John Grisham Quotes

More than 100 people have been sent to death row who were later exonerated because they weren't guilty or fairly tried. Most criminal defendants do not get adequate representation because there are not enough public defenders to represent them. There is a lot that is wrong.

Legal aid gets a bad press. Some rail against handing taxpayers' money to criminals; others attack fat cat lawyers, while some argue that we spend far more on legal aid than other countries. But let's get some facts straight: saying that legal aid is just about criminals is wrong - most goes to people before any decision is taken on their guilt.

Legal aid is crucial in ensuring those truly guilty of crimes are convicted after due process, and those innocent are able to clear their names, by ensuring that access to legal representation is available for everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

How can it be, in a country as strong and rich as this one, that tens of thousands of Americans who need legal representation are turned away every year because their government won't support the very program designed to help them?

From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.

One thing I know from personal experience, judges hate it when parties talk publicly about their cases. There are a lot of things about our criminal legal system that need to be changed, and this is just one of them. Prosecutors know how to play the press. Most defendants don't.

I was determined to become a criminal lawyer and help look after the poor.

My dream is to reform the legal system over the next 20 years.

Delay in justice is injustice.

Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. This is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.

Technology is neutral: It convicts and finds innocents. We must make it a regularized part of the system, giving defendants access to DNA testing and evidence whenever it might be relevant.

I'm a duty solicitor, so I can't fix someone's life; all I can do is fix the problem I've got in front of my eyes.

There is too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

Indigent defense ... has no constituency. The only reason to give adequate funding ... is because it's the right thing to do. In this political climate, that means nothing.

And let no one apply to the king in any suit, unless he at home may not be worthy of law, or cannot obtain law.

In representing criminal defendants—especially guilty ones—it is often necessary to take the offensive against the government: to put the government on trial for its misconduct.

In the right to vote … Justice should never be too expensive. Justice should never be too slow. Justice should never depend on an army of lawyers sweeping in to help, and that is the situation we have now. We are dependent on the ability to find help whenever we can.

I believe that even if a criminal defendant has committed a heinous wrong, they should still be treated with respect from everyone in the criminal justice system, including prosecutors

There's nothing wrong with crooks having lawyers. Everyone is entitled to a lawyer.

Major miscarriages of justice have occurred because of the absence of proper legal representation.

Victims want to know that the true perpetrators of their crime are convicted - legal aid helps achieve this.

Thousands of people go to jail, go to prison, every year without even meeting with an attorney.

While service in the Department of Justice is itself one of the highest forms of public service, the Department further strides to increase access to justice for all and to strengthen our communities.

Without legal aid, and the dedicated lawyers who deliver it, our system of justice would quite simply collapse.

I went to law school to help people.