They said it ...

 

“You can’t change laws without first changing human nature.”

 

From the book “Unwind”

 

 

 

“Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”

 

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

“Common sense is not a gift, it’s a punishment, because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.”

 

Unknown

 

 

 

“Where there is corruption, there must be and is bound to be eruption.”

 

Peter Tosh

 

 

 

“When the color of your skin is seen as a deadly weapon you will never be seen as unarmed.”

 

Unknown

 

 

 

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you!”

 

African Proverb

 

 

 

“Be careful when you blindly follow the masses. Sometimes the “m” is silent.”

 

Unknown

 

 

 

“Use what you have to continue to make a difference in someone else’s life.”

 

Usher

 

 

 

“In shallow men the fish of small thoughts cause much commotion,
in magnanimous oceanic minds the whales of inspiration cause hardly a ruffle.”

 

Unknown

 

 

 

“Land of the Free, home of the slave. – They call America the “Land of the Free”, but what about the homeless slaves you are creating with your conservative ways!”

 

Unknown

 

 

 

“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.”

 

Tony Benn

 

 

 

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

 

 

“The only way to deal with an untrue world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

 

Albert Camus

 

 

 

“Respond intelligently, even to unintelligent treatment.”

 

Lao Tzu

 

 

 

“What you seek, is seeking you.”

 

Rumi

 

 

 

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far and it’s cowardice.”

 

George Jackson

 

 

 

“People that say the system works either work for the system, or haven’t been a victim of it, yet.”

 

Unknown

 

 

“For every innocent person released from prison, we know there are others whose innocence was never proved and who continue to be at risk of execution. Even worse, some number of innocent individuals have likely been executed in error.”

 

TN State Sen. Lee Harris, D-Memphis and TN State Rep Johnnie Turner, D-Memphis (source: The Commercial Appeal)

 

 

 

“Since the death penalty was reinstated in TN the state has executed six death row inmates and released three when evidence of their innocence emerged. Six-and-three isn’t bad if you’re playing football. It’s not very good if you’re deciding life or death.”

 

TN State Rep Steve McManus, R-Memphis and TN State Rep Mark White, R-Memphis (source: The Commercial Appeal)

 

 

 

“The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times.”

 

SCOTUS majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges

 

 

 

“The death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed. It is cruel, inhumane, and degrading. It does not bring justice to the victims, but only foments revenge.”

 

Pope Francis (source: www.news.va/en)

 

 

 

“Capital punishment runs counter to core conservative principles of life, fiscal responsibility, and limited government. The reality of it is that capital punishment is nothing more than an expensive, wasteful, and risky government program.”

 

GA Republican Party, attorney Davin J. Burge (source: www.time.com/deathpenalty)

 

 

 

“It’s a black-lives-matter problem, they don’t when it comes to capital punishment.”

 

Columbia University law professor Jeffrey Fagan (source: “Why Obama is ‘Close’ to Opposing the Death Penalty, According to a Long-Time Associate”, Washington Post)

 

 

 

“Twenty years from now, people that are for the death penalty are going to be in the same place as people that are against gay marriage.”

 

Matthew Dowd, former G. W. Bush strategist (source: “Why Obama is ‘Close’ to Opposing the Death Penalty, According to a Long-Time Associate”, Washington Post)

 

 

 

“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous, and its speaker a raving lunatic.”

 

Dresden James

 

 

 

“All that we see, or seen is but a dream within a dream.”

 

Edgar Allan Poe

 

 

 

“All legal systems are nothing but the revenge of society-revenge against those who don’t fit in with the system.” “According to me, law is not for the protection of the just, it is for protection of the crowd mind – whether it is just or unjust does not matter.”

 

Osho

 

 

 

“I’m sorry if you don’t like my honesty, but to be fair, I don’t like your lies.”

 

unknown

 

 

 

“Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power, you will take it.”

 

John Henrik Clarke

 

 

 

“There is a paradigm shift that is a foot, because so many people around the world are understanding the vibrational aspect of living.”

 

Power Thoughts Meditation Club

 

 

 

“History is a lie, Religion is a control system, money is a hoax, debt is a fiction, media is manipulation, government is a corporation, and the system is an illusion.”

 

Anonymous Legion

 

 

 

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

 

Socrates

 

 

 

“The thing about smart people is, they sound like crazy people to dumb people.”

 

unknown

 

 

 

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

 

Gandhi

 

 

 

 

„The longer I live, the larger loom those 59 decisions about justice and mercy that I had to make as governor. They didn’t make me feel godlike then: far from it; I felt just the opposite. It was an awesome, ultimate power over the lives of others that no person or government should have or crave. And looking back over their names and files now, despite the horrible crimes and the catalog of human weaknesses they comprise, I realize that each decision took something out of me that nothing – not family or work or hope for the future – has ever been able to replace.”

 

Former California Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown
“It’s Time to Kill the Death Penalty”, Psychology Today

 

 

 

“I shall ask for the abolition of the death penalty, until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me.”

 

Lewis E. Lawes, New York corrections officer
“It’s Time to Kill the Death Penalty”, Psychology Today

 

 

 

 

 

“We, and the public, cannot meaning fully evaluate execution protocol cloaked in secrecy.”

 

Arizona Court of Appeals
“Lethal Injection Has Become a Testing Ground for Toxic Drugs”, The New Republic

 

 

 

“I’m trying to stop them from killing me by any method, because of the fact that I’m innocent.”

 

Richard Glossip, Oklahoma death row inmate
The Intercept

 

 

 

“It’s certainly a matter of conscience, at least in part, but it’s also a matter of trying to be philosophically consistent … If government can’t be trusted to manage our health care … then why should it be trusted to carry out the irrevocable sentence of death?”

 

Nebraska Senator Laure Ebke (R)
“Nebraska Lawmakers Vote to Abolish Death Penalty”, The Washington Post

 

 

 

“I strongly believe that Richard Glossip is an innocent man. […] For a couple of years now, my father has been talking to me about recanting his original testimony. I feel his conscience is getting to him.”

 

O’Ryan Justine Sneed, daughter of Justin Sneed, who testified against Richard Glossip
The Intercept

 

 

 

“We rationalize and try to sanitize the death penalty in the way it’s applied, but murder is murder in God’s eyes and my eyes as well.”

 

Rev. Lauren Ekdahl, Methodist minister in Nebraska
The Associated Press

 

 

 

“The death penalty is cruel, inhumane and degrading. […] It does not bring justice to the victims, but only foments revenge.”

 

Pope Francis
Think Progress

 

 

 

“Vengeance is not ours. […] We preach forgiveness, and resurrection. […] We are here to save souls. […] No matter what you’ve done, there is always forgiveness under Jesus Christ.”

 

Rev. Arthur T Gerald Jr., Baptist minister in Boston
Think Progress

 

 

 

“The Catholic Mobilizing Network is disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling today in Glossip v. Gross to allow states to continue using the drug Midazolam in lethal injection procedures.”

 

The Catholic Mobilizing Network

 

 

 

“We stand with Pope Francis who addressed the debate about methods of execution in a letter he wrote in March stating, ‘there is no humane way of killing another person.’”

 

The Catholic Mobilizing Network

 

 

“Alabama has gone too far in pursuit of Old Testament punishment.” “I don’t see a lot of mercy in our justice system … The laws in Alabama are often the problem and they were built to serve political purposes.”

 

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (source: Huntsville Times)

 

 

 

“I can honestly say that the death penalty just isn’t worth the human, and financial toll it takes on the state and its employees.” “Many of us who have taken part in this process live with nightmares, especially those of us who have participated in executions that did not go smoothly. Correctional officers who carry out executions can suffer from post-traumatic stress, drug and alcohol addiction, and depression.” “Right now, Delaware has an opportunity to repeal its death penalty, and lead the way on smarter crime prevention policy.”

 

Former Prison Warden Frank Thompson (source: Op-ed, The News Journal of Delaware)

 

 

 

“The execution of individuals does not appear to measurably advance the retribution and deterrence purposes served by the death penalty; the life without parole option adequately protects society at large in the same way as the death penalty.”

 

Judge Tom Price (source: Ex parte Panetti dissent)

 

 

 

“We believe that executing a person as severely and persistently ill as Scott Panetti would only compound the original tragedy, represent a profound injustice, and serve no useful retributive or preventive purpose.”

 

National Alliance of Mental Illness (source: Letter in support of clemency for Scott Panetti)

 

 

 

“By any reasonable standard – not to mention the findings of multiple mental-health experts over the years – Mr. Panetti is mentally incompetent … A civilized society should not be in the business of executing anybody. But it certainly cannot pretend to be adhering to any morally acceptable standard of culpability if it kills someone like Scott Panetti.”

 

“Will Texas Kill an Insane Man?” (source: NY Times Editorial)

 

 

 

“My professional experience has shown me that our state’s death penalty doesn’t keep us any safer. Its exorbitant cost actually detracts from programs that would promote the overall health, safety and welfare of our communities.” “The millions of dollars we’ve spent on the death penalty would have been much better invested in more police officers, additional resources of training for our current officers.” “The cheaper, more intelligent alternative for our state is life without the possibility of parole. Repealing the death penalty does not mean we are ‘soft’ on crime. It means we are smart on crime.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver (source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“I have never met a criminal who expected to be caught, or was deterred by the slight possibility he would be sentenced to death instead of spending the rest of his life in prison.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver
 – rejecting the idea that criminals are deterred by the death penalty
(source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“I am not alone in this thinking. In 1995 and again in 2008, national surveys were conducted among police chiefs. They were asked to rank the effectiveness of crime prevention programs in decreasing violent crime. In both surveys, they ranked the death penalty dead last.” “A full 99 % of the police chiefs said initiatives such as more officers or better lighting in high crime areas would make a more significant contribution than the death penalty in keeping their communities safe.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver (source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“The death penalty, while being virtually no deterrent to crime, is tremendously expensive.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver (source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“The United States Supreme Court has dictated capital cases must be handled differently, so they are especially complicated, and time consuming. The vast majority of defendants in capital cases have appointed counsel. The means when seeking the death penalty, the state bears the significant expense of prosecuting and defending the accused.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver (source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“We haven’t had an execution in more than 15 years. We’ve already stopped using the death penalty in Nebraska, now we should stop paying for it. Let’s invest in tools our law enforcement officers really need.”

 

Retired Police Captain Jim Davidsaver (source: Op-ed, Lincoln Journal-Star)

 

 

 

“We’ll be praying that the legislature overturns the veto, and we hope that others will do the same.” … His prayers were answered by dinnertime.

 

The Bishop of Lincoln, Neb. (source: The Anniston Star – May 31^st, 2015)

 

 

 

“Many Nebraska state legislators were deeply conflicted, saying something like, “I believe there are extraordinary cases where the death penalty is warranted; I believe there is a sense of justice served by capital punishment; but capital punishment applied in the real world cannot be fair, flawless, efficient or just and I cannot defend it anymore”.”

 

(source: The Anniston Star – May 31^st, 2015)

 

 

 

“Like the Bishop of Lincoln, senators looking to religion were guided more by “thou shalt not kill” than “an eye for an eye”.”

 

(source: The Anniston Star – May 31^st, 2015)

 

 

 

“I am Republican enough. I am Conservative enough. And I am strong enough to follow through with my life convictions, which is life from conception to natural death.”

 

Sen. Bob Krist, a Republican
 – who has been in office since 2009, announced his vote against the death penalty this way.
 (source: The Anniston Star – May 31st, 2015)

 

 

 

“Strange things happen when you elect people who can think.”

 

Walt Radcliffe
 – a longtime lobbyist; Lincoln, Neb.; told to The Omaha World-Herald
(source: The Anniston Star – May 31st, 2015)

 

 

 

“The ‘ultimate nightmare’ is that someone will be executed in error, And because death sentences are handed out as part of a system that ultimately relies on the judgments of human beings – people can, and do, make mistakes – such a failure is ‘inevitable’.”

 

Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

 

 

 

“There’s always the possibility that mistakes will be made.” “Mistakes and determinations made by juries, mistakes in terms of the kind of representation somebody facing a capital offence receives … There is no ability to correct a mistake where somebody has, in fact, been executed.”

 

Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

 

 

 

“This case shows why the death penalty is just an abomination.” “The system failed Mr. Ford, and I was part of the system.” “All it is, is state-assisted revenge. We can’t do it. It’s arbitrary, it’s capricious. And I believe that it’s barbaric.”

 

Former Louisiana prosecutor, Mary Stroud
- as part of his public apology, regarding the exoneration of Glenn Ford.

 

 

 

“Glenn Ford’s case, showed how easily the system could be manipulated by an eager prosecutor and questionable evidence.”

 

Former Louisiana prosecutor Marty Stroud

 

 

 

“A plea for the abolition of the death penalty was part of the text of the ‘Way of the Cross’ led by Pope Francis at the Coliseum in Rome on Good Friday”

 

(source: Joe Zammit, The Times of Malta)

 

 

 

“At the eleventh station ‘Jesus is nailed to the cross’, the following meditation was read: “We gaze at you, Jesus, as you are nailed to the cross. And our conscience is troubled.””

 

(source: Joe Zammit, The Times of Malta)

 

 

 

“When the death penalty is applied, it is not for a current act of aggression, but rather for an act committed in the past. Nowadays, the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime was.”

 

Pope Francis
 – in a letter to the International Commission Against the Death Penalty
(source: Joe Zammit, The Times of Malta)

 

 

 

“Torture and execution is always a profound evil, made even more abhorrent when sanctioned by the government in the name of justice, when other means of protecting society are available.”

 

Pope Francis (source: Joe Zammit, The Times of Malta)

 

 

 

“All who reverence the sanctity of human life, created in the image of God, must never remain silent when firing squads, lethal injections, electric chairs and other instruments of death are viewed as morally acceptable.”

 

Pope Francis (source: Joe Zammit, The Times of Malta)

 

 

 

“I wasn’t wrongfully convicted. I was intentionally framed.”

 

Dale Johnston – exonerated from death row, 1990 (source: Columbus Dispatch)

 

 

 

“Death row, isn’t a place fit for human beings. If we did this to canines, people would be in an uproar. But we do this to human beings every day.”

 

Ricky Jackson – A Cleveland man freed after 39 years on death row (source: Columbus Dispatch)

 

 

 

“One of the most critical issues I feel is that the death penalty system is a human system, therefore mistakes are made. Convictions and executions of innocent people can occur.”

 

Kathy Dillon – a member of Murder Victim’s Families for Reconciliation (source: WTXL news)

 

 

 

“Capital punishment is at odds with our core conservative values.” “As conservatives, we are committed to fiscal responsibility, limited government, and valuing life, and the death penalty goes against every one of them.”

 

Sen. Colby Coash, Lincoln, Neb. (source: WOWT news)

 

 

 

“The death penalty is a costly government program that we don’t use, and that does nothing to make us safer.” “It’s inefficient, and ineffective, which is why many conservatives want it repealed.”

 

Bryan Baumgart – former chairman of Douglas County Republican Party (source: WOWT news)

 

 

 

“Nebraska’s conservative lawmakers are in good company – across the country conservative values have been a driving force to end the death penalty.”

 

Matt Maly – State Coordinator of Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty
(source: WOWT news)

 

 

 

“The ‘un-ending legal process’ of the death penalty is an ‘additional torment’ of the families of murder victims.

 

Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“Nothing that the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed (Hall v. Florida) that executing defendants with intellectual disabilities serves ‘no legitimate penological purpose’, Prof. Ogletree said this reasoning could be applied to the whole death penalty: ‘The overwhelming majority of those facing execution today have what the court termed in Hall to be diminished culpability. Severe functional deficits are the rule, not the exception, among the individuals who populate the nation’s death rows.”

 

Prof. Charles Ogletree – of Harvard University Law School (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“The social histories of 100 people executed during 20012 and 20013 showed that the vast majority of executed offenders suffered from one or more significant cognitive and behavioral deficits, ‘such ach mental illness, youthful brain development, or abuse during childhood’.”

 

Hastings Law Journal – published study (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“When you examine capital punishment more closely, what you find is that the practice of the death penalty and the commitment to human dignity are not compatible.”

 

Prof. Charles Ogletree – of Harvard University Law School (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“To impose the harshest of punishments on an intellectually disabled person violates his or her inherent dignity as a human being” because the “diminished capacity of the intellectually disabled lessens moral culpability and hence the retributive value of the punishment.”

 

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“One-third of the offenders had intellectual disabilities, borderline intellectual function or traumatic brain injuries, a similarly debilitating impairment. For example, the Texas Department of Corrections determined that Elroy Chester had an IQ of 69. He attended special education classes throughout school and never functioned at a higher level than third grade. The state had previously enrolled Chester into its Mentally Retarded Offenders Program. Despite these findings, Texas executed him on June 12^th, 2013.”

 

A Study by Robert J. Smith, Sophie Cull, and Zoe Robinson, published in Hastings Law Journal
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“More than half of the 100 had a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder or psychosis. For example, for more than 40 years Florida’s own psychiatrists found that Jon Ferguson suffered from severe mental Illness. Ferguson had a fixed delusion that he was the “Prince of God” who could not be killed and would rise up after his execution and fight alongside Jesus to save the United States from a communist plot. When Ferguson was executed on August 5^th, 2013, his last words were: ‘I just want everyone to know that I am the Prince of God and I will rise again.’ A Florida court had called Mr. Ferguson’s delusions ‘normal Christian beliefs’.”

 

A Study by Robert J. Smith, Sophie Cull, and Zoe Robinson, published in Hastings Law Journal
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“Many other executed offenders endured unspeakable abuse as children. Consider Daniel Cook, whose mother drank alcohol and abused drugs while she was pregnant with him. His mother and grandparents molested him as a young child, and his father physically abused him by, for example, lighting a cigarette and using it to burn Daniel’s genitals. Eventually the state placed Daniel in foster care, but the abuse didn’t stop. A foster parent chained him nude to a bed and raped him while other adults watched from the nest room through a one-way mirror. The prosecutor responsible for Cook’s death sentence stood behind him during the clemency process, telling authorities that he would have taken the death penalty off of the table had he known of his torturous childhood. Arizona refused to commute Cook’s sentence, however, and he dies by lethal injection on August 8^th, 2012.

 

A Study by Robert J. Smith, Sophie Cull, and Zoe Robinson, published in Hastings Law Journal
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“As the execution of Elroy Chester, John Ferguson, Daniel Cook and many more like them illustrates, barring the death penalty for intellectually disabled and juvenile offenders did not solve the death penalty’s dignity problem. Rather, those cases gave us cause to look more closely at the people whom we execute. And when you look closely, what you find is that the practice of the death penalty and the commitment to human dignity are not compatible.”

 

Prof. Charles Ogletree – of Harvard University Law School (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“The death penalty is broken beyond repair in Kentucky.”

 

Joseph P. Gutmann, Stephen Ryan, and J. Stewart Schneider – three former Kentucky prosecutors advocating for repeal of the death penalty, in the Louisville Courier-Journal (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“Without question, this is a difficult issue, and efforts to ‘fix’ the death penalty in Kentucky will be costly and time-consuming. But there is one approach that is simpler and less expensive: Abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole for convicted offenders … Replacing the death penalty with life without parole is the best approach for our state – removing the possibility that an innocent person will be executed, saving limited tax dollars, protecting public safety and providing certainty and justice to the families of victims.”

 

Joseph P. Gutmann, Stephen Ryan, and J. Stewart Schneider – three former Kentucky prosecutors advocating for repeal of the death penalty, in the Louisville Courier-Journal (source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

 

 

“Having spent the last forty years as a judge for the State of Texas, of which the last eighteen years have been as a judge at this court, I have given a substantial amount of consideration to the propriety of the death penalty as a form of punishment for those who commit capital murder, and I now believe that it should be abolished.”

 

Judge Tom Price, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (source: Ex parte Panetti, dissent)

 

 

 

“Carving out another group that is ineligible for the death penalty is a band aid solution for the real problem. Evolving societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety.”

 

Judge Tom Price, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (source: Ex parte Panetti, dissent)

 

 

 

“Because the criminal justice system is run by humans, it is naturally subject to human error.”

 

Judge Tom Price, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (source: Ex parte Panetti, dissent)

 

 

 

Suggested Reading for … judges, lawyers, and lawmakers:

 

“Hitler’s Justice”, a book by Ingo Müller, a German lawyer

 

http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Justice-Courts-Third-Reich/dp/067440419X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435743247&sr=8-1&keywords=hitler%27s+justice