The Fifth Witness Quotes

“You know you're going to get burned from time to time. It's just part of the game. So when it happens you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and forget about it because they're about to snap the ball again.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“Don't go growing a conscience on me," I said. "I've been down that road. It doesn't lead you to anything good.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“There was still chicken on the bone but sometimes you just have to push the plate away.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“It was a good strategy but this is where I intended to turn her plans upside-down. In the courtroom there are three things for the lawyer to always consider: the knowns, the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. Whether at the prosecution or defense table, it is the lawyer’s job to master the first two and always be prepared for the third.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“I felt sympathy for her but not too much. Idealism dies hard with everybody.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“I put my hand down below the table to check my zipper. You have to stand before a jury only once with your fly open and it will never happen again”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“I have always had the suspicion that officers assigned to front desk duty were chosen by cunning supervisors because of their skills in obfuscation and disinformation.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“It was during my explanation to my young daughter that I finally realized why I had been drawn to this particular practice of law. Yes, some of my clients were just gaming the system. They were charlatans no better than the banks they were taking on. But some of mu clients were downtrodden and disadvantaged. They were true underdogs in society and I wanted to stand for them and keep them in their homes for as long as I possibly could.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“Search warrants designate a specific window of time during which the search must take place. Afterward, police must in a timely manner file a document with the court called a search-warrant return that lists exactly what was seized. It is then the judge’s responsibility to review the seizure to make sure that the police acted within the parameters of the warrant.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“Freeman was a damn good prosecutor but in my view she didn’t play fair. A trial was supposed to be a spirited contesting of facts and evidence. Both sides with equal footing in the law and the rules of the game. But using the rules to hide or withhold facts and evidence was the routine with Freeman. She liked a tiled game. She didn’t carry the light. She didn’t even see the light.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“A preliminary hearing is a routine step on the way to a trial. It is one hundred percent the prosecution's show. The state is charged with presenting its case to the court and the judge then rules on whether there is sufficient evidence to take it forward to a jury trial. This isn't the reasonable doubt threshold. Not even close. The judge only has to decide if a preponderance of evidence supports the charges. If so, then the next stop is a full-blown trial.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“the filing of an SAR.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“It was too bad it was stuff she’d never use.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“The defendant took the oath with a slight smile on her face. It may have seemed out of place to some. After she was seated and her name was in the record, I jumped right on it.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“And when we come back, the defense phase will begin.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“I reversed the search video, keeping my eyes on the rewinding images. I”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“minute”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“In the courtroom there are three things for the lawyer to always consider: the knowns, the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“Opparizio is a perfect target: rich, arrogant and Republican.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“From stockbrokers to soccer moms, there are twelve minds on the jury and they’ve all been marinated in different life experiences. You have to tell them all the same story. And you only get one chance. That’s the trick. Twelve minds, one story. It’s got to be a story that speaks to each of them.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“Idealism dies hard with everybody.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“paroxysm”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“pain ignited by their indifference”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“play fair, Haller.” “It’s not a fair game. Did she tell you”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“McReynolds emphatically shook his head. “No way. Legal’s all over that deal. It’s squeaky clean. Even the woman signed off. Trammel. I could make her a three-hundred-pound whore who likes black dick in the movie and she couldn’t do a thing about it. That deal is perfect.” “Yeah, well, what Legal’s missed is the part about neither one of them having the rights to the story to sell you in the first place. Those rights happen to reside here with me. Trammel signed them over to me before Dahl came along and took second position. He thought he could move up one by stealing the original contracts out of my files. Only that’s not going to work. I’ve got a witness to the theft and Dahl’s fingerprints. He’s going to go down on fraud and theft charges and your choice here is to decide whether you want to go down”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness