John G. Diefenbaker Quotes
Some wonder why I have such a feeling of concern over the imposition of the death penalty. I ask those who wonder how would you feel if you defended a man charged with murder, who was as innocent as any hon. member in this House at this very moment, who was convicted; whose appeal was dismissed, who was executed; and six months later the star witness for the Crown admitted that he, himself, had committed the murder and blamed it on the accused? That experience will never be effaced from my memory.
He was describing a real case in Canada. There as well as the United State, for those who oppose capital punishment give as their main reason the mistakes made by the criminal justice system, and the innocent people who have been executed.
John G. Diefenbaker, 1895-1979, Canadian Prime Minister (Conservative), Debate, House of Commons, May 1, 1972
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Einstein had changed his mind. He like almost everyone else at the time favored the death penalty, but in 1927 came to the new conclusion for the same reasons that many American politicians stated 70 years later. He had no compunctions against capital punishment for murderers who were dangers to society, but the potential error of the justice system led him to oppose state sanctioned execution. At the time the number of errors in capital cases that had been demonstrated were few. But as a scientist, Einstein knew that all human endeavors were prone to error. He was a strong law and order supporter however—see {588606}.
He was referring to exonerations for capital crimes like murder. He had written a book about a case where a man who was later proved innocent was reprieved only 5 days before his execution.
There was quite a bit of racism in the American West. Not the last sentence referring to the complexion of the defendant.
Mistakes in the criminal justice system have been with us from the birth of the nation.
Texas executes more people than the rest of the United States does. However, just before the debate an investigation disclosed 56 recent cases in Texas where the “criminals” were completely exonerated based on the work of some volunteer attorneys and law students. They were all released from jail where many had served decades for crimes they did not commit. 5 were released from Death Row—awaiting to be executed. See {635339}.
This is one of the sharpest dissents in Supreme Court history. Rarely to justices write opinions accusing other justices of a gross immorality or crime. The majority held that the Supreme Court should not grant a new trial simply because there was some evidence discovered showing him innocent. See {635412} for a quotation from the majority opinion.
John George Diefenbaker PC CH QC FRSC FRSA was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. Between 1930 and 1979, he was the only federal Progressive Conservative (PC or Tory) leader to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of seats in the House of Commons of Canada.
