James Madison Quotes

Evolving societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety.

But this is not to say that the society which inflicts capital punishment commits murder.

The death penalty is abolished – even at the front!

If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the murders.

The death penalty serves social justice.

I hope that America will do away with the death penalty. I truly believe we are better than that.

I'm really trying to bring an end to the death penalty because it means so much to me.

Everybody believes that capital punishment is wrong, but when they look at certain cases, they're quick to say, 'Put them to death,' or scream 'capital punishment.'

The death penalty issue is obviously a divisive one. But whether one is for or against, you can not deny the basic illogic - if we know the system is flawed, if we know there are innocent people on Death Row, then until the system is reformed, should we not abandon the death penalty to protect those who are innocent?

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

I do not think that condemning people who murder and killing them necessarily sends out the right message.

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

I am passionately opposed to capital punishment, and I have been all my life.

I would like to see capital punishment suppressed in all democracies.

When a mad man is executed, it is a miserable spectacle, both against law, and of extreme inhumanity and cruelty, and can be no example to others.

Retribution is no longer the dominant objective of the criminal law. Reformation and rehabilitation of offenders have become important goals of criminal jurisprudence.

I am a proponent of capital punishment. I am not a proponent of capital torture.

I feel morally and intellectually required to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.

The American people have determined that the good to be derived from capital punishment - in deterrence, and perhaps most of all in the meting out of condign justice for horrible crimes - outweighs the risk of error.

The death penalty and the arguments it inspires don't only involve ethics, morals, and justice. There are bureaucratic and economic aspects to it as well. All these different aspects commingle in ways that convince me we should take whatever steps we can to abolish the death penalty.

Capital punishment is neither cruel nor unusual.

It's time to join the ranks of nations that have put the ugliness of capital punishment behind them.

Capital punishment has probably been responsible for a good deal of human progress. The overwhelming majority of those executed were of the sort whose departures for bliss eternal improved the average intelligence and decency of the race.

The death penalty is becoming a way of life in this country.

The death penalty is discriminatory and does not do anything about crime.