Capital Punishment Quotes
There have been Christian opponents of the death penalty just as there have been Christian pacifists, but neither of those positions has even been predominant in the church. Its current predominance is the handiwork of Napoleon, Hegel and Freud rather than of St. Thomas and St. Augustine. – Justice Antonin Scalia
If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call. – John McAdams, of the Marquette University/Department of Political Science
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen – George Savile
Law cannot persuade, where is cannot punish. Thomas Fuller
One of the uses of our system of justice is to warn others… We are reforming, not the hanged individual, but everyone else. – Michel de Montaigne
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world. – Mary Wollstonecraft
The art of policing is, in order not to punish often, to punish severely – Napoleon
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. – Don Feder
I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think that’s right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives. – George Walker Bush
Let all the laws be clear, uniform and precise. To interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them. Voltaire
If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order. – Thomas Szasz
As regards capital cases, the trouble is that emotional men and women always see only the individual whose fate is up at the moment, and neither his victim nor the many millions of unknown individuals who would in the long run be harmed by what they ask. Moreover, almost any criminal, however brutal, has usually some person, often a person whom he has greatly wronged, who will plead for him. If the mother is alive she will always come, and she cannot help feeling that the case in which she is so concerned is peculiar, that in this case a pardon should be granted. It was really heartrending to have to see the kinfolk and friends of murderers who were condemned to death, and among the very rare occasions when anything governmental or official caused me to lose sleep were times when I had to listen to some poor mother making a plea for a criminal so wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved, that it would have been a crime on my part to remit his punishment. – Theodore Roosevelt
I personally have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that that death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty. – Margaret Thatcher
In the case of murder, the death penalty – issued by way of putting the culprit to sleep to then apply the lethal injection – is the time delayed procedure of self-defense as carried out by the representatives of the victim(s) who, at the time of the incident and due to the then existing circumstances, was/were unable to defend itself/themselves from the willful murderous attack. – Manfred F. Schieder
If Capital Punishment is state sponsored murder, then any lesser punishment is a state sponsored murder of Justice. – Saqib Ali
It is Justice, not Laws that cures the society. And Capital Punishment is the only Justice that suits a murderer. – Saqib Ali
A society has a right and a duty to protect itself and its members from murderers and rapists-the death penalty is society’s self – defence. It may not deter others or stop murder altogether but it sure will prevent the condemned to offend again! and that is enough.
katia falco
Saturday 17th 2009f January 2009 07:46:58 AM at 7:46 am
@Katia: That is very true. Like the old Latin saying goes, “minatur innocentibus qui parcit nocentibus” (translation: he threatens the innocent who spares the guilty )
Saqib Ali
Saturday 17th 2009f January 2009 09:54:47 PM at 9:54 pm
It is a poverty to decide that another human being must die so that you may live as you wish.
I oppose the death penalty for the same reason as I am pro-choice.
jesurgislac
Saturday 24th 2009f January 2009 01:57:36 AM at 1:57 am
Surely you don’t think a convicted rapist and murderer is same as an unborn child.
I am not talking about hanging human beings, I am talking about hanging murderers who would rape an 11-year-old girl and then kill her by stuffing her panties down her throat [1]. I don’t see how you can even begin to think that these murderers are same as an unborn child.
Besides, what do you suggest we do with these murderers and rapists if not hang them? I don’t want my tax dollars going towards feeding and housing them.
1. http://doctrina.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/justice-scalia-on-death-penalty/
Saqib Ali
Saturday 24th 2009f January 2009 10:16:48 PM at 10:16 pm
mr ali
i so believe in every single word you have used here… these rapists and murders are not human beings and to call them such is a crime against humanity… they disgust me and to hang them will be too merciful.
nilab
Wednesday 17th 2009f June 2009 04:12:32 AM at 4:12 am
Surely you don’t think that a fetus that doesn’t even have a cerebral cortex is the same as a human with the ability to suffer and to know what is being done to them.
support hanging a man who would rape an 11-year-old girl and murder her.
But you also support – if I understand your earlier posts correctly – that 11-year-old girl had lived, pregnant as a result of her rape – forcing that child through pregnancy and childbirth against her will. So you would intend to commit further abuse on an already suffering child – abuse for nine months of torment as you forced her to endure her pregnancy, abuse for the rest of her life to remember that she was raped and forced to produce a baby, abuse that could kill her or permanently damage her ability to have children in the future. You support that kind of abuse. You even think that kind of abuse is moral. So what makes you any different from the rapist? – Except that your victim has a chance of living, if permanently damaged physically and mentally for what you did to her.
Besides, what do you suggest we do with these murderers and rapists if not hang them?
Jail them. What else? If they’re unsafe to let loose, they need to be kept in prison for the safety of the rest of us. Killing them merely to save money would be doubly immoral.
jesurgislac
Saturday 24th 2009f January 2009 11:53:43 PM at 11:53 pm
I am posting on behalf of John White of Western Washington University who replied to the preceding comment. I quote:
“The first important thing to remember about rape is that, even if you factor in the possibility of unreported rapes, it equals less than 5% of the total abortion cases (at maximum- it’s less than 1% of actual reported cases). So you are dealing with the minority of 1.3 million abortions in the US each year that Pro-Lifers decry.
However, the same question at the center of the entire abortion debate comes into play here; is the fetus a person equal in dignity to every other person. If not, it doesn’t matter anyway, question over. If so, considering that child had no part in its conception (as none of us did), it is illogical to punish the child for the inhumane crimes of the father. It would be as if I smacked a child in the face because his father swore. Some rightly will then point out that the woman didn’t choose to be raped and shouldn’t be forced to carry a child she gave no consent to bearing. The question then becomes which is less fair; forcing a woman to carry out a pregnancy she did not consent to, changing her body in the process and putting her in danger of injury and possibly death; or ending the life of an innocent third party, equal in dignity to the woman. Finally, we come to the question of the value of human life. You can then appeal to religion, which often asserts that human life is of immeasurable value. If that is of no consequence to person you are discussing it with, then you can appeal to the founders of our country (assuming they live in the US), who asserted in the declaration of independence a hierarchy of rights: Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Even though this decision is very difficult (where the lesser evil is chosen), and as a society we have the responsibility of supporting this woman completely through her pregnancy, the right to life of the fetus trumps the woman’s temporary right to bodily autonomy.
There are also personal stories that resonate well. For example one of my friends mother was raped when she was fourteen, and as a result he was conceived. She was pressured to have an abortion (with the doctors assuming that was the logical next step, kind of aghast when she didn’t immediately concede). However she decided to keep the child, and gave him up for adoption. Thirty some years later he is married with his first kid, and his biological mother came to his wedding.
If you think about all the lives which would have been lacking if she had decided to terminate him in the womb, you realize that the course of history is altered every time (1.3 million times a year) someone decides to end a human life inside a womb.”
Saqib Ali
Sunday 25th 2009f January 2009 11:30:20 PM at 11:30 pm
This was a very well stated reply.
dustin
Tuesday 02nd 2009f June 2009 08:36:58 PM at 8:36 pm
The example of very young girls conceiving out of rape comes up a lot, and while we can’t make laws out of exceptions, it’s something we should discuss.
I think it is a shame that no one points out that perhaps having an 11-year-old girl undergo an abortion is a form of abuse as well. We are talking about a very young girl who very likely is suffering emotionally because of a rape; is she really freely choosing to have an abortion at this point? What will be the effects that an abortion will have upon her as she grows up? Surely, going through with a pregnancy will be very difficult for her as well: it’s a very, very tragic and difficult situation. But I think we need to stop pretending that abortion is this wonderful thing that solves the problem with absolutely no effects afterward.
Natalie F
Sunday 25th 2009f January 2009 11:32:10 PM at 11:32 pm
However, the same question at the center of the entire abortion debate comes into play here; is the fetus a person equal in dignity to every other person.
No, that’s not the question at the center. The question at the very center of the debate on legal or illegal abortion is: Is a pregnant woman a person equal in dignity and human rights to any other person?
If she is, she has the same right as any other human person has to decide for herself whether or not to donate an organ – and the use of her bodily resources – to save a life – and the debate is over: it is always a woman’s right to choose.
If you feel that a pregnant woman is no longer a person with equal dignity and equal rights, then the question comes into play: when does a fetus become a person? How much damage is society prepared to sustain to the bodies of the pregnant women – who, as nonpersons in this scenario, need not be considered as individuals – in order to save the fetuses?
jesurgislac
Sunday 25th 2009f January 2009 11:46:57 PM at 11:46 pm
“The question at the very center of the debate on legal or illegal abortion is: Is a pregnant woman a person equal in dignity and human rights to any other person?”
Wrong. The fact that she is equal in dignity and human rights to any other person is assumed. However, if this is also the case for the fetus, then there is a conflict of rights. If not, there is no debate; the rights of a non-person (or whatever fraction of personhood you wish to grant the fetus; we have made 3/5ths compromises in our past) are easily trumped by any desires of the pregnant woman.
johnw
Monday 26th 2009f January 2009 01:23:38 AM at 1:23 am
I am posting on behalf of Scott Rismiller. I quote:
“Please allow me to come at this topic from a Christian perspective. All points that have been made here are valid…but I still see the questioning and I get that regardless of the decision, there are consequences. Personally, I believe the consequences of abortion are worse and last much longer.
1. As a Christian, I believe that God is the creator of life.
2. As a Christian, I believe that God makes no mistakes.
3. The logical conclusion therefore is that if God created this life, even under these tragic circumstances, He can bring something positive out of it.
God does not make mistakes. He can bring “beauty from ashes.” I know this does not make this decision any easier, but a faith in a God that never deserts us can give us hope even under these circumstances.”
Saqib Ali
Tuesday 27th 2009f January 2009 01:41:51 AM at 1:41 am
The fact that she is equal in dignity and human rights to any other person is assumed. However, if this is also the case for the fetus, then there is a conflict of rights.
Not at all. No human being has a right to make use of another human being’s body against her will, not even to save a life. Therefore, if fetus and pregnant woman are equal in dignity and human rights, the pregnant woman always has the right to decide to terminate her pregnancy.
jesurgislac
Tuesday 27th 2009f January 2009 11:52:57 AM at 11:52 am
“emotional men and women always see only the individual whose fate is up at the moment, and neither his victim nor the many millions of unknown individuals who would in the long run be harmed by what they ask…” TR
Although I agree whole heartedly with this statement, there is a bit of conflict in me about using capital punishment as a preventive measure implied in “in the long run”.
Scott
Wednesday 28th 2009f January 2009 06:33:35 PM at 6:33 pm
Ms. Teresa Cardone of DeSales says :
“A person is no less human because they are concieved through rape. I believe ALL humans have the right to life. Once we say “almost all humans have a right to life” we open the door to many forms of injustice.
Rape should not happen, and there should not be children concieved through rape. Rather than trying to end the lives of children of rape, I’ll try and end rape. I’m pretty sure I won’t fully eliminate rape or abortion, but I have a duty to oppose both.
I don’t see my duty to support life and oppose rape as conflicting in such a case. “
Saqib Ali
Thursday 29th 2009f January 2009 07:04:10 AM at 7:04 am
re: “No human being has a right to make use of another human being’s body against her will, not even to save a life.”
What about cases of children who serve as organ or blood donors per their parents’ judgment? Children don’t usually “want to” ever act as donors because they are scared, but often are donors for sib per their parents discretion. Shouldn’t that be outlawed as well?
Meena
Thursday 19th 2009f February 2009 07:53:33 PM at 7:53 pm
Meena: What about cases of children who serve as organ or blood donors per their parents’ judgment?
I would hope that the medical personnel involved take care to explain to the child who is the prospective donor, in terms the child can understand, what will happen: and I sincerely hope no doctor would remove an organ from a child too young to give meaningful consent. (Blood or bone marrow donations, which have no long term effect on the donor whatsoever, strike me as being in a slightly different category.) If the child is reluctant to be a donor, that reluctance ought to be respected – if necessary, by the child being given a legal guardian to represent their rights.
jesurgislac
Thursday 19th 2009f February 2009 10:27:22 PM at 10:27 pm
Hi, i have used the Dom Feder quote in my essay and my lecturer wants a specific date that it was either said or that it was published on this website? Can anyone help or suggest where i may find this information? thanks
Nikki
Monday 02nd 2009f March 2009 10:08:36 PM at 10:08 pm
Nikki,
The Don Feder quote was sourced from:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/feder042501.asp
Saqib
Saqib Ali
Monday 02nd 2009f March 2009 11:31:51 PM at 11:31 pm
Some of these quotes are not explicit justifications for capital punishment but simply general statements of the principle of retributive justice.
As far as I know, Voltaire was actually an opponent of the death penalty, and I would be surprised to learn that Thomas Szasz is a supporter of it.
I have instinctively recoiled from capital punishment all my life. It strikes me as literally insane for the state to retain functionaries whose purpose is to kill people (against whom they have no personal quarrel, and whose guilt or innocence does not concern them) in cold blood (as opposed to a soldier in a standing army, where during warfare there is a kill-or-be-killed imperative operating). I am fairly uninterested in the utilitarian arguments both for and against the death penalty. It is the inherent vileness, as I see it, of judicial execution that is the strongest argument against it. Your mind either makes this leap of moral insight or it does not.
Long after I became a self-conscious (as distinct from instinctive) opponent of capital punishment, I learnt from my father that during World War 2 he had been obliged, as a Military Policeman, to witness three executions. Having never given the matter any serious consideration (since capital punishment was more or less taken for granted when he was growing up in the 20s and 30s), he was utterly horrified by what he saw and has remained a lifelong opponent. He told me that even prison doctors, who are used to seeing unpleasant things, generally dislike executions intensely.
Neil Saunders
Wednesday 16th 2009f September 2009 02:32:53 PM at 2:32 pm