Highly out of context and the facts vary considerably (murder trial) but i just thought id quote of my favourite scenes from 'The Practice'- maybe if Corby's defense lawyers had used a variation of this as their closing arguement she might of walked free-
"Now the District Attorney says, she is ashamed to be a part of the criminal justice system. Right now there're over 100 people sitting on death row for crimes they didn't commit. And if Eddy Wix were convicted in California, the state that fired Dr. Forster for being too sloppy, he would also be on death row.
And how many times we've seen after the trial, after the man sitting on death row is cleared, after the guy sitting 30 years in prison is cleared on newly discovered DNA evidence or after the wrong man is executed. How many times we've seen, the DA say I'm ashamed to be a part of the process, they just say mistakes happen.
Well, that's right, mistakes happen, and even when it seems so obvious, mistakes happen, and nobody, not her, not him, not you, nobody can be sure that a big mistake isn't happening right here, right now.
It could have gone down exactly the way my client said it did, medical examiner knows it. You heard him admit on cross examination under oath that its possible. Possible to happen just like Mr. Wix said. Possible, that the prosecution is wrong.
And I'm not ashamed to stand before you and say you can not send this woman to prison for the rest of her life, when there's a chance that the prosecution is wrong. This is why we have trials, ladies and gentlemen, this is why we bother.
And I'm not ashamed to be a part of it, I'm proud to be a defense attorney. I'm proud to be the one jumping up and down even on cases where everything seems so obvious. I'm proud to be the one making the state prove its burden beyond all reasonable doubt before taking a woman's life away for ever, and I do not think it's a joke.
Now you have two choices, you can go back there and say drug dealing scum, let's lock her up anyway, or you can admit there was doubt, admit the state put on nothing that contradicts Eddy Wix's testimony and do the job you have sworn to do when you signed on as jurors.
But if you choose to ignore that obligation, you choose to say forget reasonable doubt, forget the state's burden of proof, and convict her anyway. Well then the prosecution is right after all. The system is in fact a joke. "