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>1) Carmichael has basically been evicted from her office due to
>asbestos abatement on her floor, and she says to McCoy: "I got stuck
>with one of the dislocated ADAs". Any idea what an ADA is? I'd think
>Assistant District Attorney, but I thought Carmichael herself was
>McCoy's Assistant...
>
Schiff is the District Attorney of the County of New York.. Technically,
all the lawyers in the office are his assistants. Jack is an Excutive
Assitant DA, and Abby is an Assistant DA.
>2) A dialogue between McCoy, Carmichael and Schiff (spoilers on
>"Panic" if you ain't seen it yet):
> Carmichael: We had the right motive but the wrong outraged spouse
> Schiff: Assumption, or can you prove it?
> McCoy: Cut and dried.
> Schiff: J. Edgar Hoover would be proud. Do what you have to do.
>I do not understand the reference to former US President Hoover. I
>assume the line "Cut and dried" means "We have proof" (it's cut and
>dried, so it's as ready as can be). Why on earth Hoover would be
>proud of that?
J. Edgar Hoover was the first director of the FBI. He liked things simple.
Herbert Hoover was the president.
>
>3) When Briscoe and Green arrest the person whom they think committed
>the crime, they read him his rights. But the guy is an FBI agent and
>says "I've recited Miranda as many times as you have". Why is the
>rights speech called Miranda?
>
For the defendant in the case, Miranda v. (some police department in
California), a Supreme Court case that ruled that all suspects in criminal
cases have the right to know their fifth amendment right against self
incrimination and that they have the right to an attorney to be present
during questioning (which leads tothe phrase "lawyered up" which means that
the person being questioned has refused to speak further until his/her
lawyer is present.)

>4) McCoy offers Murder Two to the guy, and he says: "I'll knock five
>years off the front end". I was assuming that meant reducing by five
>years the maximum of time to be served: however, the guy eventually
>gets from 20 to life. And life cannot really be reduced by 5 yars,
>can it?
It would have been 25 to life otherwise. The front end of the sentence
determines when the person can be considered for parole, generally ( I
think) after they have served 2/3 of the front end of their sentence.
Parole boards meet to consider the prisoners behavior, rehabilitation, and
the seriousness of the crime every three years (again, I think) from that
point on. So, someone like Charles Manson meets his parole board and has
the possibility of parole because his sentence was commuted to 25 to life.

>
>5) Lastly... As he questions an expert, McCoy says "People's
>thirty-five". What does that mean?
He submitted something, probably a report from the witness, as an exhibit
in the trial. He represents the people of the county of New York,
therefore, his evidence is the peoples evidence, and the 35 refers to the
number of the exhibit. Whenever a piece of evidence is authenicated and
accepted by the court, it is numbered for reference.