“Jury instructions are so numerous and complex, it’s a wonder jurors ever wade through them. And so it should come as no surprise that they can sometimes get stuck along the way. The instruction on circumstantial evidence is confusing even to lawyers. And reasonable doubt? That’s the hardest, most elusive one of all.”
― Marcia Clark
“I agree with Scott Turow: A courtroom is inherently dramatic. You walk into court – it’s like an ER, you know? Life and death is going on there. And it’s moment-by-moment, and it’s packed with energy. And even though you think you know what a witness is going to say, you can be wrong. Witnesses surprise you.”
― Marcia Clark
“I’m just not a religious person, not at all. I consider myself a spiritual person. I was always very drawn to Buddhism, Hinduism. I still meditate.”
― Marcia Clark
“The prosecution has to go with the evidence and the facts and tell the story as it happened. The defense has more creative freedom. All you have to do is look for a defense that works. But it doesn’t have to be the truth. Sometimes you get lucky and it is, but sometimes you don’t, and either way, it doesn’t matter.”
― Marcia Clark
“It’s gratifying when younger women come up and say, ‘I went to law school because of you.’ My heart swells; then it’s like, wait, are you glad, or do you blame me?”
― Marcia Clark
“My life is a mosaic, and there’s no room in between pieces at all.”
― Marcia Clark
“To the extent that someone goes out to criticize another woman about hair, makeup, silliness like that – unless you’re talking about a makeup artist or something, really stop and think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
― Marcia Clark
“The prosecution has an ethical duty to ensure not just that they get a conviction when the defendant is guilty, but also to ensure that they get it by means of fair trial, and that means a fair trial for the defense as well as the prosecution.”
― Marcia Clark
“As a lawyer, particularly in criminal law, you really do have to try to tell your story to the jury and hope that the judge makes rulings that allows your story to get through.”
― Marcia Clark
“I have always thought of myself as someone for equal rights. I don’t mind being called a feminist, and I get really upset when female celebrities resist the title as if it’s a bad thing, because it’s a very good thing.”
― Marcia Clark
“I am a feminist. And I don’t think of that as being anti-men, I think about it as equal rights for women.”
― Marcia Clark
“I was famous in a way that was kind of terrifying. I had no protection. When reporters showed up at my house, there wasn’t even a sidewalk. They were literally parked on my front lawn.”
― Marcia Clark
“I wound up getting pulled into being a consultant on the Lifetime drama ‘For the People.’ The executive producer said, ‘I want you to write scripts.’ We sold pilots to a bunch of different networks.”
― Marcia Clark
“I’d always wanted to write crime fiction. I loved Nancy Drew.”
― Marcia Clark
“I think cameras should be in the courtroom, but they need to be managed properly. You need a judge to hold the line.”
― Marcia Clark
“To me, one of the big silver linings of the Simpson trial is the advances we’ve made in understanding domestic violence as a lethal problem. Before that trial, I think there was a widespread sense that it was a family affair, a normal part of a relationship, not really a crime. The reality is that it’s very much a crime, and a very serious one.”
― Marcia Clark
“As I listened to the verdicts in the Casey Anthony case, acquitting her of the homicide of her baby girl, I relived what I felt back when court clerk Deirdre Robertson read the verdicts in the Simpson case. But this case is different. The verdict is far more shocking. Why? Because Casey Anthony was no celebrity.”
― Marcia Clark
“After the verdict was read in the Simpson case, as the jury was leaving, one of them, I was later told, said, ‘We think he probably did it. We just didn’t think they proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.’”
― Marcia Clark
“When I went to the prosecutor’s office, I wanted to be one of the good guys that the defense could trust. I’d try fair, clean cases, pull no punches, no below-the-belt stuff. Honorable. Because that’s the kind of prosecutor I wanted to deal with.”
― Marcia Clark
“I have been addicted to crime since I was born. I was making up crime stories when I was a 4- or 5-year-old kid.”
― Marcia Clark
“I kind of like to write fast. It keeps the pacing up. And it keeps me off the streets.”
― Marcia Clark
“It’s one thing to evaluate a woman’s work. it’s another thing to say, ‘Your hair was this; your makeup was that.’”
― Marcia Clark
“I loved my job… then the Simpson case happened.”
― Marcia Clark
“When jurors are forced to spend day and night with each other, apart from their families and friends, they become a tribe unto themselves. Because they only have each other for company, and because most people prefer harmony to discord, there’s a natural desire to cooperate, to compromise in order to reach agreement.”
― Marcia Clark
“When you’re writing fiction, you’re in every character ’cause you can’t help it.”
― Marcia Clark
“By no means did my first book sell. I took a few runs at it. You’ll never see those early efforts ’cause they’re burned, straight to the fireplace where they belong.”
― Marcia Clark
“People are used to streaming and binge-watching. When they see an author they like, if there’s only one book, even if they like the book, they’re going to forget about you. The way to keep you in their mind and to get you to become a habit for these readers is you have to have a lot of product out there for them to read.”
― Marcia Clark
“If you’re going to educate the public and tell them how things happen in the courtroom, then you really owe them the duty to do it right. Don’t misinform.”
― Marcia Clark
“I was a defense attorney before I was a prosecutor, and so knowing what the defense is going to try to do is something that you have to do constantly when you’re in trial. I always went to trial knowing what they were doing. So I was always in both mindsets anyway. ‘Oh, they’re going to do this, then I’m going to do that.’”
― Marcia Clark
“There are bombshells that happen in court. Especially when the defense doesn’t share discovery of material the way the prosecution does, and so surprises always happen. Things pop out without warning.”
― Marcia Clark
“Every little pocket of Los Angeles County is almost like its own state. It has its own way of being and own way of feeling, and parts of it feel like the Midwest, and parts of it feel like the East Coast. It’s a rich tapestry.”
― Marcia Clark
“You never know what’s going to happen when somebody endeavors to do a true crime story. It can be horribly misleading.”
― Marcia Clark
“For a long time, I missed being in the courtroom every day. I missed trial work. It was so much a part of my life. It was what I did and who I was. But over the years, I did find the opportunity to realize my childhood dream of writing crime fiction.”
― Marcia Clark
“I actually was a defense attorney first.”
― Marcia Clark
“I loved writing when I was a kid and thought about being a writer then. But I didn’t have the confidence or belief that I could earn a living that way, so I never took myself seriously.”
― Marcia Clark
“I chose law because writing was involved. I didn’t realize how boring legal writing was, but I even learned to love that.”
― Marcia Clark
“I wasn’t unsympathetic as a defense attorney, but my strong feelings for the victims were getting in my way. I identified too much with the victim.”
― Marcia Clark
“I can write dramas that are about inside and outside the courtroom.”
― Marcia Clark
“I’m a woman, and I see women get put through an awful lot of grief and be subjected to the kind of criticism, remarks, and suggestions that no woman should ever have to tolerate. And I think we should be helping each other and supporting each other.”
― Marcia Clark
“When I first started, it was so male-heavy, so male-dominated, that on the 18th floor of the criminal courts building, which was where I worked, there were three men’s bathrooms and only one women’s bathroom.”
― Marcia Clark
“I think women in general, we just soldier on. Whatever it takes, you just have to do it. It’s your job. Whatever it is.”
― Marcia Clark
“The minute you step into a job where you have to be at all tough and assertive, that’s when the mischief happens. And you’re not allowed to be assertive and feminine.”
― Marcia Clark
“Where a man is forceful, a woman is shrill.”
― Marcia Clark
“I have straight hair. If I don’t blow it out, it’s not good.”
― Marcia Clark
“I don’t feel like an icon; I don’t think of myself as an icon.”
― Marcia Clark
“You amp things up and you speed things up, but technically, you can still be legally correct. This is the big beef I have with novels as well as television shows – it actually makes for a better show when you accommodate the truth.”
― Marcia Clark
“I am devoted to my two children, who are far and away more important to me than anything.”
― Marcia Clark
“I don’t think any prosecutor should walk into a courtroom and think they’re going to wow a jury with catchphrases and cliches and that kind of performance.”
― Marcia Clark
“Sarah Paulson is mind-blowing. I mean, she always is. She’s always fantastic.”
― Marcia Clark
“I didn’t understand why people cared about my hair or my makeup or my clothing. It was like, ‘I’m a prosecutor. I’m not a model. I’m not an actress.’”
― Marcia Clark
“I like cable stuff; I really do – ‘American Horror Story,’ ‘American Crime Story.’”
― Marcia Clark
“I love Viola Davis.”
― Marcia Clark
“Trayvon Martin broke my heart.”
― Marcia Clark
“That’s who I was: a prosecutor. I really loved it.”
― Marcia Clark
“Most people don’t go back to trial work after being in management, but I couldn’t do anything else.”
― Marcia Clark
“Too frequently, we see women being pitted against each other.”
― Marcia Clark
“If you get robbed, no one’s going to ask you, ‘Well, what were you wearing?’”
― Marcia Clark
“The only thing the defense has to do is take care of the client and see to it that they attack every weak spot on the prosecution’s case. It’s up to the judge to make sure that they don’t pull any fast ones.”
― Marcia Clark
“I was the only female in the special trials unit for many years.”
― Marcia Clark
“When I first joined the DA’s office, there weren’t that many women. So there was a fair degree of sexism. Everybody kind of got over it when they saw you doing your job.”
― Marcia Clark
“I had the perm because I wanted wash-and-wear hair. I didn’t want to be bothered with it.”
― Marcia Clark
“Before I was a prosecutor, I was a defense attorney. I took a cut in pay because I wanted to stand up for the victims.”
― Marcia Clark
“I made mistakes in every trial.”
― Marcia Clark
“Most of my interviews have been with millennials, and it’s been a fascinating window into my kids’ world. It’s been so wonderful to see a generation that seems so savvy in so many ways – and so much cooler than we were.”
― Marcia Clark
“I remember being called ‘feminazi’ and all that. I’m so proud of these young women who are coming out and not afraid to say they are feminists.”
― Marcia Clark
“I’m a big supporter of women doing anything they want to do!”
― Marcia Clark
“I decided to have a life: to become – pardon the expression – a soccer mom.”
― Marcia Clark
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