Laurie Levenson Quotations

The popularity of these programs has an impact. There is a blurring of fiction and reality.

Now they can walk away and say he didn't get away with it.

From his standpoint, it doesn't hurt his reputation because he had no reputation left. This case was unpleasant for everyone and now it just goes away.

What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it.

He's going to wind up with a lot of reluctant, unhappy jurors, ... And if they don't want to be there, they may not listen to the evidence. It's dangerous to force people into jury service.

I think the prosecution was looking for a symbolic victory and they got it.

It is my understanding that they have walled her off from day one and that she has had no decision-making responsibility in the case.

It is a very dangerous precedent because it gives the court an opportunity to close out the public from critical information during a high-publicity trial, ... This formalizes the celebrity exception to the First Amendment.

We have the people who did the dirty work, but we don't have the people who hired them.

The defense can still present circumstantial evidence that he could not form the intent to kill, ... All this means is that they can't call the experts they couldn't call anyway because he refused to be examined.

What Janet Reno has to consider is, 'Do I go through this long process with the odds against getting the death penalty, or do I end it here?'

We don't usually think of them as literary giants.

Everybody wonders who is going to take the fall.

Everything changed last week because Ted Kaczynski's mental state changed. These prosecutors, who were very confident until then, felt the ground shake beneath them.

Everything changed last week because Ted Kaczynski's mental state changed, ... These prosecutors, who were very confident until then, felt the ground shake beneath them.

Courts don't want to invade the deliberative process. We favor finality, and we don't want to send a message to jurors that you can do whatever you want to do because if you have second thoughts we can undo it.

The timing smells. It seems like more than coincidence. When something like this happens it makes people wonder if this has been a fair and honest trial.

These programs have a potential for great mischief but also for great learning.

People fudge the truth all the time. Perjury is the big lie, the lie that has an impact on the investigation, on victims.

That's horrifying. When I was a prosecutor from 1981 to 1989, I never heard of secret dockets.

This is probably the most important phase of jury selection, and jury selection may be the most important phase of the trial, ... This will be the chance for lawyers to see whether these are jurors with an agenda.

It's just one of those ironies of life that he'd be called as a juror.

It's a hornet's nest. There are many types of lawsuits that can be brought against many different people. There will be plenty of work to go around.

The big issue would be if there was illegally obtained evidence. It could lead to motions for new trials on cases that have been resolved. This case could cause a major disruption.

It won't escape the jury that this guy is not all there. I'm not sure that makes a huge difference in the guilt phase except for softening up the jury for the penalty phase.

On a show like 'CSI,' they do all these amazing investigative techniques. But I don't know of a prosecutor's office in the country that has the resources, or the technology.

He's such a good salesman that they didn't have a clue about what he was doing. I don't think prosecutors start out suspecting their own witnesses to be criminals.

If he does cooperate, it could be a blockbuster. They need an insider ... without one it's going to be difficult for prosecutors.

The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that. What are the reasons for so many cases remaining under seal?