Fair Trial Quotes

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.

It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, "whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection," and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.

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.

The innocent are frequently punished instead of the guilty

Liberals despise the rule of law because it interferes with their ability to rule by mob. They love to portray themselves as the weak taking on the powerful. But it is the least powerful who suffer the most once the rule of law is gone.

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.

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

It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

It's better that the innocent should live than that the guilty die

Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.

People are innocent until they are proven guilty, and we will make sure that stays the case.

I'm being treated like a criminal by the Polish government. It's just insane. I haven't done anything. What are they accusing me of?

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

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.

I recognize that in some cases it's more important to have freedom and justice than to have peace.

… due process of law is not for the sole benefit of an accused. It is the best insurance for the Government itself against those blunders which leave lasting stains on a system of justice but which are bound to occur on ex parte consideration

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

No person should suffer … without being brought to answer by due course and process of law

Why do we love this trial by jury? Because it prevents the hand of oppression from cutting you off.

I went to public school on Long Island, and it seemed every year we were being taught that you had a right to a fair trial and a right to confront your accuser.

Our criminal justice system was designed to be fair and is the fairest system known to man.

Decisions on a matter as serious as charging an individual with a crime cannot be decided on anything less than complete examination of all available evidence. Anything less is not justice.

You may pronounce us guilty a thousand times over but the goddess of the eternal court of history will tear to tatters the brief of the state prosecutor and the sentence of this court.

No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual.

If you hang them all, you will get the guilty. But that's not the American way of doing things.