President of the U.S., 1993-2001; Former Democratic Governor (AR)
1980s:Sought pastoral counsel on capital punishment decision
In 1976, when Clinton ran for attorney general, he told conservative Southerners that he advocated capital punishment. When he became governor, in the early
1980s, the lives of certain incarcerated citizens once again lay directly in his hands, but whereas during his first time in office he did not have spiritual guidance, now he had a pastor who could sense that
Clinton was troubled.
Clinton asked his Baptist minister, Dr. W. O. Vaught, if it was biblically permissible for him to execute a man, and Vaught told him that the death penalty was not prohibited in the original translation of the
Ten Commandments. The final decision would be Clinton's, noted Vaught, but he "must never worry about whether [the death penalty] is forbidden by the Bible, because it isn't."
In this year's budget, the White House this year wants to cut off all the federal funding for 88,000 uniformed police officers under the COPS program we've had for 10 years. Among those 88,000 police are more than 700 members of the
New York Police Department who put their lives on the line on 9/11. With gang violence rising, and with all of us looking for terrorists in our midst & hoping they're not too well armed or too dangerous, the president and the Congress are about to allow
the 10-year-old ban on deadly assault weapons to lapse. Now, they believe it's the right thing to do. But our policy was to put more police on the street and to take assault weapons off the street.
And it gave you eight years of declining crime and eight years of declining violence. Their policy is the reverse. They're taking police off the streets while they put assault weapons back on the street.
Crime has dropped, but US is still not safe enough
Crime in America has dropped for the past seven years -- the longest decline on record, thanks to a national consensus we helped to forge on community police, sensible gun safety laws, and effective prevention.
But nobody believes America is safe enough. So let’s set a higher goal: let’s make America the safest big country in the world.
Source: State of the Union Address
Jan 27, 2000
Three Strikes and You’re Out for violent criminals
Our 1994 Crime Bill and, more recently, our Anti-Terrorism Bill have matched good policing with tough punishment. We have pushed states to adopt the rule the government uses on federal prisoners, that requires them to serve 85% of their sentence without
parole. For those who commit violent crimes repeatedly, we have made “three strikes and you’re out” the law of the land.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 80
Jan 1, 1996
Death penalty for 60 violent crimes
We expanded the application of the death penalty for nearly sixty violent crimes, including murder of a federal law enforcement officer, and limited excessive death row appeals. And we have stiffened sentences for drug offenders and told those involved
with drug activities in public housing projects they only get one strike. Public housing is a privilege; abuse it and you’re out.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 80
Jan 1, 1996
More police, punishment, & prevention
The most fundamental responsibility of any government is to protect the safety of its citizens. All of the other things government does amount to very little if it fails in this task.
We will never eliminate the darkness that lurks in human nature;
there will never be a time when there is no crime, no violence in America. My goal is to create an America where news of a serious crime [is a reason for] surprise and shock, not inevitable acceptance.
To reach that goal, I believe we needed a new
approach-one that combined all the tools available to us:police, punishment, and prevention.
My 1994 Crime Bill is fulfilling my commitment to put 100,000 new police officers on the street to strengthen community policing.
Good
policing needs to be matched with tough punishment, [like] our Anti-Terrorism Bill and “three strikes” laws.
And we must prevent crime before it happens, [like with] the Brady Bill and the new National Drug Control Strategy.
