“From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed. It is virtually self-evident to me now that no combination of procedural rules or substantive regulations ever can save the death penalty from its inherent constitutional deficiencies.” - Harry A. Blackmun, former U.S. Supreme Court Judge, Callins v. Collins, 114 S.Ct.1127 (1994)
“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 Brennan, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Constitutional Adjudication and the Death Penalty: A View From the Court, 100 Harvard Law Review 313 (1986);
“After 20 years on (the) high court, I have to acknowledge that serious questions are being raised about whether the death penalty is being fairly administered in this country.” - Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
“It's a phony issue. To pretend the death penalty is going to end crime in the United States is to fool people, to promote public ignorance.” - Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), former U.S. Attorney of New York, former Mayor of New York.
“I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point.” - Janet Reno, former U.S. Attorney General
“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, former U.S. Attorney General; from his book "Crime in America"
“I have seen the ugliness of murder up close and personal. But I have never heard a murderer say they thought about the death penalty as consequence of their actions prior to committing their crimes.” - Gregory Ruff, Police Lieutenant, Kansas
“Words cannot describe the sadness I feel when I think of his tragic and senseless death. Like Officer Stewart, I once put my life on the line every day to protect New York City residents. I know firsthand how poor a tool the death penalty is to prevent crime. It is biased and unfair, wasteful and ineffective, and risks executing the innocent while doing nothing to protect officers like Dillon.” - Ozzie Thompson, former police officer of the New York Police Department, on the murder of fellow officer Dillon Stewart, North Country Gazette, 12/20/2005
“I am not convinced that capital punishment, in and of itself, is a deterrent to crime because most people do not think about the death penalty before they commit a violent or capital crime.” - Willie L. Williams, Former Police Chief, Los Angeles, CA
“I do not think God approves the death penalty for any crime - rape and murder included. Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Can the state, which represents the whole of society and has the duty of protecting society, fulfill that duty by lowering itself to the level of the murderer, and treating him as he treated others?...The U.N. does not support death penalty. In all the courts we have set up (U.N. officials) have not included death penalty” - Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
“Capital punishment goes against the foundation of democracy. To end a person's life even in the name of law clearly runs counter to the basic principle of human rights.” - Kim Dae-jung, former President of South Korea, Nobel Peace Price winner, The China Post, 2/26/2006
“I believe that democratic countries that believe in human beings, in people, in the dignity of people don't believe in the death penalty.” - Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, Opinion Journal, 2/18/2003
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” -- Mahatma Ghandi
“I don't like the death penalty, although if there is one case where there should be an execution, the fairest case would be for Saddam. But I would never wish for that.” - Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran, Aljazeera.net, 12/18/2003
“I hope the whole of the United States will follow Governor Ryan's example in commuting the death sentence.” - Nelson Mandela, former South African President, Nobel Peace Prize winner
“It’s just really tragic after all the horrors of the last 1,000 years we can’t leave behind something as primitive as government sponsored execution.”
“Those who favor the death penalty should be pressed to explain why fallible human beings should presume to use the power of the state to extinguish the life of a fellow human being on our collective behalf. Those who oppose the death penalty should demand that explanation adamantly, and at every turn.”
“Our use of the death penalty also stands in stark contrast to the majority of nations that have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Even Russia and South Africa -- nations that for years were symbols of egregious violations of basic human rights and liberties -- have seen the error of the use of the death penalty… The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty… The European Union denies membership in their alliance to those nations that use the death penalty.”
“I don't see how anyone -- whether you're for the death penalty or against the death penalty -- can justify innocent people being on death row.”
“I remember the day, after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, the first execution took place in 1977 in Utah , when Gary Gilmore aggressively sought his own death by a firing squad. But I more vividly remember the day in May 1979 when the first involuntary execution took place. That morning, I finished my last law school exam. Later that day, I turned on the television and saw the news report that Florida had just executed John Spenkelink. I was overcome with a sickening feeling. The education in law that I had just completed had filled me with the belief that our legal system was advancing inexorably through the latter quarter of the 20th century. Instead, to my great dismay, I beheld a throwback to the electric chair, the gallows, and the routine executions of our Nation’s violent past. I will never forget that experience. I will never forget that day.” - Russ Feingold, U.S. Senator, Wisconsin.
That our society relies on killing as punishment is disturbing enough. Even more disturbing, however, is that the states' and federal government's use of the death penalty is often not consistent with principles of due process, fairness, and justice. These principles are the foundation of our criminal justice system.
-Senator Russ Feingold, on the Introduction of the Introduction of the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003, February 14, 2003
“The last agony is over. The crowd have been indulged in its insane passion for the sight of a judicially murdered man. McCaffry murdered his wife without the sanction of the law, and McCaffry has been murdered according to the law. We do not complain that the law has been enforced. We complain that the law exists.”
- C. Latham Sholes, Wisconsin State Legislator, after witnessing the execution of John McCaffry, The Telegraph, 8/22/1851
"For more than 150 years, our Wisconsin justice system has effectively dealt with violent offenders by severely punishing those convicted of violent crimes without ever executing an innocent man or woman. We must preserve this honorable Wisconsin tradition"
-Tammy Baldwin, US Representative 2nd CD - WI
"The death penalty is a matter of race and place; iniquity and inequity. Race: People of color are many times more likely to be convicted and executed; Place: The southern Unites States majors in killing, guns, militarism, capital punishment. Iniquity: Capital punishment addresses the issue of revenge more than redemption. It denies the sacredness of human life and assumes man can substitute for god in determining the gift of life. Inequity: The poor are much more likely to be executed than the rich; someone said capital punishment is for those who have no capital, which I believe is completely true."
- Rev. Joseph Lowery
