Dave Barry Quotes

I have great faith in the jury system.

There are very few countries in the world where we have a jury system as we all know.

I believe in the jury system.

I have faith in the jury system.

Trial by jury slows the wheels of justice.

When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Let law enforcement determine guilt or innocence.

The ancient mode of trial by jury ... ought to remain sacred and inviolable.

Trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies

Our civilization has decided that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.

I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.

The civil justice system is a backup system when the criminal justice system fails.

The time has come for professional jurors.

Trials by the adversarial contest must in time go the way of the ancient trial by battle and blood.

The judicial system is the most expensive machine ever invented for finding out what happened and what to do about it.

I spent my time trying to understand grand jury procedure - a topic about which I never before had the slightest interest.

Courts of law, and all the paraphernalia and folly of law cannot be found in a rational state of society.

The trial by jury is a trial by 'the country,' in contradistinction to a trial by the government. The jurors are drawn by lot from the mass of the people, for the very purpose of having all classes of minds and feelings, that prevail among the people at large, represented in the jury.

Some may remember, if you have good memories, that there used to be a concept in Anglo-American law called a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Now that's so deep in history that there's no point even bringing it up, but it did once exist.

Believe it or not, there are people who want to be on juries.

A grand jury hears only one side - that of the prosecutor.

I certainly believe it's over for the jury system, but we won't admit it for a while.

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

The work is challenging, interesting and an important part of our legal system.

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.