Death Penalty Quotes - Page 12

• 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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• I say this idea of chokin' folks to death to reform 'em, is where we show the savage in us, which we have brought down from our barbarious ancestors. We have left off the war paint and war whoops, and we shall leave off the hangin' when we get civilized.

  Marietta Holley

  War, Ideas, Reform

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• no study has brought out any solid evidence that the death penalty deters crime. In fact, Amnesty reports that 'the murder rate in states which use the death penalty is twice that of states which do not, according to FBI statistics.

  Antoinette Bosco

  Use, Statistics, Amnesty

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

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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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• If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

  Desmond Tutu

  Bullying, Justice, Sides

  "The secrets of a peacemaker". Interview with Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com. May 22, 2009.

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• If you are deemed insane, then all actions that would oherwise prove you are not do, in actuality, fall into the framework of an insane person’s actions. Your sound protests constitute denial. Your valid fears are deemed paranoia. Your survival instincts are labeled defense mechanisms. It’s a no-win situation. It’s a death penalty really.

  Dennis Lehane

  Fall, Winning, Insane Person

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

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Fellowship, Lord Of The Ring, Frodo

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

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• Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.

  Cesar Chavez

  Peace, Hurt, Brutality

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• Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.

  Cesar Chavez

  Believe, Everyday, Use

  Cesar Chavez (2008). “An Organizer's Tale: Speeches”, p.353, Penguin

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• The fanatic has the courage of his conviction and the intolerance of his courage. He is opposed to the death penalty for murder, but he would willingly have anyone electrocuted who disagreed with him on the subject.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Murder, Intolerance, Conviction

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• Remember the death penalty is murder.

  Robert Drew

  Remember, Murder, Penalties

  Robert Drew's last words before the execution by injection in Texas, August 2, 1994.

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• As if one crime of such nature, done by a single man, acting individually, can be expiated by a similar crime done by all men, acting collectively.

  Lewis E. Lawes

  Men, Acting, Done

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• How dangerous it is rashly to adopt the Mosaical institutions [Old Testament teachings of eye for an eye]. Laws might have been proper for a tribe of ardent barbarians wandering through the sands of Arabia which are wholly unfit for an enlightened people of civilized and gentle manners.

  Gerald Heaney

  Teaching, Eye, Law

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• Imposition of the death penalty is arbitrary and capricious. Decision of who will live and who will die for his crime turns less on the nature of the offense and the incorrigibility of the offender and more on inappropriate and indefensible considerations: the political and personal inclinations of prosecutors; the defendant's wealth, race and intellect; the race and economic status of the victim; the quality of the defendant's counsel; and the resources allocated to defense lawyers.

  Gerald Heaney

  Race, Decision, Political

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• The attorney general doesn't favor one method or the other, he favors the death penalty.

  Bob Butterworth

  Favors, Penalties, Method

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• Commute me, execute me. Don't drag it out.

  Jesse Bishop

  Drag

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• I don't think there's any question that someday somebody who is innocent will be executed in this country again.

  Bill McCollum

  Country, Thinking, Someday

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• The death penalty symbolizes whom we fear and don't fear, whom we care about and whose lives are not valid.

  Bryan Stevenson

  Care, Penalties

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• I'm opposed to the death penalty not because I think it's unconstitutional per se-although I think it's been applied in ways that are unconstitutional-but it really is a moral view, and that is that the taking of life is not the way to handle even the most significant of crimes...Who amongst anyone is not above redemption? I think we have to be careful in executing final judgment. The one thing my faith teaches me-I don't get to play God. I think you are short-cutting the whole process of redemption...I don't want to be the person that stops that process from taking place.

  Jay Sekulow

  Cutting, Thinking, Views

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• Our ancestors... purged their guilt by banishment, not death. And by so doing, they stopped that endless vicious cycle of murder and revenge.

  Euripides

  Revenge, Guilt, Murder

  Euripides (2013). “Euripides IV: Helen, The Phoenician Women, Orestes”, p.203, University of Chicago Press

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• The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Country, Tests, Criminals

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• I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true - that savagery begets only savagery.

  Andrei Sakharov

  Foundation, Essentials, Savages

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• With respect to the death penalty, I believe that a majority of the Supreme Court will one day accept that when the state punishes with death, it denies the humanity and dignity of the victim and transgresses the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That day will be a great day for our country, for it will be a great day for our Constitution.

  William J. Brennan

  Country, Believe, Punishment

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• The death penalty makes us all murderers.

  Dean Smith

  Penalties, Murderer

  "Dean Smith: On the Passing of a Death Penalty Abolitionist" by Dave Zirin, www.thenation.com. February 9, 2015.

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• The penalty of death is the only one that makes an injustice absolutely irreparable; from which it follows that the existence of the death penalty implies that one is exposed to committing an irreparable injustice; from which it follows that it is unjust to establish it. This reasoning appears to us to have the force of a demonstration.

  Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet

  Unjust, Injustice, Demonstration

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