In suits at common law, trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the pre-existent rights of nature. — James Madison
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. — Thomas Jefferson
A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government. — Byron White
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. — Groucho Marx
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. — Norm Crosby
Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people. — George Carlin
People are tried and convicted in the newspapers and on television before they ever see a courtroom. — Assata Shakur
A grand jury hears only one side - that of the prosecutor — Donella Meadows
In Nigeria they convict by law, not by the truth — Fela Kuti
Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man. — Johnnie Cochran
Whether a man is guilty or innocent, we have to find that out by due process of law. — Andy Griffith
The trial lawyer does what Socrates was executed for: making the worse argument appear the stronger. — Irving Kaufman
I have to say that the judges and our judiciary system makes better decisions than the politicians. — Arnold Schwarzenegger
Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom — Clarence Darrow
The gladsome light of jurisprudence. — Edward Coke
Litigation: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage. — Ambrose Bierce
Arbitration is justice blended with charity. — Nachman of Breslov
The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men. — James Buchanan
Trial By Jury Image Quotes
What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
Judge And Jury Quotes
If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim. — Jeff Cooper
In fact, for all kinds of offenses - and, for no offenses - from murders to misdemeanors, men and women are put to death without judge or jury; so that, although the political excuse was no longer necessary, the wholesale murder of human beings went on just the same. — Ida B. Wells
It's not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even - or rather, especially - when we'd prefer not to be. — Josh Radnor
If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman. — Luther Burbank
To deny political equality is to rob the ostracised of all self-respect; of credit in the market place; of recompense in the world of work; of a voice among those who make and administer the law; a choice in the jury before whom they are tried, and in the judge who decides their punishment. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Authoritative interpretations of the First Amendment guarantees have consistently refused to recognize an exception for any test of truth whether administered by judges, juries, or administrative officials and especially one that puts the burden of proving truth on the speaker. — William J. Brennan
The idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet-laureat. — Thomas Paine
A grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted. — Sayings
Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas. — Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
No president has the right to say he is judge, jury and executioner. — Rand Paul
Trial Lawyers Quotes
People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom. — Mario Cuomo
I'm sure I took some licks at the system, and at trials and lawyers in general. I've seen enough of them for so many years both as a cop and a defendant in defamation cases. — Joseph Wambaugh
In recent years personal injury attorneys and trial lawyers have attacked the food industry with numerous lawsuits alleging that these businesses should pay monetary damages to those who, of their own accord, consume too much of a legal, safe product. — Bob Ney
I view myself primarily as a trial lawyer who happens to be writing, as opposed to a writer who happens to be a trial lawyer, so the audience is like a jury to me. — Vincent Bugliosi
Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect. — Hunter S. Thompson
Cagey trial lawyers have figured out there's a pretty good likelihood their case - no matter what its merit - will literally get its day in court because of favorable judges. — Dennis Hastert
In fact, various lawyers' groups - to some extent in the U.S. but mostly in England and Canada and elsewhere - are bringing demands for a war crimes trial for the crime of aggression. However, though the invasion of Iraq was plainly an act of aggression, it doesn't break any records. — Noam Chomsky
Lawyers should not be charged with the same crimes as their clients. Trials related to political charges are not in accordance with human rights. — Shirin Ebadi
Only a very foolish lawyer will dare guess the outcome of a jury trial. — Jerome Frank
At the trial Stubbs chose to act as his own lawyer, but a conflict over his fee led to ill feelings. — Woody Allen
Jury Quotes
Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. — Stephen Jay Gould
A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. — Frederick Douglass
Educate your sons and daughters, send them to school, and show them that beside the cartridge box, the ballot box, and the jury box, you also have the knowledge box. — Frederick Douglass
Life is like jury duty. Just do it and get it over with. — Dana Gould
All I did in Chicago was to exercise my legal right to speak on my own behalf and I was given four years in jail as a result. But I think the most serious injustice perpetrated by the court system in America is the inability of a black man to get a jury of his peers. — Bobby Seale
The world is not a courtroom There is no judge no jury no plaintiff. This is a caravan filled with eccentric beings telling wondrous stories about God. — Saadi Shirazi
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. — Thomas Jefferson
The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth. — Alan Dershowitz
In America, freedom and justice have always come from the ballot box, the jury box, and when that fails, the cartridge box. — Steve Symms
We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. — Larry McDonald
Trial by jury is a privilege of the highest and most beneficial nature [and] our most important guardian both of public and private liberty. The liberties of England cannot but subsist so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, ... but also from all secret machinations, which may sap and undermine it. — William Blackstone
By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline. — Thomas Jefferson
Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury. — Martha Beck
That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. — George Mason
What many of those who oppose the use of juries in civil trials seem to ignore is that the founders of our Nation considered the right of trial by jury in civil cases an important bulwark against tyranny and corruption, a safeguard too precious to be left to the whim of the sovereign, or, it might be added, to that of the judiciary. — William Rehnquist
You ought to be extremely cautious, watchful, jealous of your liberty; for instead of securing your rights, you may lose them forever. — Patrick Henry
The corporations don't like open courts of law, trials by jury. They want to privatize by pushing people into compulsory arbitration where they win most of the time and the whole process is pretty secret. — Ralph Nader
Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail? — Stephen Ambrose
We have a Bill of Rights, we have trial by jury. We have a notion that you are - you're innocent until you're proven guilty. We have all these things. — Joe Biden
I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation. — Margaret Chase Smith
Cross-examination is beyond any doubt the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth. ... Cross-examination, not trial by jury, is the great and permanent contribution of the Anglo-American system of law to improved methods of trial-procedure. — John Henry Wigmore
Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties. I do not know what a palladium is, but I am sure it is a good thing! — Mark Twain
... The popular attitude toward the administration of justice should be one of respect and confidence. Bureaucratic, purely official justice, can never receive such confidence. The one way to secure it is to give the citizen-body itself a share in the administration of justice. And that is what jury-trial does. — John Henry Wigmore
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. — Lysander Spooner
The object of any tyrant would be to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives. — Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin
Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety. — Thomas Jefferson
In Los Angeles, the jury in the Reginald Denny Beating trial, after much thinking, concludes, that Person A is not necessarily trying to kill Person B just because Person A happens to very deliberately bash Person B's skull in with a brick. The verdict is applauded by scientists at the Tobacco Institute. — Dave Barry
Trial by jury is a wise distribution of power which exceeds all other modes of trial. — Edward Coke
The grand solid merit of jury trial is that the jurors ... are selected at the last moment from the multitude of citizens. They cannot be known beforehand, and they melt back into the multitiude after each trial. — John Henry Wigmore
Trial by jury must be preserved. It is the best system ever invented for a free people in the world's history. — John Henry Wigmore
When it comes to sports I am not particularly interested. Generally speaking, I look upon them as dangerous and tiring activities performed by people with whom I share nothing except the right to trial by jury. — Fran Lebowitz
And ye, who have met with Adversity's blast, And been bow'd to the earth by its fury; To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury - Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime, The regrets of remembrance to cozen, And having obtained a New Trial of Time, Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen. — Thomas Hood
Loyalty is that for the lack of which your gang will shoot you without benefit of trial by jury. — Robert Frost
Trial by jury must and shall be preserved! Amidst the throng of crude sacrilegisms ... that assail us nowadays in the legal sanctuary, none is more shortsighted, none more dangerous, than the proposal to abolish trial by jury. — John Henry Wigmore
There was not a member of the Constitutional Convention who had the least objection to what is contended for by the advocates for a Bill of Rights and trial by jury. — George Washington
The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided. — Harlan F. Stone
Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessingsgive us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. — Patrick Henry
Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. — Thomas Jefferson
I do not apologize for advertising. I think it is as vital to the preservation of freedom in my country as the free exercise of publishing a newspaper or the free exercise of building a church or the free exercise of the right of trial by jury. — Thomas Dillon
We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence. — Winston Churchill
Right to a speedy jury trial and so on and so forth. But what do they mean by 'person'? It certainly didn't mean individuals with flesh and blood like Native Americans who weren't persons, they don't have any rights. — Noam Chomsky
Three features mark the Anglo-American system as different from all others. One is the extent to which our law is formed in litigation. Another feature is the way we conduct these cases: we pit antagonists against each other, to cast up from their struggles the material of decisions. A third- and largest in the public consciousness- is the trial by jury. — Charles Rembar
The wisdom of our ages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith. — Thomas Jefferson
I will now add what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of nations. — Thomas Jefferson
But you begin to feel as you go on working that unless painting proves its right to exist by being critical and self-judging, it has no reason to exist at all - or is not even possible. The canvas is a court where the artist is prosecutor, defendant, jury and judge. Art without a trial disappears at a glance. — Philip Guston
You may talk about Free Love, if you please, but we are to have the right to vote. Today we are fined, imprisoned, and hanged, without a jury trial by our peers. You shall not cheat us by getting us off to talk about something else. When we get the suffrage, then you may taunt us with anything you please, and we will then talk about it as long as you please. — Lucy Stone
The liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Writ, even Magna Carta itself, although justly deemed the paladia of freedom, are all inferior considerations, when compared with the general distribution of real property among every class of people. — Noah Webster
Let the people have property and they will have power - a power that will forever be exerted to prevent the restriction of the press, the abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgment of any other privilege. — Noah Webster
The humorist who invented trial by jury played a colossal practical joke upon the world, but since we have the system we ought to try and respect it. A thing which is not thoroughly easy to do, when we reflect that by command of the law a criminal juror must be an intellectual vacuum, attached to a melting heart and perfectly macaronian bowels of compassion. — Mark Twain
The law of England has established trial by judge and jury in the conviction that it is the mode best calculated to ascertain the truth. — Jeremy Bentham
"It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries." — Thomas Jefferson
In Conclusion
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