How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
We were told that the Indian's neck had not been broken, as was the case with the other two, and that he swung there and strangled for more than half an hour before a doctor pronounced him dead and had him lowered. (2.16)
Mattie doesn't exactly seem to disapprove of the death penalty, but she does describe it in such a way as to make us think that hanging can be really, really brutal and drawn out. Notice how she spends more time describing his death than the other men's? Her description is drawn out, just like his death. Creepy.
Quote #2
I have since learned that Judge Isaac Parker watched all the hangings from an upper window in the Courthouse. I suppose he did this from a sense of duty. There is no knowing what's in a man's heart. (2.16)
Judge Parker was a real person and he wrote extensively about his life, including his feelings on the death penalty. (He was anti.) Juries decided the guilt or innocence of men sentenced to hanging, and Parker sentenced them according to the laws at the time. But it doesn't seem like he liked it much.
Quote #3
When he died of dropsy in 1896 all the prisoners down there in that dark jail had a "jubilee" and the jailers had to put it down. (3.91)
The prisoners see Judge Parker as the human face of a justice system that they believe is treating them unjustly. They can't separate the man from the system of justice he represents—but the death penalty isn't dying with Parker.
Quote #4
"It feels like I still have fingers there but I don't." […] He talked a little more in a rambling manner and to no sensible purpose. He did not respond to questions. He is what was in his eyes: confusion. Soon it was all up with him and he joined his friend in death. He looked about thirty pounds lighter. (6.183)
Here, Mattie is describing the death of Moon, a young man about her age who was mixed up with Lucky Ned Pepper's gang. It's hard to pin down how she feels about this: on the one hand, he's one of the violent gang. On the other hand, he's just a fourteen-year-old boy, and he's dead. She's got to feel a little sad.
Quote #5
We learned that the boy was called Billy. His father ran a steam sawmill on the South Canadian River, the captain told us, and there was a large family at home. Billy was one of the eldest children and he helped his father cut timber. The boy was not known to have caused any devilment before this. (6.425)
Ugh. These guys really need an afterschool program or a Boys and Girls Club. Maybe then they'd be playing basketball or Xbox with their friends rather than hanging out with Ned Pepper and getting shot.
Quote #6
"Your life depends on their actions. I have never busted a cap on a woman or anybody much under sixteen years but I will do what I have to do." (7.59)
Ah, the Wild West, where turning sixteen means you're finally old enough to get your driver's license and get shot. Sweet.
Quote #7
He said, "Well, Rooster, I am shot to pieces!"
[…]
The ball flew to its mark like a martin to his gourd and Lucky Ned Pepper fell dead in the saddle. (7.235-37)
Ding dong, the … well, okay, we're not exactly happy to see him die. But we are happy to see that he's not going to be preying on the community's young men anymore.
Quote #8
He had been in failing health for some months, suffering from a disorder he called "night hoss," and the heat of the early summer had been too much for him. Younger reckoned his age at sixty-eight years. (7.331)
Live by the sword, die by the sword … unless you're Rooster, that is. We thought he would go down in a hail of bullets and a blaze of glory, but instead he just dies of "night hoss." But we have to ask—is it better for him to have outlived all his friends and end up in a traveling Wild West show, or would he have rather died in the line of duty?