John Fortescue Quotes
One would much rather that twenty guilty persons should escape the punishment of death, than that one innocent person should be condemned and suffer capitally.
This is the first appearance of the principle which guides law enforcement in most of America and the other industrialized democracies around the world. Texas and some other localities have rejected this notion and see the occasional execution of an innocent person the cost we must pay in order to preserve law and order.
John Fortescue,~1394 – ~1476, English Judge & King's Sergeant at Law, De laudibus legum Angliae, ~1470
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Mistakes in the criminal justice system have been with us from the birth of the nation.
This quotation has become an operational principle of most justice systems of industrial democracies.
1st Baron Macaulay
Texas executes more people than the rest of the United States does. However, just before the debate an investigation disclosed 56 recent cases in Texas where the “criminals” were completely exonerated based on the work of some volunteer attorneys and law students. They were all released from jail where many had served decades for crimes they did not commit. 5 were released from Death Row—awaiting to be executed. See {635339}.
Sir John Fortescue of Ebrington in Gloucestershire, was Chief Justice of the King's Bench and was the author of De Laudibus Legum Angliae (Commendation of the Laws of England), first published posthumously circa 1543, an influential treatise on English law. In the course of Henry VI's reign, Fortescue was appointed one of the governors of Lincoln's Inn three times and served as a Member of Parliament from 1421 to 1437. He became one of the King's Serjeants during the Easter term of 1441, and subsequently served as Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 25 January 1442 to Easter term 1460.
