A Quote by Potter Stewart

These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.

Potter Stewart

Quote Topics

Being Cruel Death Death Sentence Lightning Same Sentences Struck Unusual Way

Quote Author

Potter Stewart
American - Judge
January 23, 1915 - December 7, 1985

It's absolutely clear that whatever cruel and unusual punishments may - may mean with regard to future things, such as death by injection or the electric chair, it's clear that - that the death penalty, in and of itself, is not considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Antonin Scalia

Society's mores have changed, and what used to be thought not to be cruel and unusual now is thought to be cruel and unusual.

Antonin Scalia

Everyone is afraid of you and when folk are afraid of a person it usually means the person is cruel in some way, and I think you are cruel, Miss Marquess, but please don’t punish me for saying it. I think you know you’re cruel. I think you like being cruel. I think calling you cruel is the same as calling someone else kind. And I don’t want to run errands for someone cruel.

Catherynne M. Valente

The government considers the aborting of innocent unborn children a natural right. Yet, there is widespread debate still about whether the death penalty for convicted murderers is "cruel and unusual punishment."

Joseph Farah

Capital punishment is neither cruel nor unusual.

Michael J. Knowles

I feel like you can look inside me and see all the places I am odd or unusual and fit your heart around them, for you are odd and unusual in just the same way. We are the same.

Cassandra Clare

We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don't. There is no middle ground.

Leon Panetta

Today the Internal Revenue Code constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. A flat tax would be an enormous step forward.

Arlen Specter

God is cruel and not cruel. He is all being and not being at the same time. Hence He is all contradictions. Nature also is nothing but a mass of contradictions.

Swami Vivekananda

With respect to the death penalty, I believe that a majority of the Supreme Court will one day accept that when the state punishes with death, it denies the humanity and dignity of the victim and transgresses the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That day will be a great day for our country, for it will be a great day for our Constitution.

William J. Brennan

The thematically related 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Brokeback Mountain' reinforced the narrative that gays like Mr. Shepard are regularly isolated for cruel and unusual attacks.

Andrew Breitbart

We have laws against torture. The Constitution says nothing whatever about torture. It speaks of punishment; 'cruel and unusual' punishments are forbidden.

Antonin Scalia

Afraid no, I wasn't afraid but it was an unusual thing, it was an unusual feeling. It was an unusual atmosphere for me having grown up in this country and, and, and never seeing anything like that.

Ralph Boston

These stories of people with unusual powers and unusual appearances, who do unusual things, people are always fascinated by them.

Stan Lee

It is inevitable that, in the process of teaching an Asian religion in a Western country, many of the teachings will seem strange or unusual - in the same way that Christianity and Judaism may seem strange and unusual to people from the Far East.