Political Quotes

“one of the important elements that is contained in the bill that we are going to be considering in both general debate and then which will itself be subjected to amendments later, is the death penalty to which the chairman has alluded in his remarks. In the past, we have had monumental discussion and debate over this important issue. We ought to begin this debate and make it abundantly clear that the American people support by overwhelming majorities the imposition of the death penalty in the brutal murders that they read about day after day or see depicted on television. We have been struggling for a generation in this Chamber to convince those who oppose the death penalty, those Members of Congress who oppose the death penalty, that first we ought to have a death penalty and second that they should not stand in the way, those who oppose the death penalty, in crafting procedures so that the death penalty, when imposed, will meet the constitutional standards and not just line up people on death row who, with appeal after appeal, will avert the final judgment that has been conferred upon them by their fellow citizens. This is an important portion of the debate which is forecast now by me in which I want to lay down some forecasts and some warnings.…”