From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a commitment to stop supporting the death penalty due to its failures and moral implications.
Harry A. Blackmun's quote reflects a profound realization regarding the death penalty, highlighting his withdrawal from endorsing a system he believes to be fundamentally flawed. His statement underscores a moral and intellectual obligation to acknowledge the failures of the death penalty as an experiment, emphasizing the need for ethical reconsideration of such practices in society.
In practice
During a debate on criminal justice reform, this quote can be used to argue against the death penalty.
I cannot see any of these death penalty cases where there hasn't been a violation on the ground of either poverty or race. If we can ever get that straightened out, it will help. But, of course, the real answer to it is to do away with the death penalty.
Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the condemned prisoner can prove that he is innocent. The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder.
The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart of the Constitutions protection of privacy.
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.
In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.
I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility. . . . There are arrogant people in this world and, what is worse, arrogant judges.
Death is but a passage. It is not a house, it is only a vestibule. The grave has a door on its inner side.
The concept that one ought to restrict one's political involvement to one's own state was deeply antithetical to those who were pursuing the accumulation of capital for its own sake.
Long live the weeds that overwhelm_x000D_ _x000D_ My narrow vegetable realm!_x000D_ _x000D_ The bitter rock, the barren soil_x000D_ _x000D_ That force the son of man to toil;_x000D_ _x000D_ All things unholy, marred by curse,_x000D_ _x000D_ The ugly of the universe.
The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.
I would like you to teach [the orcs] civilised behaviour," said Ladyship coldly. He appeared to consider this. "Yes of course, I think that would be quite possible," he said. "And who would you send to teach the humans?
…gender is not sane. It's not sane to call a rainbow black and white.
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