There is no question that the
death penalty, as administered by the state of Illinois, has been unfair.
For the past ten years, there has
been a moratorium on state executions because former Gov. George Ryan
determined that too many errors have been found in the process, and too many
people have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, meaning they were
executed in error. There is also no question that too many of those slated for
the chair were minorities.
That is why it is especially
gratifying to see that the Illinois legislature has done away with the death
penalty, moving a bill to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk. Quinn has been a supporter of
the death penalty “when applied carefully and fairly,” but we hope he
recognizes that there is nothing fair about executing a human being.
Oh, we’re not soft on crime, or
bleeding hearts. Some crimes call for an ultimate penalty. Some criminals are
never going to be rehabilitated. Those criminals should pay the state’s
harshest penalty.
But we recognize that in Illinois,
the death penalty was not “applied carefully and fairly.”
Some in the legislature argued
that the system could be “fixed” to prevent the wrong people from being
executed. Gov. Ryan didn’t think the system could be fixed, which is why he
granted clemency to 164 Death Row inmates upon leaving office.
This is a system where the wrong
people get convicted, where Lt. Jon Burge was allowed to coerce confessions
from innocent men through brutality. Some of those men spent decades in jail
before they were exonerated. If they had been sentenced to death, the state –
in fact, we, the people – would be responsible for the wrongful death of
someone who didn’t commit the crime. It is estimated that 20 people have been
sent to Death Row in Illinois and have later been exonerated. Those are the
errors that have been caught, the lives that have been saved. According to
officials, there are 15 people currently on Illinois’ Death Row.
With so many errors in a system
that may have already taken too many innocent lives, we are glad to see Death
Row dismantled. The Senate voted 32-25 to approve the ban, even with the
backdrop of the mass murder in Tucson, Arizona three days earlier. Some
opponents of the ban pointed to that incident as one where the death penalty is
warranted. Others noted that six Chicago police officers were killed last year,
crimes that have caused prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
But emotion is hardly the best
wrapping for justice. Consideration of taking a life ought be deliberate and as
free from error as humanly possible. Since it is not humanly possible to be
error free, then it is necessary to simply abolish the practice.
Do we really want to be
responsible for the death of an innocent person? Once applied, there is no
do-overs, no make-goods. Once the execution is carried out, an apology is a
very hollow response.
We applaud Rep. Karen Yarbrough,
who sponsored the death penalty ban legislation in the state House, and Sen.
Kwame Raoul, who sponsored the corresponding Senate measure, for convincing enough
of their colleagues that taking a life requires more than fairness and more
than carefulness.
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
