Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Man Down (2018)

Philip Winchester: ADA Peter Stone

Photos 

Quotes 

• Olivia Benson : Peter, this is not your fault.

  Peter Stone : I made the decision to cross-examine him. I could have stood up, and said, "No questions, Your Honor." I could have looked in that boy's eyes and seen how fragile he was and damaged. I should have seen past the brave face, thought about sparing his soul any more pain instead of winning my case.

  Olivia Benson : Peter, you were trying to save him.

  Peter Stone : I didn't have to cross-examine him.

  Olivia Benson : Yes, you did. His father raped him, for God's sakes.

  Peter Stone : And then I raped him all over again up on that witness stand.

• Peter Stone : [to Sam]  How did your dad act if he wasn't happy with you?

  Sam Conway : He'd call me names.

  Peter Stone : Like what?

  Sam Conway : He'd call me a baby.

  Peter Stone : What else?

  Sam Conway : He'd say, um...

  Peter Stone : What else?

  Sam Conway : He'd say he'd say I was a fag or a pussy, okay?

  Peter Stone : Like when you couldn't shoot the rabbit?

  Sam Conway : Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

  Peter Stone : So he wasn't proud of you then?

  Sam Conway : No. No, he said until further notice, I was a little girl; called me "Samantha," threw one of my mom's dresses at me, told me to wear it.

  Peter Stone : Did he hit you?

  Sam Conway : No. He said I deserved it, though, but he would never hit a girl.

• Peter Stone : [in his closing argument]  Men are strong. They're the hunters, the fighters. The spear-throwers, the sword-swingers, the gunslingers. They sit in bars and they toss back shots, regaling other men with tales of their sexual conquests. That's what makes them masculine. That's what makes them men. You get in a fistfight? That's okay. It'll make you a man. You grab a little ass? Hey, that's what men do. But what if you cry? Or show empathy? Or, God forbid, you can't shoot a little rabbit? Well, I'm sorry, you just don't deserve to be my son. The problem is Sam is John's son. The problem is Sam just wanted to make John proud. The problem is, John wasn't preaching strength. He was preaching power over others and that's not being a man. That's being a criminal.

• Olivia Benson : So that's it? It's over? Sam goes to prison, probably for life. I get that. He deserves it. But the father... the father just gets to walk away?

  Peter Stone : No. This isn't over. Not by a long shot.

• Peter Stone : Bringing a hunting rifle to school. This is about the father.

• Olivia Benson : [to Stone]  Your cell phone died?

  Peter Stone : How'd you find me?

  Olivia Benson : Carmen and I go way back.

  Peter Stone : I'd fire her if she wasn't the best assistant I ever had.

• Peter Stone : You're gonna go to prison, Sam, and there's a good chance it'll be for the rest of your life.

  Sam Conway : Well, what do you want me to do? You want me to try to get away with it? Plead not guilty?

  Peter Stone : I can't tell you what I think you should do. That's not how it works.

  Sam Conway : Well, it's my decision.

  Peter Stone : Not your father's?

  Sam Conway : No! So can you please leave me alone now?

  Peter Stone : Okay.

  [starts to leave] 

  Sam Conway : Heather Lewis. I went to a party at her house once. She played Rihanna like the whole night. Justin Cruz, um I didn't really know him, but...

  [sniffles] 

  Sam Conway : apparently he was like, a math genius, I guess. And he had a little sister. She's only five. My mom went to the funerals and she said no one even looked at her.

  Peter Stone : I'm sorry, Sam.

  Sam Conway : You're sorry? Don't you know only pussies apologize?

  Peter Stone : No, I didn't know that.

• Peter Stone : [to Sam]  In that moment, before you shot your schoolmates, what were you thinking?

  [Sam gives an inaudible answer] 

  Peter Stone : Would you speak up, Sam?

  Sam Conway : Be a man! A voice in my head kept saying, "Be a man!" Be a man! Over and over again.

  [jumps up from the stand] 

  Sam Conway : Be a man! How's that, Dad? I didn't flinch! Am I a man now? Huh?

• Olivia Benson : [after John Conway's rape acquittal]  What just happened?

  Peter Stone : The D.A. just asked the same thing. Not as politely.

• Odafin Tutuola : The weapon was a Remington .22 semi-automatic rifle. CSU found six bullets at the scene.

  Peter Stone : Plus the seven victims, this gun holds at least fifteen rounds. He only fired thirteen times?

  Odafin Tutuola : He's a lousy shot. It could have been worse.

• Peter Stone : Good men?

  John Conway : What?

  Peter Stone : What most fathers would say: they want their son to grow up to be a good man. Good, bad; that doesn't seem to matter to you.

  John Conway : Of course I want them to be good men.

  Peter Stone : A good man plays sports?

  John Conway : Both my boys made varsity. Teaches teamwork, self-confidence.

  Peter Stone : A good man shoots rabbits?

  John Conway : He sure as hell isn't afraid to. You don't have a boy, do you, Mr. Stone?

  Peter Stone : No, I don't.

  John Conway : You got a lot of nerve criticizing how I raise mine.

  Peter Stone : You mean I've got balls.

  Jed Karey : Objection!

  John Conway : It's okay, Jed. I got this. As a matter of fact, if we weren't in a courtroom, that is exactly what I would have said.

  Peter Stone : As opposed to what?

  John Conway : Excuse me?

  Peter Stone : If I don't have balls, what do I have? I'd have the lifelong shame of a boy who could never live up to his dad's perverse idea of manhood, isn't that right?

  Jed Karey : Your Honor!

  Judge Karyn Blake : Mr. Stone.

  Peter Stone : I'd be a little girl, wouldn't I, Mr. Conway? And there's nothing in the world worse than that, is there?

• Sam Conway : Look, I didn't even wanna go to school that day, all right? I kept saying, "I'm sorry, but I can't." And he just said, "No apologies, no regrets. That a man looks at the future, not the past."

  Peter Stone : What else did your dad say, Sam?

  Sam Conway : He said, "I don't even know why I bothered."

  Peter Stone : To assault you?

  Sam Conway : I guess I was a waste of his time because it didn't work.

• Olivia Benson : Children are dead, Peter. Two sets of parents are mourning a dead child.

  Peter Stone : And Sam's in prison for it.

  Olivia Benson : We already lost Sam, Peter. This is about the next Sam Conway.

• Olivia Benson : What do you think?

  Peter Stone : You saw it.

  Olivia Benson : Actually, I didn't. I'm sorry, I just couldn't stomach listening to "The world according to John Conway".

  Peter Stone : Well, it didn't go great.

  Olivia Benson : Meaning?

  Peter Stone : I'm calling Sam as a rebuttal witness.

• Jed Karey : You have got to be kidding me. My wife's yoga pants don't stretch this much.

  Peter Stone : I'm just following the statute, Mr. Karey.

  John Conway : How was I negligent? My guns were locked up.

  Peter Stone : But your son wasn't.

  John Conway : What the hell is he talking about?

  Peter Stone : Think of it this way, Mr. Conway: pit bulls are actually very good pets. It's their owners that turn them into killers.

  John Conway : You think I made Sam walk into that school and start shooting?

  Peter Stone : I think that A, you failed to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that he would harm others. And B, such a failure constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe, under the circumstances. You put them together, and what have you got? C: criminally negligent homicide.

  John Conway : Is he saying I didn't bring my boy up right?

  Jed Karey : It's a snowflake defense, Johnny. "Daddy made me do it." Come on.

  [to Peter, as they stand to leave] 

  Jed Karey : I thought you were better than this.

• Lisa Martin : My clinical evaluation is Sam is not legally insane. He wasn't insane during the time of the shooting. He knew that firing the gun was wrong. He knew the consequences. He has remorse.

  Odafin Tutuola : Two kids are still dead.

  Olivia Benson : Did he say why?

  Lisa Martin : I mean, in a roundabout way. I mean, this is not rocket science. He grew up in a household with a very traditional view of masculinity, taken to the extreme. Like a toxicity.

  Peter Stone : To be a man, you have to kill animals, win ballgames, you-you don't cry, you tough out whatever comes your way.

  Olivia Benson : Even your own father sexually assaulting you.

  Peter Stone : Thank you, Doctor. You'll testify if need be?

  Lisa Martin : Yes. But I hope need won't be. This boy is on the verge of a collapse.