Best 146 quotes in «death penalty quotes» category

In Texas, we have the death penalty, and we use it. That's right. If you come to Texas and kill somebody, we will kill you back.

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.

I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society.

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.

I support the death penalty and will continue to do that.

I stood up to the liberal elite when they came to our state (Alabama) and tried to eliminate the death penalty, we won, they lost.

It can be argued that rapists deserve to be raped, that mutilators deserve to be mutilated. Most societies, however, refrain from responding in this way because the punishment is not only degrading to those on whom it is imposed, but it is also degrading to the society that engages in the same behavior as the criminals.

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

I think [the death penalty is] very expensive, and the delays are inordinate, delaying closure for the victims' families.

I think the death penalty's easier than life in prison.

It’s not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel- he believes in punishment.

It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty.

It is well-nigh obvious that those who are in favor of the death penalty have more affinities with murderers than those who oppose it.

It's not about whether you are innocent or guilty. It's about whether or not you can prove you're innocent. If you can't prove you're innocent, then you're considered guilty. It's been flipped: Now it's guilty until proven innocent.

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

I was a supporter and believer in the death penalty, but I've begun to see that this system doesn't work and it isn't functional. It costs an obscene amount of money.

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.

It's very rare that someone gets the death penalty for charges of conspiracy, for his influence, for his Svengali-Rasputin act.

I want to accelerate, not slow down, the enforcement of the death penalty in Florida.

Jesus has borne the death penalty on our behalf. Behold the wonder! There He hang upon the cross!

Jurors realize that instead of having to make that terrible decision (voting for the death penalty), they can vote to put someone in prison and ensure that defendant is no longer a harm to society. It makes it easier for them to return a verdict of life without the possibility of parole.

Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life.

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

Most people are not affected by [the death penalty]. It's like how many people are actually sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Such a small percentage.

Most people approve of capital punishment, but most people wouldn't do the hangman's job.

Most conservatives also believe in the death penalty, but not abortion, which proves they like to procrastinate.

My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality the death penalty contradicts this.

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

Now let me get this straight. Bush is anti-abortion, but pro-death penalty. I guess it's all in the timing, huh?

Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the condemned prisoner can prove that he is innocent. The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder.

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.

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

My main area of activism is the death penalty, and it will continue to be once this crisis is over with.

People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.

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.

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

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

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

Sometimes you just have the thin the herd.

The costs can't be borne by smaller counties particularly, so if the crime occurs in a large county you might be charged with the death penalty, in a smaller county you're not. That raises some significant questions about fairness.

The court was not previously aware of the prisoner's many accomplishments. In view of these, we see fit to impose the death penalty.

That led me to say that when push comes to shove, I'm against capital punishment.

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.

The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill.

The death penalty experiment has failed.

The death penalty has succeeded in America, not in spite of Christians, but because of us. The Bible Belt is the Death Belt. Wherever Christians are most concentrated is where executions are happening, and that's deeply troubling to me.

The death penalty is inhumane... whether that person is in a [jail] or it's bin Laden.

The death penalty serves no one. It doesn't serve the victims. It doesn't serve prevention. It's truly all about retribution....There comes a time when you have to ask if a penalty that is so permanent can be available in such an imperfect system. The only guarantee against executing the innocent is to do away with the death penalty.

The death penalty only should be - if you agree with it, which I don't, only allowed for murder. You have to murder someone to get the death penalty.

The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment... It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.