Death Penalty Quotes - Page 3

• Personally I am very much against the death penalty for several reasons.

  Alan Parker

  Reason, Penalties, Against Death Penalty

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• I have reached the conviction that the abolition of the death penalty is desirable. Reasons: 1) Irreparability in the event of an error of justice, 2) Detrimental moral influence of the execution procedure on those who, whether directly or indirectly, have to do with the procedure.

  Albert Einstein

  Errors, Justice, Events

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.83, Princeton University Press

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• I tell myself that I had simply better accept the fact that the death penalty is here to stay in our society, at least for a while, and there is nothing I can do about it. Maybe, in time- after how many executions? - people will come to realize the futility of randomly selecting a few people to die each year.

  Helen Prejean

  Years, People, Our Society

  Helen Prejean (2011). “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States”, p.106, Vintage

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• It is an expensive government program with the power to kill people.

  L. Brent Bozell, Jr.

  Government, People, Program

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• The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy... In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Stars, Kings, Hate

  "Where do we go from here: Chaos or community?". Book by Martin Luther King Jr., 1967.

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• What will be left of the power of example if it is proved that capital punishment has another power, and a very real one, which degrades men to the point of shame, madness, and murder?

  Albert Camus

  Real, Men, Example

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

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• I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote that he would support the death penalty only when the infallibility of human judgment had been demonstrated.

  Paul Jacob

  Support, Judgment, Penalties

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• The movement to abolish the death penalty needs the religious community because the heart of religion is about compassion, human rights, and the indivisible dignity of each human person made in the image of God.

  Helen Prejean

  Religious, Heart, Compassion

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• I am haunted by the demon of error - error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die.

  George Ryan

  Errors, Guilt, Demon

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• The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life.

  Desmond Tutu

  Mean, Reverence For Life, Life Death

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• How come life in prison doesn't mean life? Until it does, we're not ready to do away with the death penalty. Stop thinking in terms of "punishment" for a minute and think in terms of safeguarding innocent people from incorrigible murderers.

  Jesse Ventura

  Mean, Thinking, Punishment

  "I Ain't Got Time To Bleed". Book by Jesse Ventura, 1999.

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• Given my experience, I believe there are three compelling reasons why the death penalty should be replaced. (1) The criminal justice system makes mistakes and the possibility of executing innocent people is both inherently wrong and morally reprehensible; (2) My personal experience and crime data show the death penalty does not reduce crime; and (3) The death penalty wastes precious resources that could be best used to fight crime and solve thousands of unsolved homicides languishing in filing cabinets in understaffed police departments across the state.

  George Gascon

  Mistake, Believe, Fighting

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• Criminals, people who commit crimes, usually society rejects these people. They are also part of our society. Give them some form of punishment to say they were wrong, but show them they are part of society and can change. Show them compassion.

  Dalai Lama

  Compassion, Punishment, People

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• This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot. I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases.

  George W. Bush

  Humor, Political, Penalties

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• A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.

  Ramsey Clark

  Heart, Savages, Individual

  Ramsey Clark (1971). “Crime in America”

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• Can the state, which represents the whole of society and has the duty of protecting society, fulfill that duty by lowering itself to the level of the murderer, and treating him as he treated others? The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process.

  Kofi Annan

  Levels, Life Is, States

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• Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent.

  William J. Brennan

  Facts, Innocent, Penalties

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• Government ... can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.

  Helen Prejean

  Government, Citizens, Potholes

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• An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.

  Coretta Scott King

  Evil, Deeds, Vengeance

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• Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Death, Wise, Giving

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

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• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Tinkering, Human Rights, Penalties

  Callins v.Collins (dissenting opinion) (1994)

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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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• There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction. My concern is that in making life easier for ourselves we not appear to make it harder for the lower federal courts, imposing upon them the burden of regularly analyzing newly-discovered-evidence-of-innocence claims in capital cases (in which event such federal claims, it can confidently be predicted, will become routine and even repetitive).

  Antonin Scalia

  Practice, Justice, Demand

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• I support the death penalty. But I also think there has to be no margin for error.

  George Ryan

  Thinking, Errors, Support

  "Death penalty officially ends in Illinois". www.wbez.org. July 1, 2011.

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• I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Plato, Philosopher, Penalties

  "Years of Minutes"‎ by Andy Rooney, (p. 332), 2004.

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