Murder Trial Quotes

Tooter had gone back to court to testify in Billy's murder trial. The Leavenworth justice system had been a travesty for as long as I could remember, and the term "old boy network" was alive and well there. ~ Thomas M. Sartain

Oh, please." Hickory looked skeptical. "Your show is pure sensationalism. Tripe tabloid at its worst - " Wendy interrupted him. "We've met before, Mr. Hickory." That slowed him down. "Have we?" "When I was an assistant producer on A Current Affair. I booked you as an expert on the Robert Blake murder trial." He ~ Harlan Coben

Their world has changed overnight ... Even after the trial, after the verdict
whatever it might be
life would never be the same again.
That was the truth of murder. ~ Marian Babson

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

I would rather,' he said, 'give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel.' (And here let me pause to make Mr. Douglas a sporting offer. I will provide a healthy boy, a phial of prussic acid, and a copy of The Well of Loneliness, and if he keeps his word and gives the boy the prussic acid I undertake to pay all expenses of his defense at the ensuing murder trial and to erect a monument to his memory after he has been hanged.) ~ Aldous Huxley

Almost any object, including this book you hold, can turn up as Exhibit A in a murder trial. ~ Tom Robbins

In talking about the [Emmett Till murder trial], you have to repeat the atmosphere. This is Mississippi in 1955, with a long history of intimidation of witnesses and fear on the part of blacks to testify, in racial situations in particular. For someone like Mose Wright and others to testify against white defendants in a situation like this was historic. ~ Charles Diggs

A joke, even if it be a lame one, is nowhere so keenly relished or quickly applauded as in a murder trial. ~ Mark Twain

Algol is the name of the winking demon star, Medusa of the skies; fair but deadly to look on, even for one who is already dying.
Ah, the bright stars of the night.
Almost they obliterate the clear white pain. A thousand stars shining in the ether; but no dazzling newcomer. And so little time left, so little time ...
Yet still two-faced Medusa laughs from behind the clouds, demanding homage. Homage, Medusa, or a sword, a blade sharper than death itself.
The wind stirs. Night clouds obscure the universe. A lower music now, a different kind of death.
No stars tonight, my love.
No Selene. ~ Elizabeth Redfern

Forget your sadness, anger, grudges, and hatred. Let them
pass like smoke caught in the breeze. You should not deviate
from the path of righteousness; you should lead a life worthy
of a man. Don't be possessed by greed, luxury, or your ego.
You should accept sorrows, sadness and hatred as they are,
and consider them a chance for trial given to you by the
powers ... a blessing given by nature. Have both your mind and
your time fully engaged in bud?, and have your mind deeply
set on bujutsu. ~ Masaaki Hatsumi

Is there anybody here who thinks that following the orders takes away the blame Is there anybody here who wouldn't mind a murder by another name? ~ Phil Ochs

We hear war called murder. It is not; it is suicide. ~ Ramsay MacDonald

It had been a little over a year since the last murder; moreover it had been a year since I had run as quickly as legally possible from whom I had been. It had taken almost that long to become a legal adult, get the money straightened out and get my name changed. Who was Abigail? Who was Vera? I felt as though I was neither person. I felt like I wasn't a person at all anymore. ~ Cassandra Giovanni

Caldenia blinked. "Who are the attending parties?"
"The Holy Anocracy represented by House Krahr, the Hope-crushing Horde, and the Merchants of Baha-char. They coming here for Arbitration and they will probably try to murder each other the moment they walk through the door."
Caldenia's eyes widened. "Do you really think so? This is absolutely marvelous!"
She would think so, wouldn't she? ~ Ilona Andrews

I am not in the least surprised that your impression of death becomes more lively, in proportion as age and infirmity bring it nearer. God makes use of this rough trial to undeceive us in respect to our courage, to make us feel our weakness, and to keep us in all humility in His hands. ~ Francois Fenelon

It was for Columbus, when the right hour struck, forced and propelled by this fresh life, to reveal the land where these new principles were to be brought, and where the awaited trial of the new civilization was to be made. ~ Chauncey Depew

Naturally, one does not normally discuss plans to commit murder with the intended victim. ~ Robert J. Sawyer

Who are you and why are you here?'
'I'm here to kill you.'
'Oh. I knew there was something about you I liked. ~ Greg Farshtey

Of what violences, murders, depredations, have not the epic poets, from all antiquity, been the occasion, by propagating false honor, false glory, and false religion? ~ Samuel Richardson

It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms. ~ Jean Racine

N matter how stressed Claire became, the tropical trees and exotic island flowers decorating the lobby always managed to take her breath away and put her mind at ease. Nature had always been a good de-stressor for her coming in close behind having her hand held by Mr. Sam Stewart ~ Carolyn Gibbs

I don't have a whole bunch of literary connections. I don't write reviews or attend writer's conferences. I'm kind of shy and don't want to go to a party. I just want to stay home and read my murder mysteries and try to write and cook dinner. ~ Susanna Kaysen

Fascists are flourishing politically in France and Italy, and now comes the murder of Pim Fortuyn, a populist politician who might have done well enough in the forthcoming Dutch elections to hold the balance of power in that country's parliament. But it is the widespread Jew-baiting that best reveals that Europeans are evidently incapable of learning from their history. France is the outright prizewinner where anti-Semitism is concerned. ~ David Pryce-Jones

I am who I am and always shall be. ~ Laura Elizabeth

Christ desires nothing so much as to redeem His heritage from the dominion of Satan. But before we are delivered from Satan's power without, we must be delivered {175} from his power within. The Lord permits trials in order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harsh, unchristlike traits of character. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls in order that we may know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in order that we may have deep heart longings to be cleansed from defilement, and may come forth from the trial purer, holier, happier. Often we enter the furnace of trial with our souls darkened with selfishness; but if patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the divine character. When His purpose in the affliction is accomplished, "He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." Ps. 37:6. ~ Ellen G. White

The trial of a case is a three-legged stool - a judge and two advocates. ~ Warren E. Burger

Kenny was actually here at Melwood as a 15-year-old schoolboy. He came on trial and he went home afterwards. It was only later that Bill Shankly realised that Dalglish was here as a boy and he went mad! He said 'how did we miss him?' Kenny just had the football brain. He was born with it and you can't give that to people. He had that natural born talent. ~ Ian St. John

Look my friend, I've got to commit a murder tonight. Not you. Me. So be a good chap and stuff it, would you? ~ Ian Fleming

Chess is all about getting the king into check, you see. It's about killing the father. I would say that chess has more to do with the art of murder than it does with the art of war. ~ Arturo Perez Reverte

There are two very different types of artists: those I call Old Masters, who work by trial and error and tend to improve with age, and conceptual people, or Young Geniuses, who generally do their best work early in their careers. ~ David Galenson

You guys win this time! After all, no other creature on Earth is better at "Killing" than you humans! But your weapons... should be used for a better mission! That mission is... to maintain the balance of this world! Soon you'll discover that littering is a worse crime than murder! Eventually you humans will understand our importance and protect us! You will treat your "enemies" as if they are the most important things that you have! And then your "enemies" will restore the beautiful nature to its proper order! and the world will be at balance again!
- Mayor Hirokawa ~ Hitoshi Iwaaki

I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for. ~ J.K. Rowling

Took a vow to protect and serve,
All you do is disrespect and murder.
I ask that you not hurt my kids;
This is where you work ... this is where I live. ~ Ka

Did you have somewhere else you needed to be?" I ask, deflecting the question.

"Yes," she says. But it's lacking truth and comes out a little sullenly.

"Where? Is there a murder marathon on TV this afternoon, safety girl?"

"No!" she says. But she says it too quickly and fidgets in her seat.

"Holy shit, there is, isn't there? You're so weird." She's amazing.

"It's a Criminal Minds marathon, jerk," she retorts and this conversation starts to make sense. I'm competing with a fucking television show.

"So you wanted to get home to watch reruns, is what you're telling me?"

"Fine," she huffs. "I guess I can watch reruns another time."

"Thanks," I say drily. "That's big of you."

"You're welcome," she replies and I'm honestly not sure if she's being snarky or serious ~ Jana Aston

Without energy being invested in resisting the unwanted or dueling with fears, we have more energy and attention available for noticing not only the disturbing, but the wonderful ... When we are not fixated on threat and defending ourselves, when we're not exhausted and burned out from chronic stress, we are able to see the daily evidence that we are in the midst of a mind-blowing miracle called Life ... Then we will experience breathtaking, heart-rippling moments that counterbalance every trial and tribulation. When we're fully conscious of the universe's artistry and generosity, who needs psychodelics or Prozac? ~ Charlette Mikulka

Someday you will murder your father and be with your mother, he said." Once I've spoken this, put this thought into concrete words, a hollow feeling grabs hold of me. And inside that hollow, my heart pounds out a vacant, metallic rhythm. Expression unchanged, Oshima gazes at me for a long time. "So he said that someday you would kill your father with your own hands, that you would sleep with your mother." I nod a few more times. "The same prophecy made about Oedipus. Though of course you knew that." I nod. "But that's not all. There's an extra ingredient he threw into the mix. I have a sister six years older than me, and my father said I would sleep with her, too." "Your father actually said this to you?" "Yeah. I was still in elementary school then, and didn't know what he meant by 'be with.' It was only a few years later that I caught on." Oshima doesn't say anything. "My father told me there was nothing I could do to escape this fate. That prophecy is like a timing device buried inside my genes, and nothing can ever change it. I will kill my father and be with my mother and sister. ~ Haruki Murakami

A girl had to do what a girl had to do and it looked as if this girl's immediate future included chicken Caesar salad, chocolate cake, and Cary Grant. ~ Leslie Meier

Curiously I was unmoved by my work. Unaffected by the act of murder, I had become entirely numb. I couldn't understand how such detachment was possible-- but I did some digging.

What I discovered would have horrified me... if I was capable of being horrified. My augmentation had included the binding of my DNA to some of history's most notorious assassins.

Are you not getting this? I'll say it in plain English--- I am the perfect killer in every sense of the word--- ---because--- ---I--- ---am--- ---every--- killer.

I'm the act of change possessed in a revolver. I am revolution packed into a suitcase bomb.

I am ever Mark David Chapman and every Charlotte Corday. I am Luigi Lucheni slow-dancing with Balthasar to the tune of semi-automatics, while Gavrilo Princip masturbates in the corner with bath-tub napalm. I am all of them and so much more... because I am going to live forever." Number Five ~ Gerard Way

We have some good ideas here. But the only way to know if they're workable is to try to make them fail. If we fail to fail, then maybe we're on the right track. ~ Orson Scott Card

Life cannot have had a random beginning ... The trouble is that there are about 2000 enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10^40,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup. ~ Fred Hoyle

Killing me will not end your grief. It will only create more of it. ~ Elizabeth Carlton

It is trial that proves one thing weak and another strong. A house built on the sand is in fair weather just as good as if builded on a rock. A cobweb is as good as the mightiest cable when there is no strain upon it. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Lies can be wrung out of a witness as easily as truth. Yes, after a few hours with the Enquiry's ... instruments, I am sure she will be willing to swear that she had swallowed an antidote, or indeed that she had flown to the moon if that would make the pain stop. But, here and now, you can see she is telling the truth. There was no betrayal. There was no poison. There was no murder. ~ Frances Hardinge

In a whodunnit, when a detective hears that Sir Somebody Smith has been stabbed thirty-six times on a train or decapitated, they accept it as a quite natural occurrence. They pack their bags and head off to ask questions, collect clues, ultimately to make an arrest. But I wasn't a detective. I was an editor - and, until a week ago, not a single one of my acquaintances had managed to die in an unusual and violent manner. Apart from my own parents and Alan, I hardly knew anyone who had died at all. It's strange when you think about it. There are hundreds and hundreds of murders in books and television. It would be hard for narrative fiction to survive without them. And yet there are almost none in real life, unless you happen to live in the wrong area. Why is it that we have such a need for murder mystery and what is it that attracts us - the crime or the solution? Do we have some primal need of bloodshed because our own lives are so safe, so comfortable? I made a mental note to check out Alan's sales figures in San Pedro Sula in Honduras (the murder capital of the world). It might be that they didn't read him at all. ~ Anthony Horowitz

Through trial, I've learned to be myself, and strive not to please man but to please God. ~ Susan Elliott

It is a terrible thing to witness death by violence, a thousand times worse to hold a man's life in your own hands and to willingly, consciously take it from him. Acknowledged or not, something noble has been scoured from your insides, never to be replaced. You saved a friend's life, and there lies ample justification. But never peace, never balance, never the same. At least that is how it seems to me. ~ Andrew Levkoff

Why did that one friend scoot her chair away from me when I told her I "empathized but didn't sympathize" with every woman in this book?

I don't think our obsession stems from the fact that we are all secretly violent, using the serial killer to enact our darkest fantasies. I think it comes from our enduring love of stories. ~ Tori Telfer

Even 'Gone With the Wind' had a shocking, cold-blooded murder. ~ Karin Slaughter

The Vandy said that real witches escaped trial by water by pretending to drown, then freeing themselves with their powers. So she wants you to sink, then save yourself."
"I think I can manage the sinking part," I muttered. "The rest ... not so sure."
"You'll be fine," he said. "And if you're not up in a few minutes, I'll save you. ~ Rachel Hawkins

If I must do wrong to save someone I love, it is right. I will not murder anyone, Ari...but I will kill to save you. ~ Cat Mann

Oh, I know I'm a great trial to you, Marilla," said Anne repentantly. "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might. ~ L.M. Montgomery

There is another system, more beaded than weather or murder, that is moving up into the province. As Les leaves the chair to investigate his son's crying a thousand zombies form an alliterative fog around Lake Scugog and beyond, mouthing the words Helen, hello, help. This fog predominates the region; however, other systems compete, bursting and winding with vowels braiding into dipthongs so long that they dissipate across a thousand panting lips. In the suburbs of Barrie, for instance, an alliteration that began with the wail of a cat in heat picked up the consonant "Guh" from a fisherman caught in surprise on Lake Simcoe. The echoing coves of the lake added a sort of meter, and by the time these sounds arrived in Gravenhurst, the people there were certain that a musical was blaring from speakers in the woods. All across the province, zombies, like extras in a crowd scene, imitate a thousand conversations. They open and close their mouths on things and sound is a heavy carpet of mumbling, a pre-production monstrosity. In minutes the Pontypool fog will march on the town of Sunderland and over the barriers south of Lindsay. ~ Tony Burgess

...it was becoming obvious that the war he had been anticipating, "in three to five years" might have already begun, as many wars do begin, he said, not with a major event reported in the news but with sufferings barely noticed: an unjust law, a murder, a peaceful protest march attacked by police. It begins, according to Leonel, with poverty endured by many and corruption benefiting the few, with crimes unpunished, a hardening of positions, the failure of peaceful means of appeal and redress. ~ Carolyn Forche

William made an ejaculation in his own language that I didn't understand, nor did the abbot understand it, and perhaps it was best for us both, because the word William uttered had an obscene hissing sound. ~ Umberto Eco

He lifted the tent flap carefully, and called into the dark space, "Rise and shine, princess."

Locke heard the shuffling of blankets, and a grumbled, "I will murder you. ~ Cora Carmack

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities. ~ Charles De Gaulle