Here are 20 quotes criticizing the death penalty abolitionists, especially the European Union who are the leaders in the abolition of the death penalty:
1. “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” - Adam Smith (baptized 16 June 1723 – died 17 July 1790 [OS: 5 June 1723 – 17 July 1790]) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. It earned him an enormous reputation and would become one of the most influential works on economics ever published. Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics and capitalism. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he wrote and published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day. Smith returned home and spent the next ten years writing The Wealth of Nations, publishing it in 1776. He died in 1790.
2. “Does fining a criminal show want of respect for property, or imprisoning him, for personal freedom? Just as unreasonable it is to think that to take the life of a man who has taken that of another is to show want of regard for human life. We show, on the contrary...our regard for it, by the adoption of a rule that he who violates that right in another forfeits it for himself and that while no other crime that he can commit deprives him of his right to live, this shall." - John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential British Classical liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.
3. “Why is it barbaric to require that one who violently steals the life of an innocent (or 168 innocents) not be allowed to keep his own? Where is the moral tradition that prescribes life for mass-murderers? How can it be civilizing to tell the world's worst people that no matter no matter how many victims they butcher, no matter what cruelty they inflict on others, the worst that will happen to them is that they will go to prison? Those are questions that abolitionists never answer.” - Jeff Jacoby (born February 10, 1959) is an American conservative syndicated newspaper columnist.
4. Contrary to the claims of capital punishment opponents, the death penalty is not a means of exacting revenge, nor does it debase us as a society. Instead, it is a legal, judicial means of judging responsibility and an appropriate punishment for particularly atrocious or hideous crimes.
For example, how can one justify leniency for someone who abuses and murders a child? Not only is that youngster deprived of the carefree experience of childhood, but also the family is forever denied the joy of guiding the child through to maturity and the hope of grandchildren. There can be no more horrific experience than that of a parent burying a child. - J. Karl Miller writes a weekly opinion column for the Missourian. He retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps. He is a Columbia resident.
5. “Those who demand the abolition of the death penalty for murderers and criminals, in both the East and the West, forget the feelings of the victim’s family, and the magnitude of their loss. The role of the death penalty is to offer a form of just retribution, whilst it also serves as a deterrent, and supports the security of societies. Even states that adopt the principle of ‘blood money’ should not allow profiteering from the millions paid by good-hearted humanitarians, since this might lead to a dangerous increase of the rate of murders or a desensitization towards the act of killing. Yet, it is necessary for the concerned authorities to distinguish between a killer and another in terms of the nature of the crime, its motives and its surrounding conditions.” - Muhammad Diyab is a well-known Saudi writer and journalist.
6. “The tragic slaughter of innocent human beings includes the shooting of women, pregnant and otherwise, babies, children and the elderly, involving beheading and dismemberment, to name some of the barbaric practices that are anathema in a civilised Christian society. If similar brutal murders had taken place in the EU, they may have adopted a different point of view towards the death penalty. God forbid, but if there is ever another significant attack by Al Qaeda in the EU, the terrorists, if caught, would likely be treated accordingly by public demand, instead of being given “bed and breakfast” for the rest of their lives.” – Anthony Gomez is a
7. 25 Feb 2008 - WE need the death penalty - and we need it NOW.
The metropolitan liberal ruling elite dares to sneer at people like you and me, who are demanding its restoration.What planet do these fools live on? The ultimate deterrent of the rope would make some of the madmen pause for thought.But forget deterrent. When someone commits crimes as heinous as those of Steve Wright or Mark Dixie, what's wrong with revenge? Poll after poll shows the public wants the death penalty. But every time it is debated, politicians ignore the wishes of their constituents and vote against it. Forget the human rights of monsters. Let them swing. - Jon Gaunt (born 3 March 1961 in Coventry), is an English radio talk show presenter, and a former newspaper columnist for The Sun.Gaunt describes himself as a "working-class, educated guy with, in broad strokes, a rightwing agenda". He regularly appears as a newspaper reviewer on Sky News Sunrise.
8. Unrepentant serial killers and soft MPs 24 February 2008 12:10 AM - The political class dislike the death penalty because it makes them directly responsible for protecting the gentle. They make the most pitiful excuses for being against it, which don't stand up to a moment's examination. Absurdly, they claim to be worried about the deaths of innocent people, as if every murder victim was not innocent. - Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper. A former resident correspondent in Moscow and Washington, Hitchens continues to work as an occasional foreign reporter, and appears frequently in the British broadcast media. He is the younger brother of the writer Christopher Hitchens.
9. “According to the logic of anti-capital punishment campaigners, if just one innocent life is taken then the system is wrong. So why do the same people not campaign against probation, when in just two years criminals on licence have committed 120 murders, 103 rapes and 682 other serious violent or sexual offences? Has anyone made any films about those 120 innocent victims? Nope. Have any rock stars made James Hanratty-style campaigns about probation? Not a chance.” - Ed West is a journalist and social commentator who specialises in politics, religion and low culture.
10. Why I'd gladly hang Huntley 26 April 2004 = However, so long as Huntley and other murderers like him live, we shall inhabit a society where evil is, in the twisted minds of the potential killer, all but condoned. Tragically, the only position taken by our rulers towards such wickedness is their surrender to it - and their utter hypocrisy in claiming to be fighting it. - Simon James Heffer (born 18 July 1960) is a British journalist, columnist and writer, noted for his conservative political views. He was educated at King Edward VI's School, Chelmsford, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read English and subsequently took a PhD in modern history. He joined The Daily Telegraph as a leader writer in 1986 and had since held the posts of chief leader writer, political correspondent, parliamentary sketchwriter, comment editor and deputy editor.
11. “Countries that give up this penalty award an unimaginable advantage to the criminal over his victim, the advantage of life over death.” Mr. Kaczynski said in July 2006. His coalition partner, the far-right League of Polish Families, wants to change the country’s penal code so that pedophiles convicted of murder would face execution. - Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (18 June 1949 – 10 April 2010) was the President of Poland from 2005 to 2010, a politician of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, PiS) Kaczyński served as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005, the day before his presidential inauguration. He was the identical twin brother of the former Prime Minister of Poland and current Chairman of the Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński.
12. UKIP voted against the World Day Against The Death Penalty on 7 October 2010: “UKIP accepts there are legitimate arguments about the death penalty, both for and against. However, UKIP feels that the decision to have or not have the death penalty is a decision that lies only with the individual nation state, and not the undemocratic EU. UKIP notes the attempts the EU has made to interfere with other countries’ policies in this area. It is not for the EU to bully any country into maintaining abolition or enacting abolition of the death penalty. UKIP also notes the way the EU has shut down any debate on this topic in the European context, despite public opinion on the subject. The maintenance or otherwise of the death penalty is, and should remain, a decision solely made at the nation state level via democratic means. Any state with the death penalty should ensure proper procedures of evidence collection, prisoner interrogation and fair trials.” - Nigel Paul Farage (pronounced /fəˈrɑːʒ/; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and is the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a position he previously held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a current Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.
David Campbell Bannerman (born 28 May 1960 in Bombay) is a Member of the European Parliament for East of England for the United Kingdom Independence Party. He was elected in 2009. He was formerly a Conservative Party activist who came to prominence as the Chairman of the Bow Group. He is distantly connected, through the Bannerman family (but by no means through the Campbell of Stracathro family, the other source of the Campbell-Bannermans) to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1906 and 1908. He served as UKIP deputy leader from 2006 until 2010 when he was replaced by Paul Nuttall.
13. “I have also seen it stated that Capital punishment is murder in its worst form. I should like to know upon what principle of human society these assertions are based and justified.” – Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was a journalist, libertarian, and the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century.
14. “The death penalty still stands, and already opponents are trying to shave the only alternative sentence that ostensibly protects the general public from the most dangerous predators.” - Debra J. Saunders (born 1954) is a conservative columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Syndicated by Creators Syndicate, her thrice weekly column is also carried by newspapers throughout the country and on townhall.com. Saunders also blogs for the Chronicle under the moniker Token Conservative.
15. Yet they certainly do. Whereas the shedding of innocent blood that proponents of capital punishment are responsible for is thus far, thankfully, only theoretical, the shedding of innocent blood for which opponents of capital punishment are responsible is not theoretical at all. Thanks to their opposition to the death penalty, innocent men and women have been murdered by killers who would otherwise have been put to death. - Opponents in capital punishment have blood on their hands By Dennis Prager 11/29/2005 - Dennis Prager (born August 2, 1948) is an American syndicated radio talk show host, syndicated columnist, author, and public speaker. He is noted for conservative political and social views emanating from Judeo-Christian, Jewish, and American values. He defines the latter as E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and Liberty (which includes small government). He is a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He taught Jewish and Russian History at Brooklyn College, and was a Fellow at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, where he did his graduate work at the Russian Institute (now the Harriman Institute) and Middle East Institute from 1970-1972. He has lectured in 46 states and on six continents and traveled in 98 countries and the 50 U.S. states. He speaks French, Russian, and Hebrew, and has lectured in Russian in Russia and in Hebrew in Israel. An avid classical music lover, he periodically conducts orchestras in Southern California.
16. “I want my daughter’s killer to go the same way as she did. If he was dead I wouldn’t have to sit here, thinking about his smirking face, him eating his dinner and watching TV – things my daughter will never do again. You always get do-gooders who say you can’t hang them. Why do they still want these people to live?” – Kerry Nicol whose daughter, Tania Nicol was murdered by Ipswich Serial killer, Steve Wright in 2006.
17. Death penalty opponents spend millions of dollars and countless man hours fighting the legal execution of, at most, 56 of our worst human rights violators per year, when they do nothing to fight for the end of those inhumane parole and probation release policies which result in the needless injury and slaughter of the innocent. "The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that convicted criminals free on parole and probation . . . commit ‘at least’ 84,800 violent crimes every year, including 13,200 murders, 12,900 rapes, and 49,500 robberies." American Guardian, May 1997, pg. 26. Incredibly, this slaughter does not include violent crimes committed by repeat offenders who are released and who are not on "supervision". Where is the compassion in honoring the previous victim’s suffering and in protecting the human rights of future victims? Opponents’ actions show virtually no compassion for the victims of violent crime or concern for future victims, yet, they exhibit overwhelming support for those who violate our human rights and murder our loved ones. – Dudley Sharp
18. “For the worst murderers, life in prison is just not enough punishment. Abolitionists were willing to lie for at least a decade about Roger Keith Coleman, and some things never change.” - Kent Scheidegger has been the Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation since December 1986. He has written over 100 briefs in cases in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Scheidegger is the Past Chairman of the Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group of the Federalist Society and has served on the Group’s executive committee since 1996. His articles on criminal and constitutional law have been published in law reviews, national legal publications and Congressional reports. Legal arguments authored by Mr. Scheidegger have been cited in the Congressional Record and incorporated in several precedent-setting United States Supreme Court decisions. After receiving a degree in physics with honors from New Mexico State University in 1976, Mr. Scheidegger served for six years in the United States Air Force as a Nuclear Research Officer. He took his law degree with distinction from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1982 and practiced civil law in Northern California. He was general counsel of California Cooler, Inc. from 1984 until 1986, when he joined the Foundation.
19. Abolitionists simply are not being up front with us when they talk about imprisonment with NO chance of parole. This is demonstrated, not only by the current attempts in the legislature, but even more by understanding the emotive wellsprings of the abolitionist movement.
The single most important element in abolitionist motivation is the belief that society is too harsh and the killer is himself a victim. You can see this just by reading what defense lawyers say all the time in capital sentencing memos.
With that belief as the anchor, OF COURSE they don't really mean it when they say "never." That is just a tactical ploy in the present, anti-DP struggle. Real LWOP is, in the abolitionist worldview, something that a fair and decent system could never impose on the socially deprived and downtrodden.
Ladies and gentlemen, they don't believe in punishment AT ALL, not in the sense that normal people would understand. They're lying. There is, unfortunately, not a whole lot more to it than that. - Bill Otis A.K.A William Graham Otis is a 1974 graduate of Stanford Law School and has held a number of positions in the federal government. He started his career in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, and in 1981 was asked to become head of the Appellate Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. While in that position he argued more than 100 criminal appeals before the Fourth Circuit. He was a charter member of the Attorney General's Advisory Subcommitte on the Sentencing Guidelines, where he served for ten years. In 1992, he was detailed to the White House to act as Special Counsel for President George H. W. Bush. He left the U.S. Attorneys Office in 1999, but returned to federal service three years later as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy. In 2003, he was appointed Counselor to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, where he remained until 2007. He has appeared before both Houses of Congress to testify on diverse subjects in criminal law including the death penalty, illegal drugs and the operation of the Sentencing Guidelines. A number of media outlets have interviewed him on these and other subjects, including CBS's "Sixty Minutes," "The O'Reilly Factor," ABC News and MSNBC. He has written several op-ed pieces for the Washington Post, covering everything from legal ethics to Scooter Libby's sentence commutation, and is an occasional contributor to the blog Powerline. He and his wife split their time between their homes in suburban Washington, D.C and Hawaii. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
20. “When I think of all the sweet, innocent people who suffer extreme pain and who die every day in this country, then the outpouring of sympathy for cold-blooded killers enrages me. Where is your (expletive deleted) sympathy for the good, the kind and the innocent? This fixation on murderers is a sickness, a putrefaction of the soul. It's the equivalent of someone spending all day mooning and cooing over a handful of human feces. Sick and abnormal.” Syndicated columnist Charley Reese made an interesting analogy while criticizing the way abolitionists typically behave - Charley Reese (born January 29, 1937) is a syndicated columnist known for his plainspoken manner and conservative views. He was associated with the Orlando Sentinel from 1971-2001, both as a writer and in various editorial capacities. King Features Syndicate distributed his column, which was published three times a week.
No comments:
Post a Comment