, where two neurologists are trying to figure out whether to operate on a patient's frontal lobe, or his cereberal cortex. After the doctors explain the pros and cons of each operation to these shoppers, they still have no idea what should be done... Would you consider THEM dumb?

  Merle Hammond : The jury's obligation is to render a decision based on the facts presented. Nonetheless, I find your defense of them admirable; it isn't often you hear someone speak so highly of sheep.

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, as one of their shepherds, don't you feel any responsibility when they end up roaming aimlessly in some field... far off the mark?

  Merle Hammond : I don't give a damn where they wind up, or how they got there, so long as I win. In law school, you learn LAW; in the *courtroom,* you learn SURVIVAL. Your job is to *get your client off.* And believe me, if I were defending YOU on a murder charge, you wouldn't want it any other way... Whenever anyone preaches about a "fair trial," what they really mean is one that ends in their favor. *That* makes it fair.

• Gwen Saticoy : [arriving at the Osborne residence]  ... Don't you know who this is? Louise Osborne's father.

  Gordon Osborne : ...I sat in the courtroom, ten feet away from you for three months, while you spun lie after lie about my daughter and the man who raped her.

  Merle Hammond : Forgive my not recognizing you right away, Mr. Osborne... But, as you can see, I've been under a great deal of stress lately.

  [He indicates how Gwen has shackled him inside her Range-Rover] 

  Gordon Osborne : Yeah, I guess I'd know a thing or so about that myself.

  [Turns to his front porch and calls out] 

  Gordon Osborne : Louise, we've got company!

  [to Hammond] 

  Gordon Osborne : ... She tried to kill herself about a year ago; swallowed a whole bottle of barbituates. The doctors saved her body, but they couldn't save her mind. I've worked hard to keep this last chapter in Louise's life private.

  Merle Hammond : [to Gwen]  Is this what your whole charade has been about? Dragging me out here to look at some brain-dead girl, in hopes that I'll drop to my knees and beg forgiveness? That's SICK!

  Gwen Saticoy : I didn't know she was like this!

  Gordon Osborne : [to Gwen]  I didn't tell you, because I was afraid you might not come...

  [to Hammond] 

  Gordon Osborne : ... I don't remember anyone else but you dragging Louise's reputation through the mud, in that courtroom. After the assault, all she had left was her honest word. Then you went and raped that, too.

  Merle Hammond : It was my job to defend my client without any concern for the peripheral fallout. The bottom line, Mr. Osborne, is that sometimes life sucks.

  Gwen Saticoy : [to Osborne]  ... Forgive me; I never should have bothered you.

  Gordon Osborne : No, I'm glad you came. For three years, the only person I hated more than the man who raped Louise was the man who got him aquitted. Being a good Christian, I always felt guilty about that. I don't think I'll feel guilty anymore.

• Danielle Kline : ...What did you do, Gwen? Take Merle Hammond on a joyride, during which he was subjected to rather annoying conditions? Most people put up with more than that just going to work. You're not alone in the commission of this felony; what drove you to this crime is a damaged legal system greatly in need of repair.

  Gwen Saticoy : No offense, but you're part of that system; to exonerate me requires that you abuse it, the same way Merle Hammond did.

  Danielle Kline : Believe it or not, I *do* think I can effectively defend my clients without leaving a trail of bloody bodies in my wake.

  Gwen Saticoy : But can you *win* without doing it?

  Danielle Kline : The day I think I can't is the day I set up practice with Merle Hammond.

• Merle Hammond : [reading an excerpt from George Saticoy's editorial, at the trial of Damon Benning, George's killer]  ..."Perhaps the reason we've been slow to respond to the epidemic is because we're used to having it shoved down our throats. Well, we're not going to take it anymore. The straight world has tried to exterminate us. Now it is our turn ot kill or be killed. It's time to take the world hostage, not with a gun, but with the bile of our own blood."

  [to George and Gwen's mother, who is on the witness stand] 

  Merle Hammond : ... Do you recognize this material, Mrs. Saticoy? Does it sound familiar to you?

  Barbara Saticoy : I don't read things like that! It's sick and repulsive!

  Merle Hammond : It scares you, doesn't it...? This is written by your son, Mrs. Saticoy.

  [Barbara becomes so offended that she flees the courtroom. Gwen goes after her] 

  Judge Czarneki : [outraged]  ... Court is in recess until this afternoon. Counsel, *in my chambers!*

  Barbara Saticoy : [outside the courtroom, to Gwen]  ... NOW do you understand why I didn't want to testify?

  Gwen Saticoy : Hammond didn't read the whole article; that was just the opening George wrote to get the reader's attention! The very next paragraph stated that this militant approach is wrong; he even said it was more dangerous than the virus itself!

  Barbara Saticoy : NONE OF THAT MATTERS...! They killed George all over again in there.

• Gwen Saticoy : [on Merle Hammond's sleazy-but-solid courtroom strategy, regarding a witness for the Benning-Saticoy murder trial]  ... Terrence Leighton has held a grudge against George for years, because George wouldn't lend him money! You have to discredit Leighton!

  Art DeSoto : And how am I supposed to do that, without the jury hearing even more stuff about you brother they shouldn't hear? "Mr. Leighton... isn't it true that, when you refused to have oral sex with Mr. Saticoy in a bathtub full of vegetable oil, he did *not* become violent... but instead refused to loan you money?"

  Gwen Saticoy : Whatever happened to trying the FACTS? Why can't we just get back to what happened in the shop that morning?

  Art DeSoto : ...It's too late for that.

• Gwen Saticoy : [after the first day of her trial]  ... So are you going to get a book deal when this is all over?

  Danielle Kline : That depends on what happens during the trial. But they might offer me one. Why? Would you be upset if I took it?

  Gwen Saticoy : Would you turn it down if I said yes?

  [Kline shakes her head no] 

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, at least you're honest.

  Danielle Kline : Gwen, I've got a successful practice. I don't need a book deal. And I don't need this case, either.

  Gwen Saticoy : So why ARE you doing it? And don't give me that song-and-dance about my not getting a fair trial by the public defender.

  Danielle Kline : To be in the heart of controversy. A couple of talk shows, magazine interviews... And, best of all, every courtroom lawyer's fantasy: to be squaring off against Merle Hammond. You know how much they hate it?

  Gwen Saticoy : I can imagine.

  Danielle Kline : No, you can't. There's one other reason: you. In twenty years of criminal defense work, I've had two clients that I believed in. The other one got the chair ten years ago.

  Gwen Saticoy : Well, my odds really look good.

• Danielle Kline : [Day 2 of Gwen's trial]  Miss Saticoy, you admit that you took Mr. Hammond to your cabin against his will, at gunpoint. How far in advance did you plan this?

  Gwen Saticoy : I was making it up as I went along, really.

  Danielle Kline : If you had no plans, did you have a goal, an intention?

  Gwen Saticoy : Nothing I could have articulated then. But all these emotions I experienced during the other trial... I wanted Mr. Hammond to experience them as well.

  Danielle Kline : What feelings were you trying to replicate for Mr. Hammond?

  Gwen Saticoy : Anguish, fear, insomnia, a lack of appetite, a constant throbbing in the head, helplessness.

  Danielle Kline : Why did you want him to feel these things?

  Gwen Saticoy : Actually, I wanted to see if he COULD feel them.

  Danielle Kline : And what did you conclude from this experiment?

  Gwen Saticoy : He reacted to physical stimuli, but not to emotional stimuli.

  Danielle Kline : To which "emotional stimuli" do you believe Mr. Hammond failed to react?

  Gwen Saticoy : When I took him to see Louise Osborne. Mr. Hammond defended, and won an acquittal for, the man accused of brutally raping her.

  Danielle Kline : And why did you want Mr. Hammond to meet Miss Osborne?

  Gwen Saticoy : I read about the Osborne trial. I wanted him to look Louise in the face and explain why he'd said the things he had about her... like the things he said about about my brother.

  Danielle Kline : You wanted him to confront the results of his methods?

  Gwen Saticoy : I wanted to see if he could hurt or feel pain for his actions.

  Danielle Kline : And what did Louise say to Mr. Hammond when she saw him face-to-face?

  Hammond's Lawyer : Your Honor, I object. Prejudicial.

  Danielle Kline : Your Honor, the truth often IS prejudicial.

  Judge Rosaria : I'll allow it.

  Gwen Saticoy : Louise couldn't talk. She tried to kill herself last year and it didn't work. Now she's basically catatonic.

  Danielle Kline : And what was Mr. Hammond's reaction when he saw this young and vegetative woman?

  Gwen Saticoy : He was angry for being made to look at "this brain-dead girl." He congratulated himself on his job of defending her rapist, and then he told Louise's father that "sometimes, life sucks."

  Danielle Kline : [to Hammond's lawyer]  Your witness.

• Judge Rosaria : [on a taped conversation between Gwen and Hammond]  ... This is going to air on tonight's news. Would someone care to explain where it came from?

  Danielle Kline : Don't look at me. You think, if I had that, I'd just sit on it?

  Merle Hammond : This whole thing is a setup!

  Danielle Kline : Setup for what, Merle? Did you announce, beforehand, that you intended to trash the entire jury system?

  Merle Hammond : That's a little disingenuous, don't you think?

  Gwen Saticoy : Your Honor, if I had planned on taping him, I would have started it as soon as we got in the car... not when we were almost at the Osborne Farm.

  Judge Rosaria : Anyone who's ever argued in my courtroom knows how much I hate surprises. And when something like THIS falls anonymously out of the sky, I get REALLY angry. Before we proceed with this trial, and consume any more of the "dumb" jury's time, I recommend counsel rethink their approach. I'm going to lunch. Miss Saticoy, I suggest you do the same.

  [she leaves] 

  Danielle Kline : [leaving with Gwen]  Call me when you two GENTLEMEN have the plea terms worked out.

  Merle Hammond : I *forbid* you to plead this case out!

  Hammond's lawyer : Fine. I'm sure, when all the "sheep" in the jury box hear this tape, they'll immediately sympathize with your ordeal and convict Gwen.

  Merle Hammond : You're assuming the jurors pay attention to the news, much less this case. That woman is guilty! She kidnapped me and everyone knows it!

  Hammond's lawyer : You just don't get it, do you? If you let this thing play out any longer than it has to, you're gonna find the word "UNEMPLOYABLE" stamped across your forehead in big red letters. You think that's ridiculous, huh? Who's gonna recommend a lawyer who took a dump all over the entire jury pool of the western world? I'm telling you, stop now and cut your losses.

• Hammond's lawyer : [during Gwen's trial]  Miss Saticoy, do you feel remorse for your actions?

  Gwen Saticoy : I wish I hadn't done what I did.

  Hammond's lawyer : So you wouldn't have kidnapped Merle Hammond if you had the choice to do it again...? You don't know? What kind of remorse is that?

  Gwen Saticoy : It's not about remorse.

  Hammond's lawyer : That was the original question.

  Gwen Saticoy : I can't say what decision I'd make again in the same situation, in the same state of mind.

  Hammond's lawyer : So you're telling me, under those circumstances, you WOULD kidnap and torture and commit a felony again?

  Gwen Saticoy : To say yes or no to that would be lying.

  Hammond's lawyer : Would you also be lying if you said that you didn't believe, deep down inside, you are guilty?

• Gwen Saticoy : [sees her cop boyfriend, to her class]  Start on chapter 4, if I get arrested, come bail me out.

• Student #2 : How did your brother get AIDS?

  Gwen Saticoy : He was murdered, does it really matter?

• Gwen Saticoy : I am so sorry.

  Barbara Saticoy : What've you got to be sorry about? You only kidnapped him. I'd have killed him.