“[R]ace of victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found to be more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. This finding was remarkably consistent across data sets, states, data collection methods, and analytic techniques.”
— The U.S. General Accounting Office, “Death Penalty Sentencing: Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities …” (Feb. 1990).“Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent.”
— Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., 1994“I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial… People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice“It would be one thing if we could say the system works [in Illinois], and that individuals followed procedures and were found innocent, but in fact in all the cases it was really a fluke … We find persistent wrongdoing on the part of law enforcement. It’s really sheer luck that those convicted of these [capital] crimes were exonerated in the end.”
— Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).“People say that executing criminals does not take away from their dignity– if it is done with dignity. But the fact of the matter is that whether you’re waiting to die by lethal injection– waiting … for the poison to flow down your veins–or waiting for a bullet, or waiting for a rope, or waiting for gas, or waiting for the electric current–there is no difference: there is no lesser or greater dignity in dying. The practice of the death penalty is the practice of torture. And by the time people I have been with finally climb into the chair to be killed, they have died a thousand times already because of their anticipation of the final horror.”
— Helen Prejean, author of the book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.”“When people of color are killed in the inner city, when homeless people are killed, when the ‘nobodies’ are killed, district attorneys do not seek to avenge their deaths. Black, Hispanic, or poor families who have a loved one murdered not only don’t expect the district attorney’s office to pursue the death penalty–which, of course, is both costly and time consuming–but are surprised when the case is prosecuted at all.”
— ibid.“Government … can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
— ibid.“I have come to think that capital punishment should be abolished.”
— Jack Kemp, conservative Republican and Bob Dole’s vice presidential running mate in 1996.“Society may protect itself without putting a human to death as it would a wild animal. Since we believe each person has a soul, and is capable of achieving salvation, life in prison is now an alternative to the death penalty.”
— Richard Viguerie and Brent Bozell, both conservative Republicans and Tea Party supporters.“The reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics.”
— Bryan Stevenson, an attorney for Death Row inmates.“Can the state, which represents the whole of society and has the duty of protecting society, fulfill that duty by lowering itself to the level of the murderer, and treating him as he treated others? The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process. And I believe that future generations, throughout the world, will come to agree.”
— Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and Secretary General of the United Nations 1997-2007.“It should be clear that the death penalty does just the opposite of promoting decency and respect for life. It dehumanizes people and promotes murder. It can never be applied fairly.”
–John Morrison“With every cell of my being, and with every fiber of my memory, I oppose the death penalty in all forms….I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an Angel of Death.”
— Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1986.“As if one crime of such nature, done by a single man, acting individually, can be expiated by a similar crime done by all men, acting collectively.”
— Lewis Lawes, the warden of Sing Sing prison in NY in the 1920s and ’30s.“Judicial execution can never cancel or remove the atrocity it seeks to punish; it can only add a second atrocity to the original one … So long as one sees killing as wrong there is no need to waste time with the deterrent argument, since it would be nonsense to try to prevent a theoretical evil in the future by perpetrating an actual one in the present.”
— Auberon Waugh, British author and journalist.
Meanwhile, over at Foxnews.com, here are samples from the righties on the comment thread re: Troy Davis’ execution:
“The world is a better place tonight. Think I will have one to celebrate.”
— bill1251“I’m so sick and tired of hearing the tree-hugging, bleeding-heart liberals whining over this execution. This is justice, people, plain and simple. Execution is a way in which society can take out its trash…”
— EddieBear83“The death of another POS cop killing Democrat thug. Good riddance. You mindless, irresponsible Libturds can go cry at your American flag burning ceremony.”
— natex“I already posted this idea but I think it is worthwhile to remention it: injection is way to [sic] lenient for such heinous crimes. Americans should advocate public decapitation, in front of his/her family, in front of network camera so the whole nation and the whole world will see how it works. BTW, applauds from the victims’ family, the police, the justice system are highly encouraged.”
— independentwa
And these Fox News commenters noticed by NewsHounds:
“So when’s his last breath… I want to celebrate!”
— sierra10“Stick the needle in Tyrone’s [sic] arm and be done with it.”
— nappybegone2012
[Updated Sept. 24, 2011.]