“Once you accept the notion that the state has the right to kill someone and the right to define what is a capital crime, aren't you halfway there?”
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mr-death-the-rise-and-fall-of-fred-a-leuchter-jr-2000 of Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (4 February 2000)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Context: The ability of so many people to live comfortably with the idea of capital punishment is perhaps a clue to how so many Europeans were able to live with the idea of the Holocaust: Once you accept the notion that the state has the right to kill someone and the right to define what is a capital crime, aren't you halfway there?
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Roger Ebert 264
American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter 1942–2013Related quotes
“I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights.”
2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011
“A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.”
New York Times, 2 October 1977
Nick Rostu, p. 251
Shatterpoint (2004)
Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
“Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.”
Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 83
Memoirs (1993)
Context: What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.
Jornal do Brasil - Por que não sou liberal http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/semana/070308jb.html (8 March 2007)