Death Row Quotes - Page 2

• It is tempting to pretend that minorities on death row share a fate in no way connected to our own, that our treatment of them sounds no echoes beyond the chambers in which they die. Such an illusion is ultimately corrosive, for the reverberations of injustice are not so easily confined.

  William J. Brennan

  Fate, Echoes, Way

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• Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row

  Danny Glover

  Country, People, African American

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• But I really think it's a very unfortunate part of our judicial system and I would feel much, much better if more states would really consider whether they think the benefits outweigh the very serious potential injustice, because in these cases the emotions are very, very high on both sides and to have stakes as high as you do in these cases, there is a special potential for error. We cannot ignore the fact that in recent years a disturbing number of inmates on death row have been exonerated.

  John Paul Stevens

  Thinking, Years, Numbers

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• I don't think there's any words in the English language to explain what it's -what it's like to- to sit on Texas death row and your thoughts are laying on that gurney, convicted but innocent and being put to death.

  Kerry Max Cook

  Thinking, Texas, Death Penalty

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• There was only one guy in the whole Bible Jesus ever personally promised a place with him in Paradise. Not Peter, not Paul, not any of those guys. He was a convicted thief, being executed. So don't knock the guys on death row. Maybe they know something you don't.

  Neil Gaiman

  Jesus, Guy, Thieves

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• When we really began executions rather than lynchings, black folks were 22% of our population in 1950, for instance, but they were 75% of the executions. Now, African-Americans are 13% of the population, but they're still almost half of death row, and over a third of the executions. 34% of the executions are black folks. So, like, I mean, things like the race of the victim is one of the biggest determinants of who gets executed.

  Shane Claiborne

  Mean, Race, Lynching

  Source: medium.com

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• Any rap record from 1989 to 1999, besides [ones on] Death Row, we did promotions for it. We had our hand in everything.

  Steve Rifkind

  Rap, Hands, Records

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• People behave badly and people are in prison and people are on death row, and there are no excuses for everybody's behavior, but most people are coming from abuse.

  Dylan McDermott

  People, Abuse, Prison

  Source: collider.com

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• Even behind bars, even on Death Row, you can fail up, because life is about committing ourselves on a daily basis to the best in us. Freedom is a state of mind. Freedom is an attitude. Freedom is a spirit. You may be behind bars, but you still have the capacity to be free.

  Tavis Smiley

  Attitude, Mind Freedom, May

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• Some of the people on death row today might not be there if the courts had not been so lenient on them when they were first offenders.

  Thomas Sowell

  People, Might, Today

  "Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays". Book by Thomas Sowell, 1999.

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• I'm afraid of sudden death. I'd like to know I'm going to die. That's why death row wouldn't be so bad, although it's not pleasant. And cancer, inoperable, wouldn't be bad. That's not pleasant either. But to drop dead suddenly, it's hard on everybody else. My family, my relatives, my friends. It's just not a good way to go. I want to know I'm going to die.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Cancer, Want, Way

  "Verge Q+A: Dr. Jack Kevorkian". Interview with Howie Kahn, www.gq.com. June 28, 2010.

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• Although I love all the great foods of the world, my death row meal would have to be cooked for me by my mother and grandmother (they live together and this happens on most Sundays). More than satisfy our hunger, these dinners nurture the soul.

  Joe Bastianich

  Mother, Sunday, Soul

  "Culinary Kings-Turned TV Judges Cook Up Verdicts on Gordon Ramsay-Hosted MasterChef". The Daily Beast Interview, www.thedailybeast.com. July 27, 2010.

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• In our country, [habeas corpus ] means that if you've been sentenced and convicted in a state court, either to death or to some other kind of sentence, you have the right to petition a federal court to review what happened to you. And until [Bill] Clinton, you had three, four, five, even more years I collect records of people who have been on death row for eight, 10, 12, 14 years - this is before Clinton - who finally got a decent lawyer, usually a pro bono lawyer, and an investigator, and were able to find out - they - they're but approved that they're - that they were innocent.

  Nat Hentoff

  Country, Mean, Eight

  Source: thedailyhatch.org

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• When the prisoner is brought down from Death Row he steps from the elevator directly into a "holding" room that adjoins the witness room. There are two cells in this "holding" room, two, in case it's a double execution. They're ordinary cells, just like this one, and the prisoner spends his last night there before his execu­tion in the morning, reading, listening to the radio, playing cards with the guards.

  Truman Capote

  Morning, Reading, Night

  Source: capote.wordpress.com

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• Someone asked me if I would like to write a man on death row, be a pen pal, and I was like, sure. I volunteered. I had been in a place in my life - a relationship had ended; my parents were getting elderly - I was kind of adrift. The name that was given to me, just randomly, was Todd Willingham. And he wrote me a letter, and in this letter, he thanked me for writing him and [said that] if I would like to visit, he would put me on his visitor list... I was just really struck by the letter from Todd. It was very polite; it was very kind.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Writing, Men, Elderly

  "Frontline (Death by Fire)". TV Series, www.pbs.org. October 19, 2010.

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• If Arnold is elected, you know who I'd feel sorry for? The people on death row. Imagine, you're about to be executed, the governor calls, you think it's your reprieve, and you hear 'Hasta la vista, baby.'

  Jay Leno

  Baby, Sorry, Thinking

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• Teresa Lewis, the only woman on death row in Virginia, says she doesn't deserve the death penalty because she only hired the killers of her husband and stepson, she didn't actually pull the trigger herself. You know, she has a point. I think we should let her be able to hire the person who executes her, and not do yourself in! How's that, doll? Yeah! Get it over with quick, maybe Charlize Theron will sign up to play you.

  Dennis Miller

  Husband, Thinking, Virginia

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• It seems there are no rich on death row.

  Charles Grodin

  Rich, Seems

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• The nice thing about money is that you can do good things with it. I still feel like if something needs to be done or we need to raise money for someone on death row, we can find ways to do it.

  Eddie Vedder

  Nice, Done, Way

  Interview with Carrie Brownstein, www.believermag.com. June 2004.

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• I enjoy entering the viewpoint of characters who are as different from myself as I can get - children, elderly women, animals, a sexy death row murderess - and to imagine how these disparate individuals see the world's cruelty and beauty and vastness.

  Scott Bradfield

  Sexy, Children, Character

  "Go Forth (Vol. 15)". Interview with Brandon Hobson, believermagblog.wordpress.com. September 10, 2013.

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• The biggest government waste: The death penalty. An individual death-penalty case could climb to $100 million, much of it spent at the litigation level. Also, DNA evidence has exonerated nearly 300 death-row inmates.

  John McLaughlin

  Government, Dna, Levels

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