Political Quotes

“I have decided that the GOP should rename their 100-day legislative agenda the Assault on America. I am truly disturbed with the short-sighted and politically misguided attempts by those on the other side of the aisle to limit individual liberties and establish an eye-for-an-eye justice system in the United States. Their irrational cries for vengeance as a form of crime control do nothing but blind society to the real solutions to the problems with which we are confronted and inevitably heighten divisiveness among varying races and socioeconomic classes across our Nation. We have a perfect example of this, Mr. Chairman, in the bill before us, H.R. 729, the Effective Death Penalty Act. The title of this legislation is an absolute oxymoron. No study that I am aware of has ever proven the deterrent effect of the death penalty, and yet the leadership wants to accelerate the rate of executions in this country while at the same time greatly curtailing the rights of defendants to receive not only adequate representation and fair trials, but also sufficient protections against wrongful executions. No matter what your stance on the death penalty, I firmly believe that few in America wish to run the risk of putting an innocent person to death.”