A Quote by Torbjorn Tannsjo
I want to think that there are better ways of obviating murder than to resort to capital punishment, but I realise that this may be wishful thinking on my part.
Quote Topics
Quote Author
Related Quotes
We have a legal system, and this is not something that happens all the time. We have capital punishment. America has capital punishment. Iran has capital punishment. Iran hangs people and leaves their bodies hanging on cranes. Iran put to death more than a thousand people last year. I don't see EU reporting on it.
It doesn't make any difference if you are in favor of capital punishment or if you are opposed to capital punishment. The fact of the matter is that as a viable penalty, capital punishment does not work at this time and has not worked in the State of Florida for many, many years.
To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands.
Wishful thinking did not give Oregonians the bottle bill. Wishful thinking did not give the public access to beaches. Nor can we expect wishful thinking to turn around a decades-long disinvestment in our higher education system.
I'm disappointed that my own Catholic Church has decided that capital punishment is wrong. Which is pretty hypocritical if you think about it, because they wouldn't even have a religion if it wasn't for capital punishment.
I have been brought up in a culture where capital punishment is indeed anathema. I have always thought of myself as a principled opponent to capital punishment. However, when thinking about how the topic is handled in other cultures, in particular the American, Russian and Chinese ones, I have realised that my own tack on the issue was utterly superficial.
But this is not to say that the society which inflicts capital punishment commits murder.
We are concerned here only with the imposition of capital punishment for the crime of murder, and when a life has been taken deliberately by the offender, we cannot say that the punishment is invariably disproportionate to the crime. It is an extreme sanction suitable to the most extreme of crimes.
Violence never really deals with the basic evil of the situation. Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn’t murder lie; it doesn’t establish truth. Violence may even murder the dishonest man, but it doesn’t murder dishonesty. Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn’t solve any problems.
Countries and states which have capital punishment have a much higher rate of murder and crime than countries that do not, so that makes sense to me, and the moral question - I struggle with it morally.
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel and empty mockery. If not remedied, the scandalous state of our present system of capital punishment will cast a pall of shame over our society for years to come. We cannot let it continue.
The long and distressing controversy over capital punishment is very unfair to anyone meditating murder.
Any belief in Creators or Purpose is wishful thinking. And when you point out that perhaps ALL thinking is wishful, reactions of intense irritation give evidence that we are not dealing with logic but with faith.
Everybody believes that capital punishment is wrong, but when they look at certain cases, they're quick to say, 'Put them to death,' or scream 'capital punishment.'
It is hard to tell if capital punishment has such an effect. And even if, in some contexts it has (such as in the American South with a very high incidence of murder), this effect may very well go away if a decent welfare state was replaced for the existing social order.
Related Authors
Alexander Gustafsson Quotes
Swedish
Mixed Martial Artist
Dag Hammarskjold Quotes
Swedish
Diplomat
Emanuel Swedenborg Quotes
Swedish
Scientist
Greta Thunburg Quotes
Swedish
Environmentalist
Ingmar Bergman Quotes
Swedish
Director
Jens Lekman Quotes
Swedish
Musician
Joel Kinnaman Quotes
Swedish
Actor
Lykke Li Quotes
Swedish
Musician
Mats Wilander Quotes
Swedish
Athlete
Max von Sydow Quotes
Swedish
Actor
Peter Sunde Quotes
Swedish
Businessman
Steig Larsson Quotes
Swedish
Journalist
Stellan Skarsgard Quotes
Swedish
Actor
Sven-Goran Eriksson Quotes
Swedish
Manager
Tobias Forge Quotes
Swedish
Musician
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Quotes
Swedish
Athlete