Death penalty quotes

“Till they invent a trigger a woman can't pull, if you're a hang man, you're going to hang woman.”
Tim Roth - Oswaldo Mobray

When the handbill says "dead or alive", the rest of us just shoot you in the back from up on top a perch somewhere and bring you in dead over a saddle. But when John Ruth “The Hangman” catches you... You hang!
Samuel L. Jackson - Major Marquis Warren

“- Esteban: Do you wish for a blindfold?
- Charlotte Taylor Wilson: No. The eyes of freedom will always see through the blindfolds of tyranny. And the bonds of oppression will always be broken with muscles of liberty.”

Ron Leibman - Esteban
Lauren Hutton - Charlotte Taylor Wilson

“You may hand us over to the executioner, but in three months time, the disgusted and harried people will bring you to book and drag you alive through the dirt in the streets.”

David Schofield - Erwin von Witzleben

“When a man asks for someone to spend his last hour with, you give it to him.”
Tony Plana - Warden El Fuego

“Contemplate this on the tree of woe. Crucify him!”
James Earl Jones - Thulsa Doom

- Sister Helen Prejean: What he was involved with was evil. I don't condone it. I just don't see the sense of killing people to say that killing people's wrong.
- Guard #1: You know what the Bible say, "An eye for an eye".
- Sister Helen Prejean: You know what else the Bible ask for death as a punishment? For adultery, prostitution,... (continue)(continue reading)

Susan Sarandon - Sister Helen Prejean
Walter Breaux Jr. - Guard #1

“- Young Elizabeth: I think it'd be rather exciting to meet a pirate.
- Norrington: Think again, Miss Swann. Vile and dissolute creatures, the lot of them. I intend to see that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: a short drop and a sudden stop.”
Lucinda Dryzek - Young Elizabeth
Jack Davenport - Norrington

“Does a man have the right to let himself be put to death for the truth? Could it possibly please God? He wants us to have peace, happiness. Not to bring suffering on ourselves.”
August Diehl - Franz Jägerstätter

“- Juror #3: You're talkin' about a matter of *seconds!* Nobody can be that accurate!
- Juror #8: Well, I think testimony that can put a boy into the electric chair should be that accurate.”

Lee J. Cobb - Juror 3
Henry Fonda - Juror 8

“- Sheriff Burnett: Tell me something, old-timer. Are we within the jurisdiction of Snow Hill County?
- Coachman: Yep. You can arrest or hang anyone you want.”
Frank Wolff - Sheriff Gideon Burnett
Benito Pacifico - Coachman

“- Victorinus: We're in command now Livius, the throne is yours.
- Senator: Gaius Mettelus Livius, the people are asking for you.
- Livius: You would not find me very suitable, because my first official act would be to have you all crucified.”
George Murcell - Victorinus
Finlay Currie - Senator
Stephen Boyd - Livius

“Nothing about this case will be dead until Garrett is executed.”
Philip Bourneuf - Dist. Atty. Roy Thompson

“You get engaged to my daughter, and all you can think about is capital punishment?”

Sidney Blackmer - Austin Spencer

“I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.”

Humphrey Bogart - Samuel Spade

“Pascal is accused of treason, and if convicted faces the death penalty. He says in that eventuality he would like to donate his brain to the study of the causes of hypomanic schizophrenia.”

Trevor McDonald - Newscaster

“A toast? Yeah. To high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and - Oh! Oh, my personal favorite - and had their entrails cut out and burned! So... Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what...” (continue)(continue reading)
Nicolas Cage - Benjamin Franklin Gates

“You only need to hang mean bastards, but mean bastards you need to hang.”
Kurt Russell - John Ruth

“It smells like the goddamn electric chair in here.”
Michael Murphy - Lt. Don Parker

- First Centurion: What you mean "Could be worse"?
- Matthias, Son of Deuteronomy of Gath: You could be stabbed.
- First Centurion: Stabbed? Takes a second. Crucifixion lasts hours. It's a slow, horrible death.
- Matthias, Son of Deuteronomy of Gath: At least it gets you out in the open air.

John Marwood Cleese - First Centurion
John Young - Matthias, Son of Deuteronomy of Gath

“The death penalty. It's nothin' new; it's been with us for centuries. We've buried people alive; lopped off their heads with an axe; burned them alive at a public square... gruesome spectacles. In this century, we kept searchin' for more and more humane ways... of killin' people that we didn't like. We've shot 'em with firing squads; suffocated...” (continue)(continue reading)

Robert Prosky - Hilton Barber

“He’s asking if I ought to kill a man for some corn ... I don’t know ... See here, lieutenant, you steal our corn we got nothing to feed the hog. If we can’t feed the hog we got nothing to put in the smokehouse, we got nothing to put in the smokehouse we starve in the winter. That’s murder, ain’t it? You know what the penalty for murder is, don’t...” (continue)(continue reading)

Matthew McConaughey - Newton Knight

“- Percy Wetmore: Adios, Chief! Drop us a card from Hell, let us know if it's hot enough...
- Brutus 'Brutal' Howell: He's paid what he's owed; he's square with the house again, so keep your goddamn hands off him!”

Doug Hutchison - Percy Wetmore
David Morse - Brutus 'Brutal' Howell

“What kind of a monster am I? I mean, we can't have two men in the same cell. That's not humane. Well, there's only one thing to do. We'll just have to have an execution tonight.”
Rod Steiger - Kallin

“They got my buddy, man. Now they're going to kill him and that pretty lady. How am I going to let them do that? Did you see the way she walked to her fate? Nothing but class. She's the love of my life, no shit. Beats the hell out of all of them.”
Nick Nolte - Ray Hicks