Friedrich Durrenmatt Quotes

You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty.

Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

I've never met a murderer as far as I know. I would hate to.

A jury of my countrymen, it is true, have found me guilty of the crime of which I stood indicted. For this I entertain not the slightest feeling of resentment towards them.

A murder is not a martyr. He or she is just a murderer.

After my conviction, I was devastated. I had never believed that I would be convicted.

Courtroom dramas can be boring.

Murder will out, this my conclusion.

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.

Nothing of course was ever done to Bill for the killing of Tutt.

One of the hardest things to believe is that anyone will abandon the effort to escape a charge of murder. It is extremely important to suspend disbelief on that. If you don't, the story is spoiled.

And, you know, like I said, I'm not looking forward to a trial.

I made no pretense of doing balanced reporting about murder. I was appalled by defense attorneys who would do anything to win an acquittal for a guilty person.

I didn't attend any of the court proceedings.

To have the truth in your possession you can be found guilty, sentenced to death.

I will go to what they call a court. Only they call it a court.

I had never attended a trial until my daughter's murder trial. What I witnessed in that courtroom enraged and redirected me.

I hear they burn for murder. Well, they say it just takes a second to die.

There are a whole lot of little tales told in 'Presumed Innocent,' whether it's about the Hobberly kid, who was an important witness who ends up assassinated, or an accountant named Marcy Lupino, who meets a horrible fate in a state penitentiary. There's less of that in 'Innocent,' and deliberately so.

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

You wont hear anything from me that says I didn't kill David. I did kill him.

I'm a prosecutor first and foremost, and as a judge, I put people in jail for extended periods of time when that was appropriate.

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

I went to prison, I paid my bill.

Confess and be hanged.