They all came in handcuffs. The government does not like these defendants. They don't...

Ben Klandis:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the prosecution took great pains to point out that my client and his friends knew the sorted array of misfits they used as witnesses. They want you to believe that these men spent their lives with the criminal element you saw in this courtroom. I want to offer you a different part of Carlo Mascarpone's life and, I'm sure, the lives of these other defendants as well. Wife. Children. His priest, his M.D., the guy who pumps his gas and inspects his car for him. In other words, the hundred odd people whose lives he touches every day, every week, leading a life very much like yours. The government brought you witnesses, government informants, who, because of the lives they have led, have lost the ability to tell the differences between truth and lies. These highly-paid informants came to the government in various way, but there is one constant: they all came in handcuffs. The government does not like these defendants. They don't like the neighborhood they come from. They don't like the way they talk. They don't like their tradition; their culture. But we are a nation of laws, not men. The purpose of the prosecutor, much like the purpose of the grand jury, is to search for truth, but somehow, in this case, that was lost. The prosecutor became the persecutor. Win at any cost. I thank you all for your time, and now I pass my client's fate into your hands