Jury Quotes

• I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Jury selection is strictly an emotional process. They're looking for people they can manipulate. Both sides are.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Emotional, People, Manipulation

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

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• A fox should not be on the jury at a goose's trial.

  Thomas Fuller

  Funny, Humor, Trials

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• 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

  Men, Anchors, Law

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.71

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• Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

  Martha Beck

  Dating, Society, Looking For Love

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• The jury passing on the prisoner's life may in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try.

  William Shakespeare

  Passing On, Two, Justice

  'Measure for Measure' (1604) act 2, sc. 1, l. 17

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• I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system - that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.

  Harper Lee

  Integrity, Believe, Reality

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

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• 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

  Funny, Hilarious, Smart

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• A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

  Robert Frost

  Funny, Humor, Law

  "Fire and Ice: The Art and Thought of Robert Frost". Book by Lawrence Thompson, 1942.

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• No president has the right to say he is judge, jury and executioner.

  Rand Paul

  Judging, President, Executioners

  "The Crisis in a Nutshell: Quotes of the Week" by Aswini Periyasamy, www.newyorker.com. March 08, 2013.

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• 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

  Lying, People, Judging

  "George Carlin: What Am I Doing in New Jersey?". TV Special, www.imdb.com. June 12, 1988.

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• If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.

  Luther Burbank

  Law, Judging, Environmental

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• There is no such thing as an impartial jury because there are no impartial people. There are people that argue on the web for hours about who their favorite character on 'Friends' is.

  Jon Stewart

  Character, People, Arguing

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• We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world and it's efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read-

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humorous, Men

  Address on the 4th of July, delivered 4 July 1899, London, England

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• We operate under a jury system in this country, and as much as we complain about it, we have to admit that we know of no better system, except possibly flipping a coin.

  Dave Barry

  Country, Flipping A Coin, Complaining

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• A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Gun, Rights

  "How 'Crazy Negroes' With Guns Helped Kill Jim Crow" by Thaddeus Russell, reason.com. July 22, 2014.

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• The first thought that occurred to me, that night when I heard the chairman of the jury announce my name, was, Just think how many people hate me at this moment. Naturally, I wanted to annoy those people even further by being arrogant.

  John Banville

  Hate, Night, Thinking

  "John Banville, The Art of Fiction No. 200". Interview with Belinda McKeon, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 2009.

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• I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.

  Harper Lee

  Integrity, Believe, Reality

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

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• 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

  Funny, Humorous, Heart

  Mark Twain (1992). “Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890”, p.725, Library of America

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• A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.

  Herbert Spencer

  Ignorance, Men, Average

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• To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.

  John Mortimer

  Hate, England, Hats

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• Never forget, almost every case has been won or lost when the jury is sworn.

  Clarence Darrow

  Never Forget, Lost, Cases

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• Shocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Murder, Obscenity

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• If the question [before justices of the peace] relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Judging, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.37, Cosimo, Inc.

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• To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way effected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law.

  Byron White

  Law, Way, Would Be

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