Live! From Death Row (1992 TV Movie)

Julio Oscar Mechoso: Reyes

Quotes 

• Alana Powers : For the last two hours we've watched Lawrence Harwin Dvorak terrorize, manipulate and assault, in addition he's provoked two suicides. I think he is a coward and a fake.

  Laurence Dvorak : Careful now.

  [wielding gun] 

  Laurence Dvorak : I still have the power here.

  Alana Powers : Obviously. Now, Mr. Dvorak, do you want to live?

  Laurence Dvorak : Well I don't have the usual preoccupation with living that most people have.

  Alana Powers : Will you sit in this chair? Or is this all a bluff?

  Laurence Dvorak : Um, well I will sit in the chair when the time comes.

  Alana Powers : Meaning?

  Laurence Dvorak : After Reyes and Silsbee.

  Alana Powers : Those two hoodlums will never volunteer for death.

  Reyes : Me and Sils, we been thinking and uh, we're in a good position to negotiate right now. Governor's not gonna want anymore people popping off on TV.

  Laurence Dvorak : You want to live like this?

  Reyes : Well, at least it's living.

  Silsbee : Man can get used to anything.

  Alana Powers : You picked the wrong crew, Mr. Dvorak. Two low rent petty crooks. Reyes here, the poor put upon war veteran, who spent most of his Vietnam tour in the stockade for drug offenses, much like he had spent his earlier life. From the age of 12 he's been in and out of jail, always making excuses for himself: a broken home, lack of a job, no education, Vietnam is no more a legitimate reason for his criminal behavior than any other lie he's told, and the fact is he's a lazy, a-moral petty thief, who got too drunk to realize he'd hit a man too hard and too many times and killed him. And Silsbee, Mr. Silsbee, the poor victim of racial subjugation, one of those brave soldiers in the war against racial discrimination. Is this the man who when the paint on his new car got scratched, he went home, got a shotgun, and slaughtered the offending man, the man's wife, his two children? Blew away an entire family because the paint on his car got scratched, an entire *black* family. Are you the same man who shot and killed a black man, a black woman, and two black children? Now where does that fit into your racial war, Mr. Silsbee, where? You picked two losers, they'll never sit in that chair voluntarily.

  Laurence Dvorak : Oh they will.

  Alana Powers : And now it's time to return to the agreed upon theme of our show: you're the star of the hour, and the question is, Mr. Dvorak, will you sit in this chair? You want a grand exit? Sit in this chair and I'll give you a moment they'll be talking about forever.

  Laurence Dvorak : Who'll throw the switch?

  Alana Powers : I will.

  Laurence Dvorak : You'd do that for me?

  Alana Powers : You said so yourself, we'll both go down in history, I'll be the most famous woman on television.

• Alana Powers : Okay, Mr. Reyes, how many years have you been on death row?

  Reyes : Uh, three years.

  Alana Powers : And what was the crime that brought you in here?

  Reyes : I served my country. I was in Vietnam in '71-'72 with the Fourth Infantry. And my country, the United States government, they taught me how to kill, see? But then they never unteach me. See? They drop me in the hood and then never untaught me, so one time it's alright to kill anybody who gets in my way, in fact they even give you medals for it. But then I come home and uh, I don't get squat. You know? People they spit at me. I mean, I never killed no babies, right? I made 'em though. I made a lot of 'em. Those gook women, they really liked old Reyes. They liked him beaucoup.

  Alana Powers : [dryly]  Yeah I'm sure they did. But you still haven't explained to us why you're in here.