{
  "type": "topic",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "name": "capital punishment",
  "slug": "capital-punishment",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment",
  "heading": "Quotes about capital punishment",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment.md",
  "quotes_count": 9,
  "authors_count": 9,
  "parent": {
    "name": "punishment",
    "slug": "punishment",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment",
    "heading": "Quotes about punishment"
  },
  "children": [],
  "quotes": [
    {
      "id": "717fd08b-b7a6-4633-ac63-cbf14cfe6178",
      "slug": "after-all-many",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/after-all-many",
      "text": "After all, many people feel today that it is morally indefensible to hang a man, even if he has raped and killed a child, but I could not forget how easily we ourselves had taken to killing during the war. Some of the most civilized people I had known had been the most proficient.",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Wilfred Thesiger",
        "slug": "wilfred-thesiger",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "Arabian Sands",
        "slug": "arabian-sands",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 94,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "violence",
          "slug": "violence",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence"
        },
        {
          "name": "civilization",
          "slug": "civilization",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger#Arabian_Sands_(1959)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:02"
    },
    {
      "id": "5aaaa54b-74bb-4c5b-a2e8-634a1141b5cb",
      "slug": "and-were-not",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little/and-were-not",
      "text": "'And we're not just talking executions here—were talking the ultimate reality TV, where the public can monitor, via cable or internet, prisoners' whole lives on death row. They can live amongst them, so to speak, and make up their own minds about a convict's worthiness for punishment. Then each week, viewers across the globe can cast a vote to decide which prisoner is executed next. It's humanity in action—the next logical step toward true democracy.'",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "DBC Pierre",
        "slug": "dbc-pierre",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "Vernon God Little",
        "slug": "vernon-god-little",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "media",
          "slug": "media",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vernon_God_Little#Act_V._Me_ves_y_sufres",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:15"
    },
    {
      "id": "4d8b3f86-ae64-463f-a592-fa959bc81b88",
      "slug": "a-man-who",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing/new-grub-street/a-man-who",
      "text": "'A man who comes to be hanged,' pursued Jasper, impartially, 'has the satisfaction of knowing that he has brought society to its last resource. He is a man of such fatal importance that nothing will serve against him but the supreme effort of law. In a way, you know, that is success.'",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "George Gissing",
        "slug": "george-gissing",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "New Grub Street",
        "slug": "new-grub-street",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing/new-grub-street"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 3,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "irony",
          "slug": "irony",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Gissing#New_Grub_Street:_A_Novel_(1891)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "53a7fa82-95a9-4714-9a88-0b6d966f25fb",
      "slug": "how-come-life",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jesse-ventura/i-aint-got-time-to-bleed/how-come-life",
      "text": "How come life in prison doesn't mean life? Until it does, we're not ready to do away with the death penalty. Stop thinking in terms of \"punishment\" for a minute and think in terms of safeguarding innocent people from incorrigible murderers. Americans have a right to go about their lives without worrying about these people being back out on the street. So until we can make sure they're off the street permanently, we have to grit our teeth and put up with the death penalty. So we need to work toward making a life sentence meaningful again. If life meant life, I could, if you'll excuse the pun, live without the death penalty. We don't have it here in Minnesota, thank God, and I won't advocate to get it. But I will advocate to make life in prison mean life. I don't think I would want the responsibility for enforcing the death penalties. There's always the inevitable question of whether someone you gave the order to execute might truly have been innocent.",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Jesse Ventura",
        "slug": "jesse-ventura",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jesse-ventura"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed",
        "slug": "i-aint-got-time-to-bleed",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jesse-ventura/i-aint-got-time-to-bleed"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura#I_Ain't_Got_Time_To_Bleed_(1999)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:49"
    },
    {
      "id": "23e79234-e74e-45d7-a4cc-6f9bcf84b860",
      "slug": "what-a-fine",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist/what-a-fine",
      "text": "What a fine thing capital punishment is! Dead men never repent; dead men never bring awkward stories to light. Ah! it's a fine thing for the trade! Five of them strung up in a row, and none left to play booty or turn white-livered!",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Charles Dickens",
        "slug": "charles-dickens",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "Oliver Twist",
        "slug": "oliver-twist",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "irony",
          "slug": "irony",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:33"
    },
    {
      "id": "b09475d9-357f-4a84-add0-5d304793f8c0",
      "slug": "when-i-was",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron/darkness-visible/when-i-was",
      "text": "When I was a young writer there had been a stage where Camus, almost more than any other contemporary literary figure, radically set the tone for my own view of life and history. I read his novel The Stranger somewhat later than I should have — I was in my early thirties — but after finishing it I received the stab of recognition that proceeds from reading the work of a writer who has wedded moral passion to a style of great beauty and whose unblinking vision is capable of frightening the soul to its marrow. The cosmic loneliness of Meursault, the hero of that novel, so haunted me that when I set out to write The Confessions of Nat Turner I was impelled to use Camus’s device of having the story flow from the point of view of a narrator isolated in his jail cell during the hours before his execution. For me there was a spiritual connection between Meursault’s frigid solitude and the plight of Nat Turner — his rebel predecessor in history by a hundred years — likewise condemned and abandoned by man and God. Camus’s essay “Reflections on the Guillotine” is a virtually unique document, freighted with terrible and fiery logic; it is difficult to conceive of the most vengeful supporter of the death penalty retaining the same attitude after exposure to scathing truths expressed with such ardor and precision. I know my thinking was forever altered by that work, not only turning me around completely, convincing me of the essential barbarism of capital punishment, but establishing substantial claims on my conscience in regard to matters of responsibility at large. Camus was a great cleanser of my intellect, ridding me of countless sluggish ideas, and through some of the most unsettling pessimism I had ever encountered causing me to be aroused anew by life’s enigmatic promise.",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "William Styron",
        "slug": "william-styron",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "Darkness Visible",
        "slug": "darkness-visible",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron/darkness-visible"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Styron#Darkness_Visible_(1990)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "32f4480d-52cf-41e4-a969-5385e6f179d4",
      "slug": "in-the-disposition",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote/in-cold-blood/in-the-disposition",
      "text": "In the disposition of capital cases in the United States, the median elapsed time between sentence and execution is approximately seventeen months. [...] However, even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune [...].",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Truman Capote",
        "slug": "truman-capote",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "In Cold Blood",
        "slug": "in-cold-blood",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote/in-cold-blood"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "law",
          "slug": "law",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Truman_Capote#In_Cold_Blood_(1965)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:47"
    },
    {
      "id": "5895da9d-9380-4543-b130-78df225a6ffa",
      "slug": "to-kill-someone",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-idiot/to-kill-someone",
      "text": "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.",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Fyodor Dostoyevsky",
        "slug": "fyodor-dostoyevsky",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "The Idiot",
        "slug": "the-idiot",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-idiot"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky#The_Idiot_(1868%E2%80%939)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:23"
    },
    {
      "id": "aab4b9ae-9819-4bfc-9ca0-0483189f1b0f",
      "slug": "the-execution-was",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/the-execution-was",
      "text": "The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables.",
      "language": "en",
      "author": {
        "name": "Jorge Luis Borges",
        "slug": "jorge-luis-borges",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges"
      },
      "book": {
        "title": "Ficciones",
        "slug": "ficciones",
        "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones"
      },
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "irony",
          "slug": "irony",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony"
        },
        {
          "name": "bureaucracy",
          "slug": "bureaucracy",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/bureaucracy"
        },
        {
          "name": "capital punishment",
          "slug": "capital-punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges#Ficciones_(1944)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20"
    }
  ]
}