Harry Belafonte Quotes

The purpose of bail is to insure the defendant's appearance and submission to the judgment of the court. It is never denied for the purpose of punishment.

I got the chance to argue my first case in Supreme Court, a criminal case arising in Alabama that involved the right of a defendant to counsel at a critical stage in a capital case before a trial.

I think any man would be nervous if his liberty is at stake.

I was covering the Supreme Court when it decided Gideon v. Wainright, and the case has always had special meaning for me.

I've learned a long time ago if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't be pleading the Fifth, and most Americans get it.

An arrest is not justified by what the subsequent search discloses.

[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!”

I'm a lawyer, I practiced for many years, and so I believe in the Fifth Amendment.

The police have the right to prosecute people, but not use violence.

And we are in a strange conundrum. You can kill an American citizen overseas. But according to this administration, if you capture him in the United States, they've got to be read their Miranda rights.

Indictments of any kind are serious. That being said, let's not forget that an indictment is not a conviction. We still have due process in this country.

Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.

It is indeed an odd business that it has taken this Court nearly two centuries to 'discover' a constitutional mandate to have counsel at a preliminary hearing.

Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties - provided we're only talking about criminals.

It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.

The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.

Wherever they have been arraigned, a plain charge has been exhibited against them. They have had an impartial trial and have been permitted to make their defense.

Everybody has a right to be defended, and every lawyer has a duty to defend people accused. And my office is to defend him, to discuss the accusation point by point, as I think this is a normal step in a democracy.

Anyone can be falsely accused of a crime. Everyone accused of a crime deserves a fair trial.

To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them.

You have got to make sure there's due process for somebody that's accused of a crime. You've got make sure they're safe.

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.

And let the sheriffs who have arrested them bring them before the justice without any other summons.

It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.

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