Death Threats Against A Head of State
In some monarchies and republics, both democratic and authoritarian, threatening to kill the head of state and/or head of government (such as the sovereign, president, or prime minister) is considered a crime for which punishments vary. US law provides for up to 5 years in prison for threatening the President of the United States. In the United Kingdom, under the Treason Felony Act 1848, it is illegal to attempt to kill or deprive the monarch of his/her throne; this offense was originally punished with penal transportation and then was changed to the death penalty and currently the penalty is life imprisonment.
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Famous quotes containing the words death, threats, head and/or state:
“I’m afraid of needles.
I’m tired of rubber sheets and tubes.
I’m tired of faces that I don’t know
and now I think that death is starting.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism, not on the basis of preserving Catholic doctrine or preventing the corruption of her children, but simply to ward off threats to her own security and influence.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)
“O born in days when wits were fresh and clear,
And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames;
Before this strange disease of modern life,
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,
Its head o’ertaxed, its palsied hearts, was rife—”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)