I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people...The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off.
Interpretation
Executions are outdated and fail to address the real issues of justice and revenge.
In this quote, Albert Pierrepoint expresses his belief that capital punishment is not a solution to crime or societal issues, but rather an outdated response rooted in a desire for vengeance. He argues that this practice shifts the burden of revenge onto others, and highlights the inherent contradictions and inequalities in deciding who deserves such a penalty, revealing the flaws in our justice system.
In practice
During a debate on the morality of capital punishment, this quote can effectively highlight the need for reform in the justice system.
It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree....I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.
I remember, I remember The fir-trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky; It was a childish ignorance, But now 't is little joy To know I'm farther off from heaven Than when I was a boy.
Good-bye -- if you hear of my being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease or falling down the cellar stairs.
Fantasy flows in where fact leaves a vacuum.
I think a person has to believe in something,_x000D_ or search out some kind of faith;_x000D_ otherwise life is empty, nothing._x000D_ How can you live not knowing why the cranes fly,_x000D_ why children are born, why there are stars in the sky..._x000D_ Either you know why you live,_x000D_ or it's all small, unnecessary bits.
It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world.
All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself.
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