- Miss Connie Stewart: Get out of here. I'm so fed up with cops, scrambling for a spot on the front page, and *you*, showing off in the courtroom. That watchman twisting what he saw into something he didn't see at all!
- Steven Mathews: That watchman told the truth.
- Miss Connie Stewart: He lied!
- Steven Mathews: That man believed everything he told at the trial.
- Miss Connie Stewart: [softens her demeanor] Won't you talk to him again, question him? Please.
- Steven Mathews: If I do, what's my percentage?
- Miss Connie Stewart: Well, if you find out anything, I might even think you're half as smart as *you* think.
- Steven Mathews: [laughs heartily] Well, 50 percent's better than nothing!
- Tip Fuller: [after hearing another inmate talk about fried chicken he ordered for a last meal] I hear it ain't healthy to get hung on a full stomach.
- Tip Fuller: [to Thompson, who is on his way to be hanged] Remember kid, there's one nice thing about this joint- they can't hang you but once.
- Slim Tolliver: Hey, Parson.
- Prison Chaplain: Yes?
- Slim Tolliver: [looking at Latin inscription in a book] What is that, Roossian?
- Prison Chaplain: No, Latin.
- [reads inscription aloud]
- Prison Chaplain: Morituri te salutamus.
- Slim Tolliver: What does it mean?
- Prison Chaplain: We who are about to die salute you.