CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Related Subjects: Hanging, Justice, Killing, Murder, Punishment

1. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.—Bible, Genesis 9:6

2. Now, why am I opposed to capital punishment? It is too horrible a thing for a state to undertake. We are told: "Oh, the killer does it; why shouldn't the state?" I would hate to live in a state that I didn't think was better than a murderer.—CLARENCE DARROW

3. There is nothing in the history of the world that ever cheapened human life like our great war; next to that the indiscriminate killing of men by states.—CLARENCE DARROW

4. And now, having fully expressed our conviction that the punishment of death is one which should sometimes be inflicted, we may add that we would have it resorted to as unfrequently as possible. Nothing, in our view, but cold-blooded, premeditated, unpalliated murder, can fully justify it. Let this continue to be visited with the sternest penalty.—HORACE GREELEY

5. As lawyer for defendant, as prosecutor for the State and as Judge of the greatest criminal court in all the world, I say that the only thing the criminal fears is the penalty of death that will follow his crime.—JUDGE TALLEY

6. Must we do away with capital punishment because it is too cruel? Why, the very advocates of doing away with it would be the first to argue that life imprisonment is more cruel than snuffing out, without torture, the life of any individual.—JUDGE TALLEY