Erle Stanley Gardner Quotes

Justice is incidental to law and order

Decisions on a matter as serious as charging an individual with a crime cannot be decided on anything less than complete examination of all available evidence. Anything less is not justice.

The acid test of any legal system is not the greatness or the grandeur of its ideal concepts, but whether, in fact, it is able to produce order and justice.

The reason I like the criminal justice system is there aren't Republican or Democrat victims or police officers or prosecutors. It's about respect for the rule of law!

I believe myself to have been a reasonable prosecutor, and when the facts and evidence show a criminal violation has been committed, the individuals involved should not dictate whether the case is prosecuted.

Justice is merely incidental to law and order. Law and order is what covers the whole picture. Justice is part of it, but it can't be separated as a single thing.

Justice has taken its course and the authority and legitimacy of the legal process must be respected.

A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government.

Criminal justice is about respecting the law and being respected by the law so there is a fundamental respect issue here.

Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It's what we have because we can't have justice.

I have faith in the jury system.

I think that all of us, as Americans, are due due process and have a right to a fair trial, and have a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. I think that is the American way and it's the foundation upon which this country was built.

Doing a thing by law, or according to law, is only carrying the law into execution. And punishing a man by, or according to, the sentence or judgment of his peers, is only carrying that sentence or judgment into execution.

When I was a prosecutor in Kansas City, my job was to fight for justice and safety for all citizens in my community. Equal access to justice under the law is an American value embedded in the fabric of our legal and political system - the idea that anybody, powerful or not, can have their day in court.

A criminal trial is never about seeking justice for the victim. If it were, there could be only one verdict: guilty.

The whole idea of equal justice under law means that you've got to play by the rules. It has nothing to do with the underlying subject matter. You just tell the truth.

People are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

It must be a judge - never a politician - who decides whether someone is to be locked up.

You shouldn't have to sue somebody to get justice. It ought to come through administrative process.

More law, less justice.

Preventing the arbitrary administration of punishment is a basic ideal of any society that purports to be governed by the rule of law.

Our criminal justice system was designed to be fair and is the fairest system known to man.

Due process is not a mechanical instrument. It is not a yardstick. It is a process.

Law enforcement does not ask an advantage in its struggle with the lawless. It asks only that the scales of justice be balanced. The cause of justice is not served when hardened criminals are allowed to go free through legal technicalities.

Courts, not mobs, must execute the penalties of the law.