Lynne Stewart Quotes

I'm particularly committed to the political people who needed defense. I understand that they're fighting a bigger war than just, "Let me go get some money for cocaine tonight."

My anti-authoritarian instincts let me directly to criminal defense work.

Lawyering is very individualistic. There are lawyers who are going to be that persistent birddog, they're never going to give up on the client, they're going to defend people.

The only way not to be afraid is to join with other people who are also afraid.

I would never defend a cop - though I did on a few private cases, when cops were acting not as cops but as private citizens.

The prosecution makes all the important decisions: what's charged, how much is charged, whether you can get a decent offer. Every defendant becomes an informant today.

There are lawyers who believe in client-centered representation and who are dedicated on the same level I feel I was dedicated.

There's a lot of active radical thought today but not much action.

I spoke in front of a huge gathering in Seattle, and someone got up and said, "I'm just so afraid." I said, "The only way not to be afraid is to join with other people who are also afraid."

You know that question: What do you do when you think the client's guilty? The real question is: What you do when you think a client's innocent?

Put the strong, masculine figure in a school with tough kids and you have a certain control. It's very demeaning to the kids and very demeaning to the tough, black guy, but that's how they worked it.

You've got to learn to handle the press because god knows the government does all the time.

I couldn't add my talent, which is prodigious, to a defense of someone even accused of hurting a child.

I would never take a case that had to do with abusing children. They're the true innocents.

I took anything that came across my doorstep. I started getting a reputation.

You're working not for the corporate interest, not for the government interest, not for your own self-interest. You have a higher calling.

Your goal is to make a better world through the work you do. It's not always possible, and you have to earn a living.

If you make a mistake as a prosecutor, your mistakes go home, whereas if you make a mistake defending, they go to jail.

The only thing we have is each other.