Death Penalty Quotes - Page 10

• The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Peace, Humanity

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.79, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• I cannot in all conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take life because He alone gives it . . .

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Giving, Gallows, Agree

  "India must do away with the death penalty" by Seema Sengupta, www.theguardian.com. November 23, 2012.

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• We don't cut off the hands of thieves or castrate rapists. Why must we murder murderers?

  Wendy Kaminer

  Cutting, Hands, Thieves

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• Ninety countries still hold on to capital punishment, and, sadly, one of these is the United States, the only Western industrialized country to practice this barbaric punishment.

  Antoinette Bosco

  Country, Practice, Punishment

  Antoinette Bosco (2001). “Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty”

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• The pain of losing a loved one by the horrible act of murder is not lessened by the horrible murder of another, not even when it is cloaked as 'justice' and state-sanctioned. It is only a delusion to believe that one's pain is ended by making someone else feel pain.

  Antoinette Bosco

  Pain, Believe, Losing A Loved One

  Antoinette Bosco (2001). “Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty”

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• [I support] term limits for career politicians and the death penalty for career politicians.

  Bill Frist

  Death, Careers, Support

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• I think we have to have capital punishment, I think there has to be something to contain certain people. Those deterrents I think are necessary, especially in prison. You can threaten people for just so long, but they can flip you off and do what they want to; but not if they have to die. I hate it, though, the thought of the death penalty is terrible, but it's completely necessary.

  Merle Haggard

  Hate, Thinking, People

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• I think we've misinterpreted some of the scriptures to justify the death penalty. So whereas a lot of folks in America feel like we can do far better justice  -  it's more expensive to do the death penalty than the alternatives  -  there's so many reasons that people come to the conclusion to abolish the death penalty.

  Shane Claiborne

  Thinking, America, People

  Source: medium.com

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• The death penalty has succeeded in America, not in spite of Christians, but because of us. The Bible Belt is the Death Belt. Wherever Christians are most concentrated is where executions are happening, and that's deeply troubling to me.

  Shane Claiborne

  Christian, America, Execution

  Source: medium.com

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• I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life. We cannot support any act of killing; no killing can be justified. But not to kill is not enough ... If in your thinking you allow the killing to go on, you also break this precept. We must be determined not to condone killing, even in our minds.

  Nhat Hanh

  Thinking, Support, Mind

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• Germans argue with the Americans about many things, from the death penalty to the relationship between security and freedom. We have to be honest about these differences. And yet, whenever we quarrel with the Americans, it amounts to controversies over different interpretations of values we share. You can't say that about Russia. Vladimir Putin fundamentally questions Western values.

  Heinrich August Winkler

  Different, Arguing, Honest

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• When you look at the Bible, and I read the Bible very seriously, for a lot of my life, I believed the Bible ordained the death penalty, and the Bible seemed to be very clear about that. But the more I look, the more troubled I became because it's not that simple. In the Bible, there's some 30 death-worth crimes, like working on the Sabbath, or disrespecting your parents. Are we that fundamental that we should bring back that death penalty?

  Shane Claiborne

  Simple, Parent, Looks

  Source: medium.com

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• I'm not a fan of the death penalty. At some level I think killing is wrong, but I don't have sympathy for most of the people sentenced - I'm not a passionate anti-death penalty person. In truth, given all the other problems of the justice system, the numbers are so small, I think there are bigger fish to fry. Ironically, in terms of mental health and care, death row is probably the best prison situation to be in. There's a little more public eye on that, to ensure at least minimal levels of official treatment are actually given to death row prisoners.

  Peter Moskos

  Eye, Thinking, Justice

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• I found that the death penalty  -  and I'm not a hot-button issue person, you know, I'm not a single issue person  -  but what I think drew me to the death penalty is because it raises some very deep, fundamental questions like: Is anybody beyond redemption?

  Shane Claiborne

  Thinking, Issues, Buttons

  Source: medium.com

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• I'm for the death penalty, I'm pro-abortion, I'm pro-assisted suicide, I'm pro-regular suicide. Anything that'll get the traffic moving.

  Bill Maher

  Suicide, Moving, Abortion

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• I will work hard to try to get rid of the death penalty. If I could do that, with all the other things I have not succeeded in doing, I would consider my political career to have been a resounding success.

  Ernie Chambers

  Hard Work, Political, Trying

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I'm glad things are getting better, but I'm going to push and be pissed off until they're perfect. That will probably never happen, but I feel some weird duty nonetheless. Even though I can get married in Seattle, I could go to another country and get the death penalty just for being myself-I'm not making music just for fiancés in Seattle.

  Perfume Genius

  Country, Perfect, Get Better

  "Perfume Genius" by Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. August 1, 2014.

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• I wonder if these death penalty proponents would still hold that it's worth some risk of error if it were their loved one who was murdered by the state, though innocent.

  Antoinette Bosco

  Errors, Risk, Wonder

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• As a mother trying to raise kids with some kind of a code, an honorable way to solve problems without using violence, I find it interesting to live in a country where your government is allowed to kill, whether it's war or execution. What interests me is not who deserves to die but who deserves to kill.

  Susan Sarandon

  Mother, Country, War

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• You, stupid one, who believe in laws which punish murder by murder...

  George Sand

  Stupid, Believe, Law

  George Sand (1977). “The Intimate Journal of George Sand”, Chicago Review Press

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• God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals.

  R.J. Rushdoony

  Law, Religion, Penalties

  "Killing Uganda’s Gays: The Long Reach of American 'Reconstructionist' Fascism" by Frank Schaeffer, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

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• Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.

  Catherine the Great

  Mean, Men, People

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• What makes a Man love Death, Fanny? Is it because he hopes to avert his own by watchin' the Deaths of others? Doth he hope to devour Death by devourin' Executions with his Eyes? I'll ne'er understand it, if I live to be eight hundred Years. The Human Beast is more Beast than Human, 'tis true.

  Erica Jong

  Eye, Men, Eight

  Erica Jong (1981). “Fanny”

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• Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Revenge, Numbers, Doe

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.233, Faber & Faber

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• If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

  Lenny Bruce

  Jesus, Children, School

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