Higher Law Quotes

“Yeah. If everything else fails, we’ll use the S-O-D-D-I defense.” “SODDI?” Pete asks. “Some Other Dude Did It. We need to give the jury a choice.”
― Sheldon Siegel, Higher Law

“some time.”
― Sheldon Siegel, Higher Law

“Maybe you can explain how you figured out the time of death.” He flips through his report. It’s an act. He can recite verbatim the contents of his reports from twenty years ago. “In both cases, I put the time of death between one and four in the morning.” “I’ve wondered how you figured that out.” Actually, I already know. He knows I know. I still want to hear it from him. It’s a free preview of his testimony. “We look at a number of factors. First, we look at body temperature, which drops by about one and a half degrees per hour after death. Second, we look at lividity. When you die, your blood pressure goes down to zero, and your body begins to discolor. We can calculate the time of death based upon the amount of discoloration. We look at food in the victim’s stomach. We see how far the digestive process has gone. We know Mr. Holmes and Ms. Kennedy ate dinner around ten o’clock. There was undigested food in their stomachs. Mr. Holmes had crab cakes. Ms. Kennedy ate a cheeseburger. We do a number of other tests.” I try to sound like an earnest high-school student. “And from this evidence, you concluded the time of death was between one and four in the morning”
― Sheldon Siegel, Higher Law

“I keep that photo to remind me to be forgiving and to look into people’s souls with an open mind. It isn’t the initial judgment that matters, Mike. It’s the last one that counts.”
― Sheldon Siegel, Higher Law

“Yes. Do you know people who are really nice, but when they get together with somebody in particular, they become obnoxious jerks?”
― Sheldon Siegel, Higher Law