Fred's "American Legal Quotations" scores a hit

[Joel S. Berson]

Fred,

Not a direct connection.  The best I can remember now is that
somewhere I had come across a selection of humorous legal
quotations.  And this week saw that the ham sandwich was in current use.

Just consider it a free plug!  :-)

Joel

At 10/3/2013 07:33 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>Joel,
>
>I appreciate your reference to my book in the subject headings of so
>many postings.  But did the Oxford Dictionary of American Legal
>Quotations have some connection to this story?  I know the "ham
>sandwich" quote is in that book, but is there some other way the
>book scored a hit?
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:57 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Fred's "American Legal Quotations" scores a hit
>
>"There is a famous saying, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich,"
>said Bassil.  "I look forward to challenging this in court.  I really
>do.  If a grand jury is supposed to protect citizens from
>overreaching prosecutors, then there is a lot of work to be done here."
>
>Bassil, counsel for Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez's fiancee and
>baby mother, is objecting to her indictment for perjury by a Bristol
>County, Massachusetts, grand jury.  A spokesman for the Bristol
>District Attorney "defended the grand jury process, noting that the
>indictment was voted on by the grand jurors, who are citizens of
>Bristol County."
>
>Boston Globe, today.
>
>Massachusetts has a long history of grand juries not indicting ham
>sandwiches, dating from colonial times, when if a law was considered
>overly severe or its punishment harsh, the citizens of a grand jury
>might refuse to indict and those of a petit jury refuse to
>convict.  (One good example is charges of adultery.)  Bassil seems
>not to understand the rectitude of Massachusetts grand juries -- if
>this one thought the charge was unjust, it would not have voted to indict.
>
>Joel
>
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