Andy Griffith Quotes

Believing a person deserves a defence is not the same as doing anything in your power to get him off scot-free.

When I was initially charged I still thought I was not guilty because I had followed the rules.

If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

Due process does not require that every conceivable step be taken, at whatever cost, to eliminate the possibility of convicting an innocent person. To conclude otherwise would all but paralyze our system for enforcement of the criminal law.

I believe that everybody is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

It's perfectly obvious that somebody's responsible and somebody's innocent. Otherwise it [justice] makes no sense at all.

In America, an acquittal doesn't mean you're innocent, it means you beat the rap. My clients lose even when they win.

Criminal justice is about respecting the law and being respected by the law so there is a fundamental respect issue here.

The law is agnostic about truth.

I have no better way of judging guilt or innocence than anyone else.

Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people; and behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

Trials are no longer about freeing the innocent, punishing the guilty, and making restitution to the injured. They have devolved into a contest over who will win.

It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.

The law itself is on trial in every case as well as the cause before it.

Our system, for readily apparent reasons, is far superior to those in nations, mostly totalitarian, which presume an arrested person is guilty and place the burden on the accused to prove his innocence.

That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.

Do not give sentence in another tribunal till you have been yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice.

There are more important things than finding the murderer. And justice is a fine word, but it is sometimes difficult to say exactly what one means by it. In my opinion, the important thing is to clear the innocent. - Hercule Poirot

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned.

I believe I am entitled like any other person to have the presumption of innocence.

The goal is justice, not executions. We all want to make sure the process is fair and that the right person is punished. These recommendations are essential to that goal.

You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

The United States and the European Union do want to have a rule of law, and that rule of law should be for a fair trial. And that fair trial needs to have an impartial jury.