Quotessence
Home / Topics / Capital Punishment Quotes

Capital Punishment Quotes

Browse 152 quotes about Capital Punishment.

Related topics

Death PenaltyIfsPeoplePenaltiesMurderCrimeStatesBelieveMenThinkingAgainst Death PenaltyInnocentShouldCriminalsMoralCountryDeathDeterrentDoeExecutionHas BeensHumansPrison

Capital Punishment Quotes

“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.”

ReasonJusticeMoralInfluenceEventsErrorsConvictionExecutionPenaltiesDesirableDeath PenaltyProceduresAbolitionCapital PunishmentDetrimental
Book:Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
Create image

“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.”

IfsYearsStatesWould BeJusticePromiseEmptyShameCourtCastsSupremePunishmentOur SocietyApprovalFairnessSupreme CourtDeath PenaltyGeorgiaSealsMockeryCapital PunishmentEndorsementsScandalous
Book:Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences
Create image

“Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.”

MomentsDeathDyingMonthsMercyMurderVictimDeedsCriminalsMonstersPunishmentHorribleThat MomentPenaltiesPrivate LifeDeath PenaltyConfinedLife DeathCapital Punishment
Author:Albert Camus
Create image

“While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

MayStillsWarChurchOpinionArmsExerciseAuthorityDiversityMercyRegardCatholicCriminalsPunishmentAbortionPenaltiesDeath PenaltyDiscretionImposingEuthanasiaCapital PunishmentRecourseAggressorsPeace Not WarWaging War
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
Create image

“One area of law more than any other besmirches the constitutional vision of human dignity. . . . The barbaric death penalty violates our Constitution. Even the most vile murderer does not release the state from its obligation to respect dignity, for the state does not honor the victim by< emulating his murderer. Capital punishment's fatal flaw is that it treats people as objects to be toyed with and discarded. . . . One day the Court will outlaw the death penalty. Permanently.”

PeopleHumansDoeStatesLawVisionObjectsHonorOne DayAreasDignityTreatsConstitutionVictimCourtPunishmentObligationReleaseFlawsPenaltiesMurdererDeath PenaltyHuman DignityOutlawDiscardedCapital PunishmentBarbaricFatal Flaws
Author:William J. Brennan
Create image

“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.”

CertainPoorAcceptingMoralConditionsAspectRefusePunishmentDiscriminationAdministrationBiasPenaltiesUnjustImmoralDeath PenaltyRejectingCapital PunishmentInexorableRacial Bias
Author:Bryan Stevenson
Create image

“The Constitution should contain a provision that every officer of the Government who should neglect or refuse to extend the protection guaranteed in the Constitution should be subject to capital punishment; and then the president of the United States would not say, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you."”

ShouldI CanStatesGovernmentAmericaCausesPresidentCan DoFreedomUnitedLibertyUnited StatesSubjectsConstitutionRefuseProtectionPunishmentNeglectOfficersProvisionCapital Punishment
Author:Joseph Smith, Jr.
Create image

“But these days, there's also a strong economic argument for doing away with capital punishment. With California facing its most severe fiscal crisis in recent memory... it would be crazy not to consider the fact that it will add as much as $1 billion over the next five years simply to keep the death penalty on the books.”

YearsBookFactsWould BeNextStrongMemoriesFiveCrazyEconomicArgumentCrisisAddBillionsPunishmentThese DaysCaliforniaFive YearsPenaltiesSevereLaw EnforcementDeath PenaltyBeing CrazyCapital Punishment
Author:John Van de Kamp
Create image

“The (capital punishment) controversy passes the anarch by. For him, the linking of death and punishment is absurd. In this respect, he is closer to the wrongdoer than to the judge, for the high-ranking culprit who is condemned to death is not prepared to acknowledge his sentence as atonement; rather, he sees his guilt in his own inadequacy. Thus, he recognizes himself not as a moral but as a tragic person.”

PersonsMoralJudgingGuiltPreparedSentencesPunishmentAbsurdAcknowledgeTragicControversyAtonementInadequacyCapital PunishmentRankingCulprit
Author:Ernst Junger
Create image