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.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that issues of poverty and race are fundamental in death penalty cases, suggesting that addressing these issues is crucial for justice.
Harry A. Blackmun highlights the systemic inequalities present in the application of the death penalty, emphasizing that violations related to socio-economic status and racial discrimination play a significant role in such cases. He argues that to achieve true justice, these underlying issues must be addressed, ultimately pointing to the need for the abolition of the death penalty itself to prevent further injustices.
Themes
Death PenaltyJusticePovertyRaceSystemic Inequality
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference on criminal justice reform, this quote could be used to illustrate the need for systemic changes in the legal system.
More from Harry A. Blackmun
All quotes →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.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
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.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
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.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
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.
Harry A. BlackmunRead
Similar quotes
We have to work together in order to prove that genocidal campaigns will fail and lead to accountability of the perpetrators and bring justice for survivors.
Nadia MuradRead
What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal chance to obtain them.
Mary Mcleod BethuneRead
Ultimately, we must either abandon our reliance on stop and search or abandon any hope for a criminal justice system grounded in equality, impartiality and fairness.
David LammyRead
To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way effected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law.
Byron WhiteRead
Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.
Potter StewartRead
Environmental injustice is a tangible, intolerable example of an exhibited moral laxity and minimal concern for healthy standards by corporations and political structures based on the race, ethnicity, and class of those being impacted.
Bernice KingRead