83 Pro Death Penalty Quotes by Republicans from the U.S.A

Saturday 26 November 2011 - When asked if he stood by his 1996 legislation that would have given the death penalty to drug smugglers, he replied in the affirmative.

"I think if you are, for example, the leader of a cartel, sure," he said. "Look at the level of violence they've done to society. You can either be in the Ron Paul tradition and say there's nothing wrong with heroin and cocaine or you can be in the tradition that says, 'These kind of addictive drugs are terrible, they deprive you of full citizenship and they lead you to a dependency which is antithetical to being an American.' If you're serious about the latter view, then we need to think through a strategy that makes it radically less likely that we're going to have drugs in this country."

Gingrich suggested that Singapore, which imposes corporal punishment for minor offenses and the death penalty for drug offenses, was a role model. "Places like Singapore have been the most successful at doing that," Gingrich said. "They've been very draconian. And they have communicated with great intention that they intend to stop drugs from coming into their country."

We have two choices: We can find a way to be reasonable and surrender, or we can defeat them. [Tuesday 24 July 2007]

Electrocution still would be allowed under the bill.

Drake, R-Eucheeanna, said in a news release issued Tuesday night that he filed the bill in response to debate over the effectiveness of certain drugs used in lethal injection executions.

“So, I say let’s end the debate,” he said in the release. “We still have Old Sparky. And if that doesn’t suit the criminal, then we will provide them a .45 caliber lead cocktail instead.”

“I am sick and tired of this sensitivity movement for criminals,” Drake said. “Every time there is a warranted execution that is about to take place, some man or woman is standing on a corner holding a sign, yelling and screaming for humane treatment.

“I have no desire to humanely respect those that are inhumane,” he said in the release.

In a Waffle House in DeFuniak Springs, Drake said he heard a constituent say, "'You know, they ought to just put them in the electric chair or line them up in front of a firing squad.'" After a conversation with the person, Drake, 36, said he decided to file the bill.

"There shouldn't be anything controversial about a .45-caliber bullet. If it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it," Drake said.

He said that government is spending too much time listening to advocacy groups and instead should put in place a death sentence that forces convicted murderers to contemplate their fates.

Drake said lethal injection just allows a person to die in their sleep while a firing squad or electrocution would force Death Row inmates to think about their punishment "every morning."

"I think if you ask a hundred people, not even talking to criminals, how would you like to die, if you were drowned, if you were shot, and if you say you were put to sleep, 90 percent of some of the people would say I want to be put to sleep," Drake said. "Let's put our pants back on the right way."

But Drake said that those who caused suffering and grief for families should get their day of reckoning.

"I just don't think they should be able to get off that easy," he said.

WHEELING - Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Faircloth thinks West Virginia residents - not state lawmakers - should determine whether the Mountain State should have the death penalty.

If elected governor, Faircloth said he will propose that a constitutional amendment go before voters to decide the death penalty issue.

Faircloth said a constitutional amendment regarding the death penalty could specifically target drug dealers who take the life of another person or kill the elderly.

"You can make that constitutional amendment as narrow or as wide as you want it to be," he said. "We would want input from people across the states, prosecutors, the 134 members of the Legislature and the press. Quite frankly, I'm looking at a constitutional amendment to bring back the death penalty in this state."

“A lot of the violent crimes in West Virginia are committed by people living outside the state”, Faircloth said.

"It is so bad for law enforcement and the prosecutors to keep up," he said. "And perhaps if we sent a stronger message to those criminals, maybe they would conduct their business elsewhere or get prosecuted. If they've taken the lives of another person, they would give up their own lives for that activity.

"I'm a Christian, and we have to do something. Year by year, it is getting worse," he added. "Innocent people are dying. Officers across the country who defend us every day, their lives are being taken by people who are running criminal operations. I think it is time for somebody to step up and offer that as a solution to the problem."

Wednesday 21 March 2012 - State Reps. John T. Shaban, R-Redding, and John Hetherington, R-New Canaan, said they believe capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.

"If it protects one innocent future victim, then I think it serves its purpose," Shaban said. "It cannot be taken out of the tool box of our prosecutors."

"Only the truly guilty, guilty of the most-heinous crimes, end up on death row in Connecticut," Hetherington said.

Wednesday 21 March 2012 - State Reps. John T. Shaban, R-Redding, and John Hetherington, R-New Canaan, said they believe capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.

"If it protects one innocent future victim, then I think it serves its purpose," Shaban said. "It cannot be taken out of the tool box of our prosecutors."

Friday 26 October 2012 - State Rep. Raul Torres wants the death penalty for terrorists and drug traffickers that harm U.S. citizens and to treat cartel activities on American soil as acts of war.

The Republican candidate for state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa's seat, which includes a chunk of Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley, said in a mass email the federal government has failed to secure the border with Mexico and more is needed to safeguard American lives.

"It's high time we start treating this as a battle zone and not just some random criminal activity."

Former Delegate Craig Blair, a longtime capital punishment proponent, said he plans to testify at the hearing and hopes to see this issue on the ballot in 2011.

"I think it should be on the ballot, first of all because this issue is too big for the Legislature to decide. It should be on there for the people to decide," Blair said.

Having this kind of voter referendum on the ballot would also help increase voter participation, he said.

"They are worried about poor voter turnout for this year's gubernatorial election, but putting this on the ballot would be a good way to increase that and it would also give the people a voice. And their vote would truly make a difference," Blair said.

Justice is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. And whoever labors on this edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself, in name, and fame, and character, with that which is and must be as durable as the frame of human society.

"I'm glad to see the governor is moving toward the Republican agenda on this issue," he said. O'Brien said cost can't be a consideration on this issue. "In the end, if you were to look in the eyes of the victim of a murder right before she was murdered and say, 'I don't think we can do justice for you because it costs too much,' I don't think any one of us could do that, so this is a legitimate issue," he said.

“There's a clear message to those individuals who, for thrill, would invade our homes that that is one of the most abhorrent acts you could engage in."

"I think it's because he brings something very special to our committee to tell us. And that is the importance that there be this type of deterrence in New Hampshire."

O'Brien disagreed with death penalty opponents who claim the punishment isn't a deterrent.

"It deters those who are put to death," he said.

"We can't bring Kimberly Cates back," O'Brien said. "We can't send these young men to the fate they so deserve. But we can give a clear message to those who would think of doing this again . . . that this is such a horrific act that your community and your state will respond with the strongest, most definitive punishment that it can avail itself of."

The measure now heads to the state Senate for review.

“We believe that this legislation represents a critical enhancement of protection for those in their homes which most consider their sanctuary,” O’Brien added. “This legislation will also deliver justice for victims of these crimes and their families. This is a measured and responsible expansion of the New Hampshire death penalty statute.”

Tuesday 15 March 2011 - O'Brien, R-Mont Vernon, said after the vote the bill was a direct response to the Cates case.

"The goal of this legislation is to act as a deterrent to ensure that anyone who would consider such a heinous crime would think twice before they go forward," he said. "We believe that this legislation represents a critical enhancement of protection for those in their homes - which most people consider their sanctuary. This legislation also will deliver justice for victims of these crimes and their families. This is a measured and responsible expansion of the NH death penalty statute."

Tuesday 15 March 2011 - For House Speaker Bill O'Brien, the crime that took place in his hometown of Mont Vernon was all the motivation he needed.

"It will, I believe, deter those who seek to go into our houses for thrill killings," he said. "It will allow us to have to have greater assurance that our houses are places of respite and safety."

Tuesday 15 March 2011 - O’Brien, a Republican, said the bill will enhance protection for people in their homes. “This legislation will also deliver justice for victims of these crimes and their families,’’ he said.

Thursday 9 June 2011 - On The bill (HB 147) marks a big achievement for House Speaker William O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, who authored this bill in memory of Kimberly Cates, the Mont Vernon mother brutally stabbed to death in October 2009.

 “Our homes are our sanctuary. This legislation is a necessary enhancement of protection for those in their homes who have the right to be safe and secure,” O’Brien said in a statement after the vote.

“It will achieve justice for victims and allow for deterrence to those who would enter the homes of others to murder them.”

If the state wants to save money, the appeals process should be shortened to not waste money through endless legal action, he said.

"At some point, you can't put a price on justice. You just have to do what's right for the public," he said.

“It's reprehensible when you equate money with justice,” said Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), who supports the death penalty. “This is not a matter of money, it’s a matter of justice.” [Wednesday 21 September 2011]

Question: Would you support a ban or moratorium on death penalty cases?

Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek: "No. The death penalty is reserved for the most severe crimes imaginable. Conditioning the imposition of justice solely on the basis of cost to litigate would set a troubling precedent. Long-term incarceration is costly as well, so a moratorium would create its own problems."

Altman is no wild-eyed liberal. The Space Coast Republican calls it "inconsistent and illogical" that the law requires a unanimous verdict of guilt to convict somebody of a crime, but not to recommend that someone be put to death.

"Life is far too precious," Altman said at a recent death penalty symposium at Florida State University's law school. "It's the least that we can ask that before we give the ultimate sentence to someone that we require a unanimous verdict."

State Sen. Brent Steele (R-Bedford) and the chairman of the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee said he did not favor placing a cap on expenses.

“I think every county can afford it,” Steele said. “I know there’s a staggering cost to it, but we do it most efficiently as we can.”

According to Limehouse, a spokesperson for the Griffor family suggested the newly proposed law be named in honor of Allison. Allison Griffor died at MUSC on October 28 2011 from injuries she received when someone fired a gun through the door of her home. The incident has been the topic of much discussion, as investigators with multiple law enforcement agencies continue to look for leads that may lead to the person or persons responsible for her death.

"We want the strictest penalties we can apply. If there is a death of a person, then certainly the death penalty ought to be implied."

Attack on Texas' lethal injections is bogus
by State Sen. Kyle Janek (Republican, Houston), an anesthesiologist

In fact, the most recent survey on the subject - a Scripps Howard Texas poll conducted last year - found that 76 % of Texans support capital punishment. With one notable dip to 42 % in 1966, such a high level of public support generally has held true over the last 50 years.

Having no hope of overturning capital punishment itself at the ballot box or through the court system, a few vocal death penalty opponents, including inmates, have rolled out a new strategy to change how it is carried out. In what amounts to practicing medicine without a license, those critics have started to attack the inclusion of pancuronium bromide as one of the medications used in the lethal injection process. They claim its use is "cruel and unusual."

Is pancuronium bromide some new, untested drug whose sole purpose is to torture? Is it perhaps an exotic street drug that should be outlawed? Well, actually ... no.

Thursday 2 June 2011 - Senator Jim Luther voted for the bill. The state Senate Thursday passed a bill that expands the state’s death penalty to include murders committed during home invasions. On a one-sided voice vote, the Senate approved House Bill 147, which would take effect July 1. “I think home invasion that’s your place of solitude with your family...In your home that ought to be a place of safety, and to really penetrate that, it’s almost that it just rises to a higher level.”

“Our homes are sanctuaries and merit the protection this legislation would bring.”

"I think that you have to look at what's the penalty. We as a society have said that certain crimes, heinous crimes such as the murder of somebody, [are punished by death], I would like to actually increase the death penalty to apply to aggravated sexual assault of a child.... There are certain things that I think you are not going to rehabilitate somebody, you're going to stick them in a correctional facility for the rest of their lives. You are going to put guards in danger sometimes trying to deal with these people. I think that the proper thing to do is to permanently terminate this person, remove them from society permanently."

Monday 11 June 2012 - BOISE, Idaho — Mia Crosthwaite's protests won't save Richard Leavitt.

She knows that. Still, she will rally against Leavitt's execution Tuesday the same way she and about 100 others protested the state-ordered death of Paul Ezra Rhoades in November.

For Crosthwaite, a member of Idahoans Against the Death Penalty, it's not just Leavitt's life and the lives of 12 other Idaho death row inmates that are at stake. The struggle is about more than life and death.

It's about right and wrong.

"I could probably make an intellectual argument that the people on death row deserve to die," Crosthwaite said. "But I will never concede that other people have a right to strap them to a table and kill them."

Retiring state Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, couldn't disagree more.

For Darrington, putting Leavitt to death is a matter of justice.

"All of our attention at a time like this should be to the victim and the victim's family and the brutality involved," Darrington said. "And that's enough for me."

Darrington said he's not troubled that convicts condemned to death might be innocent, despite the fact that many death row inmates have been exonerated across the nation.

Anything's possible, he conceded, but in Leavitt's case, he has faith that then-Bingham County Prosecutor Tom Moss never would have sought the death penalty if he were unsure of Leavitt's guilt when he secured a conviction in 1985.

Overington, R-55th, a longtime proponent of capital punishment for West Virginia, has filed similar bills seeking the reinstatement every year for the last 25 years to no avail.

“The leadership has always opposed it,” he said. “They are thwarting the will of the public.”

Put simply, Overington says one motive is to prevent vigilantes from reacting to murders.

“It gives people a level of comfort that we have a fair and just society when somebody is not going to be redeemable in any way is put to death,” he said.

"The main issue that I see is capital punishment lets people know that there is a sense of justice in our society," Overington said.  "That wrongs are taken care of.  That the person who did a brutal murder or brutal killing is not going to have a special Thanksgiving dinner."

"Our society is a just society," Overington said.  "Justice will prevail in the end, and capital punishment should be a part of that justice system."

Tuesday 15 March 2011 – Overington has modified his bill, House Bill 2526, over the years. He said medical advances in DNA, along with the aggravating and mitigating circumstances outlined in the bill, make it virtually impossible for an innocent person to be sentenced to death in West Virginia.

“That’s why we have the life sentence,” Overington said during an interview last year. “If there is a shadow of a doubt, they would get life.”

Tuesday 15 March 2011 - Overington said resurrecting capital punishment in West Virginia would not be about revenge but about living in a just society, a system that conveys a more “proper sense of justice.”

“Some might say ‘Let them rot in jail,’ and I see some revenge in that. But we do live in a world where some of these people are just not going to be redeemable. There is no reason to have them live a long life in prison,” he said.

“All of our neighbors have capital punishment. Our lives should be equally as valuable.”

Monday 11 April 2011 - Last week, opponents of the death penalty had their say in Hartford advocating a bill that would abolish capital punishment in Connecticut. Monday, supporters of the death penalty, including both Republican and Democratic legislators, as well as police and fire personnel, held a similar news conference at the Legislative Office Building to promote a bill that would streamline Connecticut’s post-conviction process and shorten the appeals procedure for criminals who sit on death row.

“The people of Connecticut, by a strong majority, support the death penalty for the most heinous of crimes,” said State Rep. David Labriola, R-Oxford, one of the supporters of the bill. “We must create a workable death penalty, so the crime victim’s families can have a reasonable expectation that the sentence will in fact be carried out.”

Monday 2 May 2011 - “I would argue that there are some instances when evil is so present in a person, for example in the (2007) Cheshire killings, or Osama bin Laden,” Labriola said. “(In these cases) the only just solution is the death penalty.”