Political Quotes

“the Kopetski-Mfume-Serrano amendment would replace the death penalty called for in H.R. 4092, the bill we are debating, with a bill more constitutionally morally sound and a less expensive sentence of life without parole. Mr. Chairman, H.R. 4092 would apply the death penalty, as my colleagues know, to over 60 new Federal offenses. Yet, in February of this year, Supreme Court Justice Blackmun stated--and I quote, that ``[t]wenty years have passed since this court declared that the death penalty must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable consistency or not at all,'' and he said, ``despite the effort of the states and courts to devise legal formulas and procedural rules to meet this daunting challenge, ``Justice Blackmun said,'' the death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice and mistake.'' History shows us, if we are wise, that minorities have continuously received a disproportionate share of society's harshest punishments, from slavery to lynchings. The race of the victim also constitutes a factor in the discriminatory fashion in which the death penalty is applied. The GAO stated, and I quote, that ``those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks,'' when we all know, as we must, all murder is wrong. Moreover, a large body of evidence shows that innocent people are often convicted of crimes, including capital crimes, and that some of them have been executed.”