"The prosecution wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions"
About this Quote
The subtext is old-school adversarial skepticism. In Dershowitz’s framing, “questions” are not distractions; they’re the point. The process - warrants, interrogations, chain of custody, informants, coercion - is where power leaves fingerprints. If a jury sees those fingerprints, the aura of certainty collapses. He’s implicitly reminding listeners that the government’s strongest evidence is often born in its murkiest moments, when expedience beats transparency.
Context matters: this is the rhetoric of the high-profile criminal case, where legal standards are fought as cultural standards. “Truthfully presented” is a loaded phrase because prosecutors see themselves as truth’s agents; he suggests they’re curators. It’s also a subtle defense of “technicalities,” recasting them as democracy’s tripwires. The sentence works because it takes a familiar suspicion - the state prefers clean stories to messy realities - and gives it a lawyerly edge: if the method can’t survive daylight, maybe the verdict shouldn’t either.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Dershowitz, Alan. (2026, January 15). The prosecution wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-prosecution-wants-to-make-sure-the-process-by-39581/
Chicago Style
Dershowitz, Alan. "The prosecution wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-prosecution-wants-to-make-sure-the-process-by-39581/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The prosecution wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-prosecution-wants-to-make-sure-the-process-by-39581/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.






