Russ Feingold Quotes

Every time when there is an exoneration, and there have been hundreds of them, and somebody walks out of jail after years, people ask, “how could this happen?” …. State sanctioned killing is just wrong.

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

I don’t think its right to have a criminal justice system that puts innocent people to death.

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.

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.

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.

I have lost no sleep over the possibility that an innocent man might be executed.

For one, as I've written before, the death penalty is plainly unjust. When the number of wrongful convictions and death penalty cases that are eventually exonerated number in the hundreds, if not thousands, we can not call it a moral system.

I don't agree with capital punishment as it is now, because too often mistakes are made. But I think that if you eliminate the mistakes, then there are times when it is justified.

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

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.

I support the death penalty. But I also think there has to be no margin for error.

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

It would be great to do a story and get somebody who is innocent out of jail. That's a wonderful thing.

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'm pro-death penalty, but what I have not seen is anybody that would mock someone on death row.

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.

In fact, for all kinds of offenses - and, for no offenses - from murders to misdemeanors, men and women are put to death without judge or jury; so that, although the political excuse was no longer necessary, the wholesale murder of human beings went on just the same.

If we are trying to establish a culture of life, it’s difficult to have the state sponsoring executions.

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 as been a gross failure. Beyond its horror and incivility, it has neither protected the innocent nor deterred the wicked. The recurrent spectacle of publicly sanctioned killing has cheapened human life and dignity without the grace which comes from justice meted out swiftly, evenly, humanely.

Those who favor capital punishment do so in the name of justice. Can there be any argument against insisting that it be imposed justly—and not on the wrong people.

The highest and ultimate political power is capital punishment.