THE 10 RULES OF THE HOMICIDE LEXICON

-lovingly submitted by Tom Krietzberg (tak@bushrat.jpl.nasa.gov)

-shamelessly taken from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon.

1. "Everyone lies."
   • Corollaries:
   • Murderers lie because they have to.
   • Witnesses and other participants lie because they think they have to.
   • Everyone lies for the sheer joy of it, and to uphold a general principle that under no circumstances do you provide accurate information to a cop.
2. "The victim is killed once, but a crime scene can be murdered a thousand times."
3. "The initial ten or twelve hours after a murder are the most critical to the success of an investigation."
4. "An innocent man left alone in an interrogation room will remain fully awake, rubbing his eyes, staring at the cubicle walls and scratching himself in dark, forbidden places. A guilty man left alone in an interrogation room goes to sleep."
5. "It's good to be good; it's better to be lucky."
6. "When a suspect is immediately identified in an assault case, the victim is sure to live. When no suspect has been identified, the victim will surely die."
7. "First, they're red. Then they're green. Then they're black." (or, "A cleared homicide is a money tree.")
8. "In any case where there is no apparent suspect, the crime lab will produce no valuable evidence. In those where a suspect has already confessed and been identified by at least two eyewitnesses, the lab will give you print hits, fiber evidence, blood typings and a ballistic match."
9. • A. "To a jury, any doubt is reasonable."
   • B. "The better the case, the worse the jury."
   • C. "A good man is hard to find, but twelve of them, gathered together in one place, is a miracle."
10. "There is too such a thing as a perfect murder."

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