Michael Arrington Quotes

The justice system is confused in trying to understand it, but frankly, if it paid attention to the really blatant cases and did a good job with that, we would be light years ahead of where we are now.

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.

I'd like to professionally... continue my education and hopefully become an attorney. I think that's the best way to stop the miscarriage of justice that happened to me from happening to somebody else. I don't think it should ever happen to anyone ever again - not one person.

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

Not a problem kid or anything like that so when you're in the legal system like that, it's always hard on a person for the first time to go through some things like that.

When I was in jail I could only think about what the average person has to go through - the person who has no power to go to the press or no money to hire a lawyer.

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.

People have a false understanding of what our legal system is like - how it works/operates - from shows like 'Law and Order,' which suggest that lawyers appear on demand and do a tremendous amount of investigation and background research.

If everyone charged with crimes suddenly exercised his constitutional rights, there would not be enough judges, lawyers, or prison cells to deal with the ensuing tsunami of litigation.

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

We should not televise trials. There's only one purpose for a criminal trial. It's to determine whether or not the defendant committed the crime. Anything that interferes or has the potential of interfering with that should automatically be prohibited.

Hopefully, America will really get a sense of how justice can be served in this country. And hopefully, they'll forget the Simpson trial.

You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important.

If you're dealing with criminals, they're not going to want to go to court.

[The decisions made by the prosecutors were] stunningly arbitrary. These decisions are shrouded in such complete secrecy that they make the proceedings of the former English Court of Star Chamber appear to be a model of criminal justice transparency. We as judges can and should do more [to change the situation.]

All lawyers are the natural enemies of the police.

Justice in this country is an insurance policy. It’s not something that we’re supposed to get sometimes.

Plea Bargaining rests on the constitutional fiction that our government does not retaliate against individuals who wish to exercise their right to trial by jury.

We have far more plea bargains in our system than we do trials.

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

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

We have a system of jurisprudence. You are innocent until proven guilty. You have a right to counsel. And you have a right to hospitalization if you are ill. That is our system. And it's what makes this country special and what makes this country great.

I know what it means to prosecute people.

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.

Being reliant on legal aid is probably inconceivable to most of us. But this is no different from other branches of the welfare state established at the same time as our legal aid system - being diagnosed with a major illness and needing the NHS, or losing a job and needing the support of social security.