Richard Dieter Quotes (37 Quotes)

No one wants to see an innocent person executed, whichever side of the political aisle you're on.

The year 2005 may be remembered as the year that life without parole became an acceptable alternative to the death penalty in the U.S.. More states are adopting this alternative as death-penalty problems persist.

The issue has multiple sides to it, so it's not so easy to pummel your opponent with it. (Politicians) don't want to be seen abolishing the death penalty permanently but don't want to be seen as cavalier about it, either.

The assumption was that if an attorney could represent any criminal case, then they could do a death penalty case.

There's still debate, but it doesn't frame the issue as strongly as someone who's saying the statute is unfair or begging for his life.

You can plead guilty, but you can't plead death. You can request it.

Mental health will increasingly be reviewed. I think governors sense it's permissible to make these kinds of decisions. The death penalty is being debated everywhere.

The court may be willing to broaden what can be considered as a civil rights claim.

What's needed is some growing evidence from the states that they want to ban executing minors. More state governors and legislatures have to weigh in. They need some momentum in the next year or two for the justices to say, now is the time to decide this.

California will have to decide, is this a risky process Does it cause pain Are there alternatives I don't see any chance of this case ending the death penalty. But it does raise certain life issues that could affect the larger death-penalty debate.

A lot of states seem comfortable with a stalemate on the death penalty. Executions are rare in most states but they're not ready to get rid of them.

I think it would be the final straw for a lot of people who are on the fence on the death penalty.

I think we're in a period where the death penalty will be used more judiciously. The bottom line is each year for the past four or five years the number of death sentences have been down, so there's something going on here.

When the death penalty becomes real, it focuses people on the issue.

Every lawyer worth his salt is putting in a lethal injection challenge.

If you find an innocent man who has been executed, that's a final nail through that.

The states are cutting back on their use of the death penalty, while the federal government is expanding.

It actually may create more death because the person facing the death penalty for this kind of offense might be inclined to say, 'No greater punishment incurred if I killed the victim.

The final argument (of death penalty advocates) is that no innocent person has been executed.

The thing that stands out to me is the breadth of the decline, ... I think if it were just one year or one of those numbers, it would be less consequential. What we're witnessing is a pullback from the death penalty across the country.

Sometimes you get the wrong person. Sometimes you are driven by prejudices.

New Jersey has stopped all executions. Four stays of execution have been granted on this issue in various states. The US supreme court has taken a case related to this issue.

The Constitution doesn't demand perfection. I think the court's going to accept something less than 100 percent perfection because they're not going to be willing to say we can't have a death penalty.

Whether this act (lying to agents) fits the federal death penalty law may have been a tougher question without his testimony. Whether his acts a month or months ahead of time directly caused these deaths is a good question. The fact that the defendant himself says they were directly connected doesn't necessarily prove it, but it was enough for the jury.

You want to put on a case that enables the jury to see the humanity of this person.

Someone, either a judge or a jury, must determine beyond a reasonable doubt that government has proven an aggravating factor beyond guilt.

It's a reasonable, cautionary vote. It doesn't necessarily indicate leanings toward death penalty defendants. But at least he's going to be his own person.

I don't think this (Morales) case is going to be the end of the death penalty or an insolvable problem. But for the short term, this is a mess.

This stage of the penalty phase was probably harder for the government, but that was before he took the stand and connected all the dots for the jury.

Florida's all alone out here. That's something that usually gets the (U. S.) Supreme Court's attention. Sometimes you want to preempt that and change your own law before the Supreme Court steps in and you have no law.

We as a country have been dramatically changing our notions about clemency and the death penalty in the past half decade.

There's now considerable public skepticism about whether all those being executed are really guilty and that has cast doubt on the whole system.

This is a proper action for the governor to take. It's not right to shy away from a difficult question or even shy away from reopening cases when there is a chance that something new might be learned.

Lethal injection is the only method being used now, for all practical purposes. The chemicals are almost the same in all the states, and they're being challenged in all the states.

This seems to be cobbled together in short notice and without significant review. It's not absolutely essential that each person be executed on time, if there's this kind of uncertainty. I find it somewhat amazing that they could have a judge change the procedure and then change it again all while this person's not knowing even how he's going to be executed.

This is an issue that is ultimately going to have to be resolved by the Supreme Court. Because you're ultimately not likely ever going to have doctors in the execution chamber.

It would be counterproductive to force the issue, then have a 5-4 vote that juveniles can be executed, ... The issue then may not be revisited for a long time. It may be a better thing for the issue to percolate, for states to ban executing minors on their own, instead of being forced to by the courts.