Johnnie Cochran Quotes

Perjury is the basest and meanest and most cowardly of crimes. What can it do? Perjury can change the common air that we breathe into the axe of an executioner.

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

Lying under oath, and encouraging lies under oath, does go to the very heart and soul of what courts do. If we say we don't care, let's forget about courts, and we'll just have other ways of figuring out how to handle disputes.

We have crime without punishment.

There is no such thing as justice—in or out of court.

True justice is paying only once for each mistake. True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake.

And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.

Touch but a cobweb in Westminster Hall, and the old spider of the law is out upon you with all his vermin at his heels.

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.

Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?

Nothing of course was ever done to Bill for the killing of Tutt.

The goal is justice, not executions. We all want to make sure the process is fair and that the right person is punished. These recommendations are essential to that goal.

It would seem, therefore, that this constitutional safeguard may no longer serve its original purpose, especially when, as we learned last year, some acts of perjury may now be acceptable - in this world, at least, if not the next.

There is no excuse for perjury - never, never, never. There is truth, and the truth demands respect.

No man e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law.

The fact that a crime might have been committed with impunity in the past may make it seem more familiar and less gruesome, but surely does not give it any greater legitimacy.

This death sentence is not surprising. It had to be.

Good laws are the offspring of bad actions.

As a lawyer, as a private citizen, you see a lot of injustice. You see a lot of people who should have been punished and are not, and people who were punished wrongfully are not vindicated. Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

I am telling you before anything, that the blood of the martyrs and the injured will not go in vain. And I would like to affirm, I will not hesitate to punish those who are responsible fiercely. I will hold those in charge who have violated the rights of our youth with the harshest punishment stipulated in the law.

Shall any man be above Justice. Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice. When great crimes were committed I am for punishing the principal as well as the Coadjutors

Hell and the law courts are always open.

It is easier to find false witness against the civilian than anyone willing to speak the truth against the interest and honor of the soldier.

A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice.