- Ramsey: At some point, every defense lawyer has to choose between his own need to know the truth and the best interests of his client.
- [first lines]
- Ramsey: [narrating] When the court officer smiled at me on the morning of trial, I knew I was fucked. They weren't taking bets on this one. Mike had killed his father, Boone Lassiter - left his handprint on the knife - confessed.
- Ramsey: Half my cases had evidence this bad. I just pled them out, got manslaughter and moved on. But this was Mike, and I'd known him all his life. He was going to college and probably law school, and I doubted his mother could survive him going to the penitentiary.
- Ramsey: But I knew Boone, I had that. And I knew enough about the Lassiter household to know that Mike had a defense - if he would just talk to me.