ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE THROWS BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER

I would expect nothing less from the most liberal newspaper in the U.S. than its on-going campaign against the death penalty.

There is no question in my mind that capital punishment serves as a deterrent against premeditated murders and against murders committed during the commission of a felony such as a rape, kidnapping, robbery or burglary.

I am sure innocent persons have been executed and that is an enormous tragedy. I most certainly do not want to see an innocent person executed no matter how bad his criminal record might be. But instead of doing away with a valuable preventive tool, lets make sure that the defendant in a capital case is given every opportunity to prove his innocense.

My friend Jay, who forwarded me this Times editorial, asks: When are we going to see [state senator] Rodney Ellis's proposed legislation on Eyewitness/Photo ID procedures ; mandatory taping of interogations/confessions, etc. passed by the [Texas] legislature?

Those are worthwhile measures but the key to a proper defense is the service of excellent attorneys in the defendant’s behalf. That’s why I have long held that defendants in a capital case who cannot afford the best of attorneys be provided a defense team with investigators and the ability to call expert witnesses, all at the state’s expense and no matter the cost. That would not only ensure a good defense in all capital cases, but the cost would also keep prosecutors from seeking the death penalty for all but the worst murderers.

Instead of taking steps to ensure a good defense for capital murder defendants, the Illinois legislature elected to throw the baby out with the bath water. I can only hope that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn does not, contrary to the wishes of The New York Times, sign the legislation outlawing capital punishment. The death of that bill would put the safety of the Illinois public ahead of the concerns of do-gooders.

ILLINOIS AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The New York Times
January 13, 2011

Eleven years after gross injustice compelled a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois, the State Legislature has concluded that the only way to guard against execution of the innocent is to outlaw the death penalty. Gov. Pat Quinn, who has sent mixed signals in the past, should quickly sign the legislation into law.

Former Gov. George Ryan declared the moratorium in 2000 in the face of a running scandal of faulty trials that cost innocent inmates their lives. Three years later, Mr. Ryan stunned the nation by commuting 167 death row felons to life terms and calling for a hard look at the business of state-sanctioned death. (Mr. Ryan subsequently went to prison for statehouse corruption, but the flaws of capital punishment remained clear, as dramatically confirmed now by the Legislature.)

Under prodding from outside investigators, the state has had to free 20 inmates from death row since 1987. It has also enacted some commendable reforms. These included mandatory taping of interviews with homicide suspects — a measure that followed tales of torture in notorious Chicago precinct houses.

But other vital reforms to clean up forensic lab abuses and stage-managed witness identifications were rejected. And for all the official study, caution and reforms of the past decade, the Legislature found the system still riddled with risk and doubt.

Fifteen inmates are now on death row under the open-ended moratorium as prosecutors continue to pursue capital punishment. Most recently, two condemned men convicted on the basis of confessions were exonerated by DNA evidence.

Governor Quinn said last fall that he supported the moratorium as well as capital punishment “applied carefully and fairly.” Illinois’s own experience has shown why that is not possible. Most modern nations, and 15 states in this country, have rightly abandoned the barbarism of state executions. The sanctity of human life and the honor of the state require Governor Quinn to lead Illinois beyond its wrenching history of wrongful death-row convictions.