Quotes About Justice

In white America, prisons are good places where bad men pay for their crimes. In black America, they are too often used as warehouses to keep minorities off the streets. Otis

If a prosecutor gets caught cheating, he either gets reelected or elevated to the bench. Our system never holds a bad prosecutor accountable.

As Mike Roberts watched Tommy enter the building, he could not imagine that the boy was taking his last steps in the free world. The rest of his life would be behind prison walls.

About a month later, Riggins changed his mind. In an interview with the police, he said he was incorrect about Ron Williamson, that in fact the man he heard doing the confessing was Glen Gore.

Since 1990, Oklahoma has executed more convicts on a per capita basis than any other state. No place, not even Texas, comes close.

He prayed long and hard for justice and healing, but was a bit light on mercy.

Since we can all agree that it's wrong to kill, why do we allow the State to kill?

Deck has reduced the Canons of Ethics to the Big Three: Fight for your client, don't steal, try not to lie.

deal with self-righteous prosecutors who lie, cheat, stonewall, cover up, ignore ethics, and do whatever it takes to get a conviction, even when they know the truth and the truth tells them they are wrong.

But a year in jail for an innocent man is pure luck in our system.

Great trial lawyers aren't born; they're made. The great ones simply tell the jury a story...

He made a mistake, one that would send him to death row and eventually cost him his freedom for life.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Booker Sistrunk sat awkwardly with his hands behind him and continued the mouthing: "You oughtta be ashamed of yourself, treating a brother like this." "The white guy's gettin' the same treatment," Ozzie said. "You're violating my civil rights." "And you're violatin' mine with your mouth. Now shut up or I'll lock you under the jail. We got a little basement down there.

The Constitution names only three federal offenses: treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. Today there are over forty-five hundred federal crimes, and the number continues to grow as Congress gets tougher on crime and federal prosecutors become more creative in finding ways to apply all their new laws.

The system reflects society. It's not always fair, but it's as fair as the system in New York, or Massachusetts, or California. It's as fair as biased, emotional humans can make it.

They're all long shots, but we win more than we lose. I've walked eight of my clients out of prison.

In white America, prisons are good places where bad men pay for their crimes. In black America, they are too often used as warehouses to keep minorities off the streets.

It has taken me years to convince her that there are thousands of innocent people locked away.

In at least half of the DNA exonerations of innocent men and women, bad forensics have been the cornerstone of the prosecution's evidence.

In a famous 1963 decision, Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court held that "the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.

As I told you before, it's fairly easy to convict an innocent man and virtually impossible to exonerate one.

God help us, if ever in this great country we turn our heads while people who have not had fair trials are executed. That almost happened in this case.

Jailhouse snitches testify every day in this country. Other civilized countries prohibit them, but not here.