Political Quotes

“That is a concern. It is probably not a popular one to talk about on the campaign trail, but you have to look at it from the standpoint too of the person who is charged. And of course, by this point they have been convicted, they have had due process of law, they have had a full, good attorney, full-blown trials and they have had appeals. But they still have certain rights, especially when we are talking about the ultimate penalty, the death penalty. But as we talked before, this bill that we passed today I think brings the pendulum back, the balance back into the system, particularly in capital cases, particularly in the time and economics of it and the actual deterrence of it. That is something that is very frequently talked about, that really the death penalty is not a deterrent. I do believe it is a deterrent, but to be an even better deterrent it has to be done like any punishment, swiftly. Those are the two things, it has to be certain punishment and swift punishment to be an effective deterrent. We have lost that in our society, particularly with the death penalty, and I think once we get this process going and up to speed, as it should be, while protecting the rights of the defendant, which I think it does, I think we will have an effective deterrent.”