Our lawmakers are back at work in Springfield this week. Along with the other important budgetary and social issues before them, there’s another crucial issue we think it’s time for them to take a stand on: the legality of the state killing its own citizens through capital punishment.
On Tuesday, hundreds of activists will be in Springfield for a rally, as well as to lobby state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. We agree with their stance.
Members of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are joining together with families of people wrongly sent to death row to promote their cause and push for a vote.
Illinois has had a moratorium on executions since George Ryan was governor. The Illinois death penalty system is beyond flawed, which is why it has been on pause for the past 10 years. Since 1976, 13 death row inmates in Illinois have been exonerated with DNA evidence, but we are still one of 35 states that allows inmates to be sentenced to death. Thirteen may seem like a small number, but even one innocent life ended at the hands of the state is too many.
Since the moratorium passed ten years ago, the state has passed legal reforms to guard against executing innocent people. But, in spite of the moratorium, there are still 15 people awaiting execution.
Why are we spending the time, effort and money to prosecute and house death row inmates, knowing the moratorium is not being lifted anytime in the near future?
There is no point in sentencing people to death when in all likelihood they’ll never be executed. Even if the moratorium were lifted today, with the legal complications surrounding a capital punishment case, it would be years before someone would even be put to death.
Our resources would be better spent reforming the state’s prisons, investing money in the rehabilitation of prisoners and our most vulnerable citizens, and providing for those serving life in prison.
Although Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to continue the moratorium while Illinois works through its prison reform issues, he hasn’t taken the next step to get rid of the death penalty as a whole — a step we believe the state needs to take.
Aside from the organizational mess of the Illinois prison system, the death penalty is not something we support, nor is it something we see as a useful way to move society forward. What was once considered an acceptable form of punishment is now barbaric, and with a 10-year moratorium, the threat of the death penalty has become just another aspect of governance in Illinois that people do not take seriously.
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