Bill Ayers Quotes

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

In our justice system, everyone who is charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. It should go without saying that people who are not charged with a crime also are presumed innocent.

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned.

Believing a person deserves a defence is not the same as doing anything in your power to get him off scot-free.

Sentence first, verdict afterwards.

It would be great to do a story and get somebody who is innocent out of jail. That's a wonderful thing.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

Fortunately, the courts discharged me every time after they understood what I had done.

No Man ought to be looked upon as guilty, before he has received his judicial Sentence; nor can the Laws deprive him of their Protection, before it is proved that he has forfeited all Right to it.

If you hang them all, you will get the guilty. But that's not the American way of doing things.

Let law enforcement determine guilt or innocence.

It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

Due process does not require that every conceivable step be taken, at whatever cost, to eliminate the possibility of convicting an innocent person. To conclude otherwise would all but paralyze our system for enforcement of the criminal law.

There is a presumption of innocence in American law that means that you cannot consider making someone guilty until all the evidence is in the the procedures are completed.

I believe that everybody is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

It's perfectly obvious that somebody's responsible and somebody's innocent. Otherwise it [justice] makes no sense at all.

That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.

You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.

For justice to have any meaning, it must also mean that no innocent person should ever be executed.

There are more important things than finding the murderer. And justice is a fine word, but it is sometimes difficult to say exactly what one means by it. In my opinion, the important thing is to clear the innocent. - Hercule Poirot

Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'.

Whether a man is guilty or innocent, we have to find that out by due process of law.

America is a country of laws.

In America, an acquittal doesn't mean you're innocent, it means you beat the rap. My clients lose even when they win.

Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.