Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Even the vilest criminal remains a human being possessed of common human dignity.

The Criminal Code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity that without an easy access to exceptions it in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear it a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.

I believe that even if a criminal defendant has committed a heinous wrong, they should still be treated with respect from everyone in the criminal justice system, including prosecutors

In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a 'culture of compassion.' On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the U.S., if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a 'culture of vengeance.'

People do make mistakes and I think they should be punished. But they should be forgiven and given the opportunity for a second chance. We are human beings.

I don't believe in vengeance. Really, when all is said and done, I probably don't believe in punishment.

Criminals are not the victims of society; society is the victim of criminals.

Let me remember, when I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, that there is likewise a pity due to the country.

Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.

Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate.

there is no glory in punishing

Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. You can see, by what we have done with these two boys, that justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

I am grateful that I live in a nation where most believe that one's punishment should fit their wrongdoing and that ours is a nation that judges an individual by both what he has done and how he has changed.

The Christian - the biblical - concept of mercy toward wrongdoers only exists in relation to justice. Showing mercy, in relation to wrongdoing, means treating someone better than they deserve.

Let the Lord judge the criminals.

To show men that crimes can be pardoned, and that punishment is not their inevitable consequence, encourages the illusion of impunity and induces the belief that, since there are pardons, those sentences which are not pardoned are violent acts of force rather than the products of justice.

We make no apology for people who should be in prison being in prison.

The message has to be sent that if you commit a crime there has to be punishment.

Criminals are punished, that others may be deterred.

It is better to pardon the guilty than to take the lives of the innocent

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

The abolition of death penalty would give more opportunities for pastoral work with those who have stumbled and for the latter to repent. It is also evident that punishment by death cannot be reformatory; it also makes misjudgement irreparable

All judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape