Death Penalty Quotes - Page 9

• It's interesting to me that killing damages the image of God when it's done by a person, but it doesn't damage it when it's done by the state.

  Joseph Lowery

  Interesting, Damage, Done

  "Religious Reflections on the Death Penalty". Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C., www.pewforum.org. June 5, 2001.

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• I was eight years old when my father was murdered. It is almost impossible to describe the pain of losing a parent to a senseless murder ... But even as a child, one thing was clear to me: I didn't want the killer, in turn, to be killed. I remember lying in bed and praying, Please, God. Please don't take his life, too. I saw nothing that could be accomplished in the loss of one life being answered with the loss of another.

  Kerry Kennedy

  Children, Pain, Lying

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• California's death penalty is ... an incredibly costly penalty, and the money would be better spent keeping kids in school, keeping teachers and counselors in their schools and giving the juvenile justice system the resources it needs.

  Gil Garcetti

  Teacher, School, Kids

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• I believe that no one should be executed, guilty or innocent. There are appropriate sanctions that protect society and punish wrongdoers without forcing us to stoop to the level of the least among us at his or her worst moment.

  Mike Farrell

  Believe, Worst Moments, Levels

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• It doesn't make any difference if you are in favor of capital punishment or if you are opposed to capital punishment. The fact of the matter is that as a viable penalty, capital punishment does not work at this time and has not worked in the State of Florida for many, many years.

  Gerald Kogan

  Florida, Years, Punishment

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• Capital punihsment: That without the Capital get the punishment.

  John Spenkelink

  Punishment

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• Now I am dedicating that life to campaigning against the death penalty and raising awareness about human rights.

  Hafez Ibrahim

  Rights, Awareness, Penalties

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• Embracing a certain quotient of racial bias and discrimination against the poor is an inexorable aspect of supporting capital punishment. This is an immoral condition that makes rejecting the death penalty on moral grounds not only defensible but necessary for those who refuse to accept unequal or unjust administration of punishment.

  Bryan Stevenson

  Punishment, Unjust, Administration

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• In ten Muslim countries you can get the death penalty just for being gay. If they were chopping the heads off of gay people in the Vatican, wouldn't there be a greater outcry among liberals?

  Bill Maher

  Country, Gay, People

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• Our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal will not undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life and brutalizes society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life.

  Ramsey Clark

  Violence, Execution, Criminals

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• A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency - issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights - the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.

  Gregory S. Paul

  Religious, Atheist, Children

  "Why do Americans still dislike atheists?". www.washingtonpost.com. April 29, 2011.

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• It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree....I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.

  Albert Pierrepoint

  Revenge, Believe, Views

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• They sensed that what had happened around them and in their presence, and in them, was irrevocable. Never again could it be cleansed; it would prove that man, the human species - we, in short - had the potential to construct an enormity of pain, and that pain is the only force created from nothing, without cost and without effort. It is enough not to see, not to listen, not to act.

  Primo Levi

  Pain, Men, Effort

  Primo Levi (2017). “The Drowned and the Saved”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• Given the irreversibility of the death penalty, the possibility of a wrongful conviction can never be overstated.

  George Gascon

  Law Enforcement, Possibility, Conviction

  "S.F's district attorney on the death penalty" by George Gascon, www.sfgate.com. April 30, 2011.

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• We need to acknowledge that the death penalty is broken beyond repair.

  George Gascon

  Broken, Needs, Law Enforcement

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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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• I have examined the death penalty under each of its two aspects: as a direct action, and as an indirect one. What does it come down to? Nothing but something horrible and useless, nothing but a way of shedding blood that is called a crime when an individual commits it, but is sadly called "justice" when society brings it about. Make no mistake, you lawmakers and judges, in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offense when society commits the deed.

  Victor Hugo

  Mistake, Eye, Direct Action

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• When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel and empty mockery. If not remedied, the scandalous state of our present system of capital punishment will cast a pall of shame over our society for years to come. We cannot let it continue.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Years, Punishment, Justice

  Thurgood Marshall (2001). “Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences”, Chicago Review Press

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• Frankly, I don't think you should perform in a plaza where thousands of Cubans have been subjected to the death penalty, by firing squad, including three young black men in 2003. What is needed in Cuba is a concert in favor of democracy, civil liberties for the people, the freedom of political prisoners, free elections and the expulsion of dictatorial power.

  Zoe Valdes

  Men, Thinking, Squad

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• If the Pope were to deny that the death penalty could be an exercise of retributive justice, he would be overthrowing the tradition of two millenia of Catholic thought, denying the teaching of several previous popes, and contradicting the teaching of Scripture.

  Avery Dulles

  Teaching, Exercise, Two

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• Those of us who spent time in the agricultural sector and in the heartland, we understand how unfair the death penalty is.

  George W. Bush

  Heart, Humor, Political

  Remarks by the President at Nebraska Welcome, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. February 28, 2001.

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• If I had admitted my guilt, it would have been the same as putting my head on the chopping block - lifetime ban. Death penalty. I spent my entire life on the baseball fields of America, and I was not going to give up my profession without first seeing some hard evidence ... right or wrong, the punishment didn't fit the crime, so I denied the crime.

  Pete Rose

  Baseball, Giving Up, Block

  Pete Rose, Rick Hill (2004). “My Prison Without Bars”, p.148, Rodale

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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, Language

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• I Don't Want To Live Long. I Would Rather Get The Death Penalty Than Spend The Rest Of My Life In Prison

  Theodore Kaczynski

  Long, Want, Prison

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• As the world continues to turn away from the use of the death penalty, it is a glaring anomaly that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the USA stand out for their extreme use of this form of punishment as the 'top' executioners in the world.

  Irene Khan

  Iran, Punishment, Usa

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