Jim Garrison Quotes

I think most defense attorneys honestly believe the principle that says, 'Better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person be convicted.'

Our constitutionally-based criminal justice system places a high value on protecting the innocent. Among its central tenets is the idea that it is better to let a guilty person go free than to convict someone without evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

The United States government can indict you on something, and now you've got to prove your innocence. And that's not the Constitution of the United States.

In a democratic country, when a man is accused, he's accused from a document issued by the public attorney.

The role of the defense is to be an advocate for their client, regardless of whether he did it or not, within the bounds of the law.

I try to basically keep my opinions to myself when it comes to people who are charged with crimes that I don't know anything about.

The criminal defense attorney is misunderstood if not despised by most of society. It doesn't matter if we believe in our adversarial system and the ideal that everyone charged with a crime is entitled to a vigorous defense. Ideals give away to reality - defense lawyers working loopholes and angles to get their clients off.

The core civil liberty that underpins our American criminal justice system is the presumption of innocence. Every person enjoys this presumption long before the commencement of any investigation or official proceeding.

Indictments of any kind are serious. That being said, let's not forget that an indictment is not a conviction. We still have due process in this country.

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

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

When I interview people accused of capital offenses, I never even ask if they did it. I would consider that unprofessional.

Some may remember, if you have good memories, that there used to be a concept in Anglo-American law called a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Now that's so deep in history that there's no point even bringing it up, but it did once exist.

An important and fundamental premise of the American judicial system is the presumption of innocence, that is until proven guilty.

It's very hard to uphold individual liberty when the person you're representing is often a crook.

If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era; and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.

The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.

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.

Experience has taught me that privacy truly is the touchstone of our criminal justice system.

While not explicitly articulated in the Constitution, the presumption of innocence has, through Supreme Court opinions, become a fundamental tenet of our criminal-justice system, and rightly so.

The great joy of being a prosecutor is that you don't take whatever case walks in the door. You evaluate the case; you make your best judgement. You only go forward if you believe that the defendant is guilty.

As a defense lawyer, he refused to condemn his clients. Everyone else in the system-the cops, the prosecutors, the juries and judges-would take care of that; they didn't need his help.

Government should work to insure the rights of the individual, not plot to take them away.

Maimonides taught that it is better that 10 criminals go free than let one innocent man be executed. The Innocence Project represents that point of view.

Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties - provided we're only talking about criminals.