Political Quotes

“as I have mentioned before, I favor the procedural form in the bill before us as it was reported, because I take the need for these reforms seriously. I support the death penalty in appropriate cases, and I believe that it should be carried out when the time comes. I believe that the time for this ultimate penalty should not be delayed over and over and over again by repeated, redundant, and frivolous petitions. Those who bring the petitions are morally opposed to capital punishment. I respect that view. However, their view is not the prevalent law of the land in most of the States, and they should not be allowed to use that moral preference to just delay and delay and delay. Mr. Chairman, I think that the general proposal made by the gentleman from Illinois is a fair one. I supported it in committee and intend to support it on the floor of the House, at least as it was reported. I do not know what amendments will come from the other side. However, Mr. Chairman, I also strongly believe that to put people on trial for their very lives without giving them good counsel is fundamentally unfair and ultimately outrageous. It is not worthy of all the good and decent and fair things that make us proud of our country and of our unique system of justice. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, the sad truth is that we do just that in far too many cases. The greatest single cause of error in death penalty cases is poor counsel at trial.”