Death Penalty Quotes - Page 2

• Do they deserve to die?" but "Do we deserve to kill them?

  Helen Prejean

  Dies, Deserve

  Twitter post from Aug 10, 2017

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• Standing alone among great democratic nations in imposing the death penalty is another moral decision that Americansare being forced to confront.

  Jimmy Carter

  Decision, Moral, Standing Alone

  Jimmy Carter (2005). “Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

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• You believe an eye for an eye until you are put in that situation. If they kill those guys, it really doesn't mean much to me. My father is gone.

  Michael Jordan

  Father, Believe, Mean

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• The death sentence is a barbaric act . . . It is a reflection of the animal instinct still in human beings.

  Nelson Mandela

  Animal, Reflection, Instinct

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• In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.

  Joseph Stalin

  Law, Liable, Penalties

  Joseph Stalin (1952). “Works”

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• If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  May, Statistics, Innocent

  "O'Connor, in Speech, Blasts Death Penalty, Lawyer Fees and Zero Tolerance". Sandra Day O'Connor's speech to a group of women lawyers in Minnesota, www.foxnews.com. July 2, 2001.

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• Evidence of innocence is irrelevant!

  Mary Sue Terry

  Innocence, Evidence, Irrelevant

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• I'm for a stronger death penalty.

  George W. Bush

  Death, Suicide, Stronger

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• For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Law, Trying

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.190, Vintage

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• If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the murderers.

  Alphonse Karr

  Friendship, Death, Taken

  'Les Guêpes' January 1849

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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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• The death penalty is becoming a way of life in this country.

  Dennis Miller

  Country, Way, Becoming

  Dennis Miller (2001). “I Rant, Therefore I Am”, p.37, Crown Forum

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• I support the death penalty. I think that it has to be administered not only fairly, with attention to things like DNA evidence, which I think should be used in all capital cases, but also with very careful attention. If the wrong guy is put to death, then that's a double tragedy. Not only has an innocent person been executed but the real perpetrator of the crime has not been held accountable for it, and in some cases may be still at large. But I support the death penalty in the most heinous cases.

  Al Gore

  Real, Thinking, Dna

  "Text Of Third Bush-Gore Debate (cont.)". www.cbsnews.com. October 18, 2000.

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• The campaign against the death penalty has been - while a powerful campaign, its participants have been those who attend all of the vigils, a relatively small number of people.

  Angela Davis

  Powerful, Numbers, People

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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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• Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.

  Philip Kaufman

  Thinking, Answers, Looks

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious - and therefore immoral - I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.

  George Ryan

  Illinois, Arbitrary, Penalties

  "Illinois Death Row Emptied". www.washingtonpost.com. January 12, 2003.

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• Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty... mine's putting in an express lane.

  Ron White

  Trying, States, Lanes

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• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Motivational, Penalties, Machinery

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• Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza, and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis.

  Yasser Arafat

  Law, Land, West

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I am against the death penalty.

  Andrew Cuomo

  Penalties, Against Death Penalty

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• McVeigh's lawyer got him the death penalty, which, quite frankly, I could have done.

  Jon Stewart

  Done, Lawyer, Penalties

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• I'm pro-death penalty, but what I have not seen is anybody that would mock someone on death row.

  Gary Bauer

  Penalties, Death Row, Mock

  "Candidates take swipes at Bush" by David Yepsen, Jeff Zeleny, Jonathan Roos, www.cnn.com. August 11, 1999.

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• Since I was a law student, I have been against the death penalty. It does not deter. It is severely discriminatory against minorities, especially since they're given no competent legal counsel defense in many cases. It's a system that has to be perfect. You cannot execute one innocent person. No system is perfect. And to top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics it, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole.

  Ralph Nader

  Law, Innocent Person, Perfect

  "Meet the Press" Interview, June 25, 2000.

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• We oppose the death penalty not just for what it does to those guilty of heinous crimes, but for what it does to all of us: It offers the tragic illusiion that we can defend life by taking life.

  Joseph Fiorenza

  Doe, Guilty, Crime

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