George W. Bush Quotes

I have reached the conviction that the abolition of the death penalty is desirable. Reasons: (1) Irreversibility in the event of an error in justice; (2) detrimental moral influence on those who have to carry out the procedure.

Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind. It is the deed that teaches not the name we give it.

We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him.

The main objection to killing people as a punishment...is that killing people is wrong

Standing alone among great democratic nations in imposing the death penalty is another moral decision that Americansare being forced to confront.

I'm for capital punishment. You've got to execute people. How else are they going to learn?

I don't want to put one innocent person to death to put 99 that are guilty to death. So philosophically I'm a tooth-for-tooth guy, but the reality is the death penalty as public policy is flawed.

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

The practice of executing such offenders is a relic of the past and is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society.

I believe that capital punishment serves no useful purpose and is a form of revenge.

It is wonderful to hear what account we at present give ourselves of the punishment of criminals. No "revenge"--O Heavens, no; all preachers on Sunday strictly forbid that; and even (at least on Sundays) prescribe the contrary of that. It is for the sake of "example," that you punish; to "protect society" and its purse and skin; to deter the innocent from falling into crime; and especially withal, for the purpose of improving the poor criminal himself,--or at lowest, of hanging and ending him, that he may not grow worse. For the poor criminal is, to be "improved" if possible:

The system of death-penalty justice is compromised and inequitable.

For me, the ethical arguments that resonate strongest are the ones that oppose the death penalty.

I don't believe in the death penalty, but I understand personal vengeance.

I prefer a prison full of criminals than a graveyard full of innocent people.

Somewhere within the concept of justice, the worst of the guilty must always be removed. I cannot divorce this, not completely. The people must have justice and so I want to reinstate and enshrine the blessed and holy guillotine!

In many ways, we've been taught to think that the real question is, do people deserve to die for the crimes they've committed? And that's a very sensible question. But there's another way of thinking about where we are in our identity. The other way of thinking about it is not, do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit, but do we deserve to kill?

As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.

Those subject to capital punishment are real human beings, with their own backgrounds and narratives. By contrast, those whose lives are or might be saved by virtue of capital punishment are mere 'statistical people.' They are both nameless and faceless, and their deaths are far less likely to be considered in moral deliberations.

The death penalty, I think, is a terrible scar on American justice, especially the concept of equal justice under law, but also of due process. And it goes state by state, and it's different in different states.

Just vengeance does not call for punishment.

I'm actually really opposed to the death penalty.

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.

I don't believe in killing people. I believe in locking you up for the rest of your life.

Capital punishment is the source of many an argument, both good and bad.