Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons—including all the assassins—entertain grave misgivings.
 Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1906). copy citation

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Author Ambrose Bierce
Source The Devil's Dictionary
Topic justice capital
Date 1906
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/972/972-h/972-h.htm

Context

“The seat of misgovernment. That which provides the fire, the pot, the dinner, the table and the knife and fork for the anarchist; the part of the repast that himself supplies is the disgrace before meat. Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons—including all the assassins—entertain grave misgivings. CARMELITE, n. A mendicant friar of the order of Mount Carmel.
As Death was a-rising out one day, Across Mount Camel he took his way, Where he met a mendicant monk, Some three or four quarters drunk, With a holy leer and a pious grin, Ragged and fat and as saucy as sin, Who held out his hands and cried: "Give, give in Charity's name, I pray.” source