Scott Turow Quotes
There is always a political issue whenever you empower a state to kill its own citizens … the abuse of the power as in Europe of the 20th century is the problem …. If we believe that some people ought to receive the death penalty for their crimes, there appears to be no way of executing the ones who should receive the death penalty without sweeping in ones who do not.
Scott Turow, Novelist and Assistant U. S. Attorney, Speech, Texas State Capitol Building, Texas Book Festival, November 8, 2003
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}.
This is the earliest surviving attempt of the Romans to formulate a legal code.
Although this is generally followed as a legal principle in America, states like Texas have executed felons who most other jurisdictions would see as Coke’s “mad man.”
More and more evidence had been mounting that innocent men had been mistakenly sentenced to death throughout the country and Texas executed more people than any other state.
This is the Admiral who commanded that invasion of Washington DC and the burning of the White House. It was in retaliation for the destruction of buildings in the American invasion of Canada that began the War of 1812.
One of the first actions after the revolution was to abolish the capital punishment used so arbitrarily by the Czars. It was even abolished for the army. Later, when more control over the population was needed, it was reinstated.
Scott Frederick Turow is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 11 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Films have been based on several of his books.
