“By requiring that an execution be relatively painless, we necessarily protect the inmate from enduring any punishment that is comparable to the suffering inflicted on his victim. This trend, while appropriate and required by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.” SufferingProtectVictimEndurePunishmentAppropriateTrendsUnusualAmendmentsApprovalExecutionPremisesProhibitionRetributionInmatesRationalePainlessCruel And Unusual Punishment Author:John Paul Stevens
“Any form of corporal punishment or 'spanking' is a violent attack upon another human being's integrity. The effect remains with the victim forever and becomes an unforgiving part of his or hier personality--a massive frustration resulting in a hostility which will seek expression in later life in violent acts towards others. The sooner we understand that love and gentleness are the only kinds of called-far behavior towards children, the better. The child, especially, learns to become the kind of human being that he or she has experienced. This should be fully understood by all caregivers.” ShouldHumansKindChildrenFormHuman BeingsForeverEffectsExpressionPersonalityIntegrityBehaviorUnderstoodVictimRemainsPunishmentViolentFrustrationMassiveGentlenessHostilityUnforgivingSpankingCaregiversCorporal PunishmentViolent Acts Author:Ashley Montagu
“Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole sufferers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.” PeopleMeanRightsCrimeDutyOughtCitizensExerciseProtectConstitutionVictimSacredMajorityCongressPopulationPunishmentSoleHideousPreventionSufferersLynching Author:Calvin Coolidge
“Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices. To equate the lives of killers with those of victims is the worst kind of moral equivalency. If capital punishment is state murder, then imprisonment is state kidnapping and restitution is state theft.” IfsWayKindStatesMoralWorstHorrorMurderVictimPunishmentInnocentKillersMurdererTheftImprisonmentCapital PunishmentKidnappingExecutingRestitutionInnocent Life Author:Don Feder
“There is a perversion, much practised in Hollywood movies, that might be called sado-paternalism, whereby a surrogate father treats a gifted but difficult pupil with derision and constant punishment. The aim is to bring out the best in the victim and to make him into a he-man or...a he-woman.” MenMightFatherDifficultHe ManHollywoodTreatsAimVictimConstantPunishmentGiftedPupilsPerversionHollywood MoviesSurrogatesDerisionPaternalism Author:Philip French
“Make your way to death row and speak with the tragic victims of criminality. As they prepare to make their pathetic walk to the electric chair, their hopeless cry is that society will not forgive. Capital punishment is society's final assertion that it will not forgive.” WaySpeakWalksCryVictimForgivingFinalsPunishmentChairsTragicHopelessElectricPatheticAssertionCapital PunishmentCriminalityDeath RowElectric Chair Book:A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings Source: A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings
“Tragedy depends on the way you see it. If you chose to be a victim of the world, anything which happens to you will feed that dark side of your soul, where you consider yourself wronged, suffering, guilty and deserving punishment. If you choose to be an adventurer, the changes - even the inevitable losses, since everything in this world changes - can cause some pain, but will soon thrust you forward, forcing you to react.” IfsWorldWaySoulHappensPainSufferingCausesSidesDarkLossThis WorldDependsTragedyVictimPunishmentGuiltyInevitableYour SoulYou ChooseThrustDeservingDark SideAdventurerWronged Author:Paulo Coelho
“Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a gaol. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.” KnowsMenLooksEarthCertainBornJusticeCompassionDivineVictimSensesPunishmentAlasResemblanceChastisementCrime And PunishmentDivine Justice Author:Victor Hugo
“Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.” DoeReasonEyeHumanityPiecesHundredVictimPrisonEndurePunishmentGuiltyRebellionGood SenseInfamyCrime And Punishment Book:Selected Letters Source: Selected Letters
“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.” BelieveCountryStatesHumanityI BelieveAcceptingOne DayDignityConstitutionVictimMajorityCourtDenySupremePunishmentOur CountryUnusualPenaltiesSupreme CourtDeath PenaltyProhibitionGreat DayCruel And Unusual Punishment Author:William J. Brennan
“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
“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
“Bad art was as good as good art. Grammar and spelling were no longer important. To be clean was no better than to be filthy. Good manners were no better than bad. Family life was derided as an outdated bourgeois concept. Criminals deserved as much sympathy as their victims. Many homes and classrooms became disorderly - if there was neither right nor wrong there could be no basis for punishment or reward. Violence and soft pornography became accepted in the media. Thus was sown the wind, and we are now reaping the whirlwind.” IfsArtImportantHomeViolenceMediaWindConceptsBasesVictimCleanRewardsCriminalsAcceptedPunishmentMannersGood ManClassroomPornographyGrammarFamily LifeBourgeoisFilthyGood ArtGood MannersSpellingOutdatedWhirlwindMany Homes Author:Norman Tebbit