1368) I think what this jury did is give the middle finger to justice.

Dominick Dunne
referring to the jury in the
O.J. Simpson criminal trial
posted by AJ Boodles on the Court TV
OJ Simpson discussion board (10/6/1995)

1369) If you are rich you can get away with murder.

GoldNCobra
posted on the Court TV OJ Simpson
discussion board (10/4/1995)

1370) Written laws are like spiders' webs; they hold the weak and delicate who might be caught in their meshes, but are torn to pieces by the rich and powerful.

Anacharsis
to Solon, who was compiling his laws
reported by Plutarch in
Lives: Solon [MAC]

[Note: This remark is widely and incorrectly attributed to Solon, whereas it was actually a criticism of Solon. Similar remarks have been made by Terence, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift and Benjamin Franklin, among others.]

1371) The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted.

Publius Syrus
Sententiae #296 (c. 48 BC) [MAC]

[Note: Incorrectly attributed to Horace.]

1372) The administration of justice is no more designed to elicit the truth than the scientific approach is designed to extract justice from the atom.

Charles P. Curtis (attributed)
probably from "The Ethics of Advocacy"
Stanford Law Review (12/1951)
MaryellenD, personal e-mail (7/5/1995)

1373) The fact that the world ain't fair, ain't news.

unknown
Ron Robertson, personal communication (10/3/1995)

[Note: Sometimes attributed to H.L. Mencken.]

1374) [W]hen the majority disagrees with a verdict, they don't riot. They change the laws.

Comandante
posted by the CourtTV O.J. Simpson
discussion board (10/1/1995)

[Note: Paraphrased by mkgdiver as: "When the majority riots, they don't do it in the street, they do it in the legislatures and the courts." personal email (10/3/1995)]

1375) Juries invest each citizen with a sort of magisterial office; they make all [...] feel that they have duties toward society and that they take a share in its government. By making men pay attention to things other than their own affairs, they combat that individual selfishness which is like rust in society.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America (1833)
quoted by Jeffrey Abramson in
We, The Jury (1994)

1376) [Juries in America are] a political institution [that is] [...] as direct and as extreme a consequence of the sovereignty of the people as universal suffrage.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America (1833)
quoted by Stephen J. Adler in
The Jury (1994)

1377) [T]he institution of the jury raises the people itself [...] to the bench of judges [and] [...] consequently invests the people [...] with the direction of society.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America (1833)

[Note: For more on juries and the jury system, see "Juries - Part 1" and "Juries - Part 2", #552-563.]