Yeah, I lost court cases and misdemeanor juries, but of felony jury trials I was successful 105 of 106 times.
Vincent BugliosiRead
For a lawyer to do less than his utmost is, I strongly feel, a betrayal of his client. Though in criminal trials one tends to focus on the defense attorney and his client the accused, the prosecutor is also a lawyer, and he too has a client: the People. And the People are equally entitled to their day in court, to a fair and impartial trial, and to justice.
Interpretation
Lawyers must advocate vigorously for their clients, ensuring fair representation in all trials.
This quote emphasizes the ethical duty of lawyers to fully commit to representing their clients, whether they are defense attorneys or prosecutors. Vincent Bugliosi highlights the balance of justice, asserting that everyone in the courtroom, including the accused and society as a whole, deserves thorough and dedicated legal representation to achieve a fair trial.
In practice
In a speech on legal ethics, one might quote Bugliosi to emphasize the importance of lawyers' dedication to their clients.
Yeah, I lost court cases and misdemeanor juries, but of felony jury trials I was successful 105 of 106 times.
I start out with the assumption that a lawyer in a criminal case is going to be incompetent - substantially so. I find my assumption to be rarely wrong. Yet society starts out with the very opposite assumption.
If there is one thing that I take pride in, it is the fact that I never, ever make a charge without offering a substantial amount of support for it. You may ultimately end up not agreeing with me, but you will have to concede that I offered much evidence in support of my position, something that people frequently do not do.
As a trial lawyer in front of a jury and an author of true-crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. My only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others.
Contrary to common belief, the presumption of innocence applies only inside a courtroom. It has no applicability elsewhere, although the media do not seem to be aware of this.
Waiting for the conspiracy theorists to tell the truth is a little like leaving the front-porch light on for Jimmy Hoffa.
We treat Black and brown kids who can't vote yet, can't join the military, can't rent a car or even buy a lottery ticket - like adults in our criminal legal system. We deprive them of their joy and their youth. Children who deserve to live rich and abundant lives.
The jury system has come to stand for all we mean by English justice. The scrutiny of 12 honest jurors provides defendants and plaintiffs alike a safeguard from arbitrary perversion of the law.
A jury too often has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.
So much of America's tragic and costly failure to care for all its children stems from our tendency to distinguish between our own children and other people's children--as if justice were divisible.
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.
The risk of racial prejudice infecting a capital sentencing proceeding is especially serious in light of the complete finality of the death sentence.
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