Capital Punishment Quotes - Page 2

• Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Punishment, Charity

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• The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment... It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Fall, Punishment, Ignorant

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• Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?

  Anton Chekhov

  Years, Punishment, Doe

  "The Bet". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1889.

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• Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.

  George Will

  Government, Order, Punishment

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• Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

  John Locke

  Men, Blood, Criminal Mind

  John Locke (1821). “Two treatises of government”, p.196

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• Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Fellowship, Death Penalty, Lord Of The Ring

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.53, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.

  Albert Camus

  Death, Punishment, Dying

  "Reflections on the Guillotine". Book by Albert Camus, 1957.

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• Countries and states which have capital punishment have a much higher rate of murder and crime than countries that do not, so that makes sense to me, and the moral question - I struggle with it morally.

  Charlize Theron

  Country, Struggle, Punishment

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• The reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics.

  Bryan Stevenson

  Reality, Race, Punishment

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• If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow.

  Steve Allen

  Punishment, People, United States

  Steve Allen (1994). “Reflections”

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• As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Humor, Punishment

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.50, Oscar Wilde

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• I have come to think that capital punishment should be abolished.

  Jack Kemp

  Thinking, Punishment, Death Penalty

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• The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that which it can't return even if it wants to.

  Anton Chekhov

  Government, Doe, Want

  "The Bet". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1889.

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• I cannot imagine any crime worse than taking a life, can you? -It'd depend whose life.

  Brendan Behan

  Imagine, Crime, Depends

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• The killing of a criminal can be moral-but never its legitimation.

  Walter Benjamin

  Criminals, Moral, Killing

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland (1996). “Selected Writings: 1913-1926”, p.481, Harvard University Press

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• While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  War, Exercise, Punishment

  "War and Capital Punishment" by Jimmy Akin, www.catholic.com. March 2, 2005.

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• Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.

  Clint Eastwood

  Children, Punishment, Adults

  "Gentle man Clint". Interview with Elizabeth Day, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2008.

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• I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment.... We cannot ignore the fact that in recent years a disturbing number of inmates on death row have been exonerated.

  John Paul Stevens

  Country, Thinking, Years

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• An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Forgiveness, Revenge, Eye

  Kurt Vonnegut (2013). “If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young”, p.26, RosettaBooks

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• What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party.

  Ida B. Wells

  Party, Lynching, Punishment

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• I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial... People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Punishment, People, Trials

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• The long and distressing controversy over capital punishment is very unfair to anyone meditating murder.

  Geoffrey Fisher

  Punishment, Long, Murder

  1957 In the Sunday Times, 24 Feb.

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• And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, - at least in theory.

  Benjamin Tucker

  Ignorance, Punishment, May

  "Anarchism and Capital Punishment" by Benjamin Tucker, 1926.

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• The death penalty is a poor person's issue. Always remember that: after all the rhetoric that goes on in the legislative assemblies, in the end, when the deck is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die in this country.

  Helen Prejean

  Country, Issues, Goes On

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• The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, War, Men

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