Vincent Bugliosi Quotes

Trial by television is ... foreign to our system.

Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances. Substitute statute for decision, and you shift the center of authority, but add no quota of inspired wisdom.

It's extremely damaging to a fair trial to have people reaching judgment about the case in the newspapers and on the radio before the facts are heard in a case.

Neither the king nor any servant of his shall themselves cause a lawsuit to be begun, or hush up one that has been brought before them by some other man.

There was a vacuum in investigation, and the press began to try men in the most effective court in the country.

Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws.

Whatever disagreement there may be as to the scope of the phrase "due process of law" there can be no doubt that it embraces the fundamental conception of a fair trial, with opportunity to be heard.

When I first took the bench, I was assigned to handle a calendar of criminal cases. It was an enormous docket. I tried in each case to make sure that the litigants not only in fact received, but also felt that they had received, a full and fair opportunity to be heard.

No one can just file a charge and go directly to a jury trial. That just cannot happen.

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.

A defendant on trial for a specific crime is entitled to his day in court, not in a stadium or a city or nationwide arena.

When it comes to those who are accused and their right to defend themselves, it is perfectly reasonable to expect relevant evidence to be made public, and I am in favour of open justice.

No defendant should be executed until we assure that the imposition of the ultimate sanction is not the result of inadequate counsel or lack of due process.

The judges must be many, for, if few, they will always follow the behests of the few.

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.

[The defendant] has an absolute, unqualified right to compel the State to investigate its own case, find its own witnesses, prove its own facts, and convince the jury through its own resources. Throughout the process, the defendant has a fundamental right to remain silent, in effect challenging the State at every point to “Prove it!”

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

God forbid that the defendant should not be allowed the benefit of every advantage he is entitled to by law.

A judge who likes every opinion he reaches is a bad judge.

Court proceedings, except for certain limited situations, are open to the public. This is for the protection of the accused, to be certain to ascertain that there is a fair trial.

I do not follow superstitions on court.

To guard our most cherished values and the law that holds us together, America needs a Supreme Court justice committed to the people's Constitution. Neil Gorsuch is that person.

Judge Kavanaugh has an exemplary record of service to the judiciary and the rule of law.

A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.

I have 100 percent confidence in the German judicial system.