Justice System Quotes

“Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep.”

“Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.”

“Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.”

“In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were American citizens accused of crimes.”

“A joke, even if it be a lame one, is nowhere so keenly relished or quickly applauded as in a murder trial.”

“The criminal element now calculates that crime really does pay.”

“The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury.”

“Men in prison are "civilly dead" and have no claim to any say in policy.”

“Since I was a law student, I have been against the death penalty. It does not deter. It is severely discriminatory against minorities, especially since they're given no competent legal counsel defense in many cases. It's a system that has to be perfect. You cannot execute one innocent person. No system is perfect. And to top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics it, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole.”

“To top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole.”

“The civil justice system is a backup system when the criminal justice system fails.”

“Make your way to death row and speak with the tragic victims of criminality. As they prepare to make their pathetic walk to the electric chair, their hopeless cry is that society will not forgive. Capital punishment is society's final assertion that it will not forgive.”

“I'm a career prosecutor. I have been trained, and my experience over decades, is to make decisions after a review of the evidence and the facts. And not to jump up with grand gestures before I've done that. Some might interpret that as being cautious. I would tell you that's just responsible.”

“I am a prosecutor in my bones. When I see something, I immediately go to: how is this going to affect a child?”

“Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.”

“Jury - A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.”

“The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.”

“Have you ever noticed that the lawyer always smiles more than the client?”

“Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.”

“Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner”

“If you have a legal problem, guess how you determine whether or not you need a lawyer. You see a lawyer. Isn't that weird?”

“Probably the worst thing that has happened in America in my time is the decay of confidence in the courts. No one can be sure any more that in a given case they will uphold the plainest mandate of the Constitution. On the contrary, everyone begins to be more or less convinced in advance that they won't. Judges are chosen not because they know the Constitution and are in favor of it, but precisely because they appear to be against it.”

“I want to make sure that as president of the United States that I'm not asserting in some way that my decisions overrule the decisions of prosecutors who are there to uphold the law.”

“I don't know who the great lawyers are, and I presume you can't get to them. I know of no case where it can be said for certain that they took part. They defend some people, but you can't get them to do that through your own efforts, they only defend the ones they want to defend. But I assume a case they take on must have progressed beyond the lower court. It's better not to think of them at all, otherwise you'll find the consultations with the other lawyers, their advice and their assistance, extremely disgusting and useless.”

“I think every case is different. Every situation is different. People come on the F.B.I.'s radar screen for a variety of reasons at a variety of times.”