#penal

The fantastical idea of virtue and the public good being a sufficient security to the state against the commission of crimes...was never mine. It is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I meant to object to. Punishments I know are necessary, and I would provide them strict and inflexible, but proportioned to the crime. Death might be inflicted for murder and perhaps for treason, [but I] would take out of the description of treason all crimes which are not such in their nature. Rape, buggery, etc., punish by castration. All other crimes by working on high roads, rivers, gallies, etc., a certain time proportioned to the offence... Laws thus proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the lawgiver, but let the judge be a mere machine. The mercies of the law will be dispensed equally and impartially to every description of men; those of the judge or of the executive power will be the eccentric impulses of whimsical, capricious designing man. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#public-good #security #virtue #death

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong. ↗

— John Acton

#history #neither #nor #penalties #provides

Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza, and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis. ↗

— Yasser Arafat

#bank #both #death #death penalty #gaza

Across the country military families are facing dire financial circumstances due to longer than expected tours of duties. They are being penalized for their patriotism - no one should have to choose between doing right by their country and doing right by their families. ↗

— Evan Bayh

#being #between #choose #circumstances #country

No one is guaranteed happiness. You can pursue it, but if you happen to find success along the way on that road to happiness, Conservatives believe you should not be demonized or penalized for it. ↗

— Glenn Beck

#believe #conservatives #find #guaranteed #happen

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not... with regard to abortion and euthanasia. ↗

— Pope Benedict XVI

#about #among #applying #catholics #death

I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us. ↗

— Eric Holder

#congress #death #death penalty #enforce #gives

They found him guilty, and brother, if Maine had the death penalty, he would have done the airdance before that spring's crocuses poked their heads out of the dirt. ↗

— Stephen King

#death-penalty #prison #death

No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed. ↗

— Clarence Darrow

#ever #help #offense #oppressed #other

Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty. ↗

— Angela Davis

#became #been #death #death penalty #had