Political Quotes

“An important feature of the bill that is in front of us is the death penalty. We must indulge in a little bit of historic review here so that we can inform the American public about what we are considering voting on here today. Back in the early 1970's, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the death penalty largely because the Justices felt, and they so recorded in their opinions, that there was such a large discretion granted to the jury that the courts could not be sure that the jury found either for the death penalty or against the death penalty as a result of prejudice, hate, bias, or some other freakish, and that is their word, 'freakish,' consideration that forced them in their minds to acquit, or release the man from life imprisonment, or to impose the death penalty. So the Supreme Court, as I say, struck it down. What happened? They left a window opened to determine, to allow the States to determine, how they could construct the death penalty that would meet the constitutional standards.”