“Frollo: The sentence for insubordination is death. Such a pity. You threw away a promising career. Phoebus: Consider it my highest honor, sir.”— Irene Mecchi, Tab Murphy, Jonathan Roberts, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, Phoebus (voice), Kevin Kline, imdb.com
“I have to be sane in order for the State to put me to death? How perverse.”— Mary Leah Sutton, Joe Carroll, James Purefoy, imdb.com
“[N]ot once in the history of the American Republic has this Court ever suggested the death penalty is categorically impermissible. The reason is obvious: It is impossible to hold unconstitutional that which the Constitution explicitly contemplates. The Fifth Amendment provides that '[n]o person shal…”— Antonin Scalia, oyez.org
“It seems to me that the more Christian a country is the less likely it is to regard the death penalty as immoral. Abolition has taken its firmest hold in post-Christian Europe, and has least support in the church-going United States. I attribute that to the fact that, for the believing Christian, de…”— Antonin Scalia, firstthings.com
“That one mother who goes on television all the time, who thinks I should be given 33 injections, I think she ought to take 33 Valiums and go lay down…. If her Marine son was so great, then what the hell did he run away from home all the time?”— John Wayne Gacy, chicago.cbslocal.com
“I’m just as lovable and jokeable [sic] as I was back then. I don’t sit around worrying about the death penalty and things like that.”— John Wayne Gacy, chicago.cbslocal.com
“So if I succeed in my effort at suicide tonight then this will sure be the last I’ll ever say or write on this earth. The choice is mine and I fully realize just what I am doing. I would like to have it known just why I do this. I had no choice about coming into this world and nearly all of my 38 ye…”— Carl Panzram, amazon.com
“I want the electric chair. They should have shot me on the street. I did it, you know. You guys got me, the Stalker.”— Richard Ramirez, apnews.com
“Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner: So what's your plan? Cece Hillenbrand: Plan? Try him and fry him!”— Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie, Aaron Hotchner, Thomas Gibson, imdb.com
“Choosing life for the innocent is an easy thing to do; choosing life for the guilty is a far more difficult task. But that is what we must do if we truly stand for life.”— Helen Prejean, twitter.com
“More violence and killing is not the answer. Executions are a barbaric form of societal revenge with no place in the modern world. The death penalty only perpetuates the cycle of violence.”— Helen Prejean, twitter.com
“All human beings have the right to life — guilty people, too. Was it just the innocent that Jesus came to, or is there a way that we can stand in the dignity of all human life, even those among us who have done terrible crimes? There is no dignity in executing a person.”— Helen Prejean, twitter.com
“The sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.”— Larry Flynt, hollywoodreporter.com
“In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.”— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, amazon.com
“In a world of so much violence and killing, I just don’t believe that government itself should be part of the killing”— Bernie Sanders, huffingtonpost.com