Anthony Ray Hinton Quotes

Being on death row has taken so much from me as a human being.

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

Personally I am very much against the death penalty for several reasons.

The death penalty is being applied in the United States as a fatal lottery.

We've sent 130 men to death row to be executed in this country, at least 130 that we know of, who have later have been exonerated because they were either innocent, or they were not fairly tried. That's 130 people that we've locked down on death row. And they've spent years there.

I’m not necessarily against the death penalty. But I am damn sure against the wrong man getting executed.

You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its waving green grass and heaps of sweet-smelling flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmering heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growing brown and golden under a sinking sun. And finally Winter, with its biting, whining wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won't be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it's the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck till you're dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.

The sorry path that remains for me to follow from an obscure prison to the gallows has been trodden by men with more merit than my own.

Malcolm is worthy of death.

The death penalty is as random as being struck by lightning.

It has become increasingly difficult for states or the federal government to apply the death penalty. But why even try? Nothing is accomplished, and while the chances of making a mistake are now diminished - DNA can prove guilt as well as innocence - life in prison is a worthy substitute.

The death penalty in the U.S. has become a political tool - and it should never be that.

In death row every rule in society is flipped.

The death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to the surviving family members.

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

I don't think I would want the responsibility for enforcing the death penalties. There's always the inevitable question of whether someone you gave the order to execute might truly have been innocent.

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

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?

To have the truth in your possession you can be found guilty, sentenced to death.

I'm not a racist, and I'm not a murderer.

I've never been under the illusion that everybody on death row is innocent - far from it. My own guess is upwards of 90 percent are guilty. But a ten percent error rate if that's what it is, or even five percent, is really way too high.

The hanging of black men for murder and the inflicting of a lighter punishment upon white men for the same offense will not have a very beneficial effect upon the black population. Such partiality in the administration of justice will embitter the blacks and will give greater license in the commission of crimes of violence to the whites. Criminals, white and blacks, must be treated alike. Before the infliction of the death penalty will do the good it ought to there must be a public sentiment that will demand that there shall be no leniency shown by courts and juries to white murderers.

The death penalty saves lives.

The death penalty scares the hell out of me. We now see about one out of eight errors in these convictions.

The death penalty experiment has failed …. I will no longer tinker with the machinery of death.