Quinn signed the legislation in his Capitol office surrounded by longtime opponents of capital punishment in a state where flaws in the process led to the exoneration of numerous people sentenced to death.
"For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death," Quinn wrote in his signing statement. "This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal reflection."
"Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it," Quinn wrote. "With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case."
"For the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or release," the governor wrote.
A small group of lawmakers also was on hand, including lead sponsors Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, and Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago. Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago also attended. Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, who lobbied Quinn to sign the ban, was there.
The ban comes about 11 years after then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state's nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them.
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down death penalty statutes in 40 states, including Illinois. Five years later, Illinois reinstated capital punishment, and it has been among the 35 states that currently allow executions. Illinois could join New York, New Jersey and New Mexico, all of which have done away with the death penalty in the last three years.
The death penalty ban would take effect July 1.
Quinn did not have to immediately act on the 15 death row inmates, but chose to commute their sentences to life in prison.
One of them is Brian Dugan, sentenced to death for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, of Naperville. Dugan had been serving two life sentences for two other rape-murder cases, but his death sentence brought a major chapter of a long-running, controversial case to a close. Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez — two of three men originally charged with the girl's murder — served years on death row before they were cleared.
As Quinn campaigned for governor last fall, he held firm to the moratorium as a way to see how well the reforms are working. The governor also said he supported the death penalty for the worst crimes.
Quinn made his decision after an intense lobbying effort from those on both sides of the issue.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and other prosecutors urged Quinn to veto the ban and take a hard-line stance to keep the death penalty.
The governor also heard from anti-death-penalty luminaries including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sister Helen Prejean, a New Orleans nun whose time spent with a condemned inmate became the basis for the movie "Dead Man Walking."
Family members of murder victims also made emotional pleas. Among them was Cindy McNamara, whose daughter, Shannon, was murdered in 2001 while attending Eastern Illinois University.
Shannon McNamara was asleep in her locked off-campus apartment when she was raped, strangled, beaten and stabbed. Her body was left in the living room. A washcloth was stuffed in her mouth.
Former EIU student Anthony Mertz was convicted, becoming the first person sent to death row after Ryan emptied it.
"We have the death penalty for a reason," Cindy McNamara wrote in a letter to Quinn. "This is the reason!"
The Tribune examination found at least 46 inmates sent to death row in cases where prosecutors used jailhouse informants to convict or condemn the defendants. The investigation also found at least 33 death row inmates had been represented at trial by an attorney who had been disbarred or suspended; at least 35 African-American inmates on death row who had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury; and about half of the nearly 300 capital cases had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.
Illinois Becomes 4th State in Four Years to Abandon the Death Penalty
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Gov. Pat Quinn signs legislation today ending the death penalty. |
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn took the final step today in ending the death penalty and replacing it with a sentence of life without parole. The law also requires that state funds used for the death penalty be transferred to a fund for murder victims’ services and law enforcement. The ban on capital punishment comes after an 11-year moratorium on executions declared by former Republican Governor George Ryan, and makes Illinois the 16th state to repeal the death penalty. It also marks the lowest number of states with the death penalty in more than 30 years.
"The Illinois repeal is an indication of a growing national trend toward alternatives to the death penalty, and an increased focus on murder victims' families and the prevention of crime," said Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "In light of our current economic climate, the public has increasingly recognized that resources used for the death penalty could be diverted to higher budgetary priorities, such as law enforcement and victims’ services."
Many murder victims’ families were among the strongest supporters of the Illinois repeal. In a letter to the Illinois General Assembly, murder victims' families wrote, "A legal system that wasn’t bogged down with committing tremendous resources on capital cases could prosecute and sentence countless other crimes and take dangerous people off the streets before they commit murder. Dollars saved could be put toward counseling for victims of crime or other services we desperately need as we attempt to get on with our lives." The letter was signed by more than 30 individuals who had loved ones murdered in Illinois.
The high costs of the death penalty were influential in the passage of the repeal. Conservative Republican Senator Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington said, "We have spent over $100 million of taxpayer money defending and prosecuting death row cases. The death penalty does not make our society safer, I believe. It has been an ineffective and expensive use of our scarce resources."
In the last few months, the death penalty has been under scrutiny in other states as well. Days after the Illinois General Assembly voted for the repeal, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, who as a Republican state legislator played an influential role in shaping the state’s current death penalty statute, stated: “I have concluded that it is exceedingly difficult for this statute to be administered in a fair and just way… Gov. [John] Kasich and the governors after him, I believe, need to consider commuting all of those sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and I think it's time for Ohio to at least entertain the discussion of whether or not we are well served by having a death penalty."
Across the country, use of the death penalty is declining as states are using alternative punishments like life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Death sentences in the United States have dropped by over 60% since the mid-90s. A recent poll conducted by Lake Research Partners showed that 61% of U.S. voters chose various alternative sentences over the death penalty as the punishment for murder. The same poll also listed the death penalty last in a list of priorities for state spending.
Since 1976, Illinois has carried out 12 executions. In the same period, 20 inmates have been exonerated from the state’s death row, the 2nd highest number in the United States. In 2003, 3 years after the moratorium was imposed, Governor Ryan issued a blanket commutation, reducing the sentences of 167 death row inmates to life and pardoning 4 inmates. Since then, Illinois has had 2 different commissions to study the death penalty and has implemented some reforms, yet continues to face an error-prone and costly system.
In the meantime, use of the death penalty has declined sharply in Illinois. In the 1990s, the state averaged over 10 death sentences a year. In 2009 and 2010, the state imposed only 1 death sentence each year.
Illinois is the 4th state in the last 4 years to abandon the death penalty. New Mexico and New Jersey voted to abolish the death penalty in 2009 and 2007, respectively. New York’s death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004, and the last person was removed from death row in 2007. More states are expected to introduce legislation to repeal the death penalty in 2011, including possibly Connecticut, Kansas and Maryland.
Source: The
Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. DPIC was founded in 1990 and prepares in-depth reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for the media, and serves as a resource to those working on this issue. DPIC is widely quoted and consulted by all those concerned with the death penalty. March 9, 2011
Statement of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights congratulates Illinois Governor Quinn on signing into law the recently passed legislation abolishing the state's death penalty. We applaud the state's decision to redirect funds formerly spent on the death penalty to services for families of homicide victims and training of law enforcement personnel. As family members of murder victims, we know that each homicide is a theft of a unique, irreplaceable, deeply loved human life, representing a world of devastation for the victim’s surviving families.
A commitment to helping these victims' families and law enforcement personnel who work to protect us is a positive step forward for Illinois.
Source: MVFHR, March 9, 2011
Community of Sant’Egidio: 'Illinois has joined the world of civilization'
It is the 16th American state in which killing is not sanctioned by law
The Community of Sant’Egidio invites Governor Pat Quinn and a delegation of the state’s House of Representatives and Senate, along with American abolition activists, to celebrate the historic event at the Coliseum in Rome
Illinois became the 16th American state to have abolished the death penalty today after Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill approved by the two houses of the State Assembly. It was an exceptional and historic day in the United States. A ten-year process leading to a stop to executions in Chicago’s state thus drew to a close, with a large bipartisan majority confirming that the death penalty is an irremediably pernicious instrument for the judicial system.
On January 6, 2011, the House of Representatives of the state of Illinois voted 60-54 in favor of the definitive abolition of capital punishment. 5 days later, on January 11, the State Senate approved the proposal with a 32-25 vote. All that was needed was the endorsement of Governor Pat Quinn, who after weighing all of the elements at his disposal put his signature on the historic document.
Illinois is the third American state to have repudiated the death penalty in the last 4 years, following New Jersey and New Mexico. This unprecedented acceleration shows how the death penalty in the United States is in difficulty and is destined to become a weapon of the past. The development of historic dimensions came just a few weeks after a stop was put to the production of sodium thiopental one of the substances used in the U.S. for lethal injection, following a campaign spearheaded by the Community of Sant’Egidio and major anti-death penalty organizations, from Reprieve to Hands off Cain, and aided by the British and Italian governments.
The Community of Sant’Egidio closely followed the campaign launched the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, coordinated by Jeremy Schroeder, as well as the initiatives of the entire American abolitionist movement It plans to celebrate the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois with a special event in Rome: the lighting of the Coliseum, international symbol of the global battle for a system of justice that respects human life at all times.
The development marks a decisive step toward abolition of the death penalty in the whole United States. In 2010 there was the lowest number of executions in the country since 1999: 46, representing a 12 % drop since the year before. 2010 was also the year in which the lowest number of death sentences were handed down in the United States since 1976: 114, 2/3 less than 15 years earlier, 1996, a record year for death sentences.
An unmistakable trend, a progressive structural decline, confirmed by the recent electoral victories of governors publicly opposed to capital punishment in California, New York State and Massachusetts. In Texas, which holds the record with 17 executions, there were less than 10 death sentences handed down. For the first time, an American judge challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Precedents:
At the end of January 2000 former Governor George Ryan, a Republican, suspended all executions after it was shown that thirteen death sentences had been commuted since 1976, the year the death penalty was officially reinstated at the federal level, because the prisoners were proven innocent. That was 1 more prisoner than the 12 death row convicts proven guilty. These numbers represented an evident anomaly for capital punishment in the large American state, a manifest gap also present in all of the other states which maintain the death penalty.
The commission created by Ryan to shed full light on the dynamics of capital sentences in Illinois came to the conclusion, after 2 years of study, that no penal system can ever be so perfect as to rule out sensational judicial error. The death penalty, with its definitive and irreparable characteristic, thus inherently represents a premise for an extremely unjust punishment. Not only that. The commission also discovered how external factors, such as ethnic identity, social class, geography, the emotional susceptibility of public opinion, the ineptitude of defense lawyers, affect the use of the death penalty in the sentencing process.
In January 2003, near the end of his mandate, Governor Ryan commuted 167 death sentences to life imprisonment after discovering the large number of errors made in the respective trials. It was the 1st widespread amnesty ever declared in American death rows. Ryan’s successors kept the moratorium in effect. It was shown that it cost the state over 100 million dollars to support the few dozen remaining inmates on death row. Even for this reason alone, a growing number of American states are wondering if it is worthwhile to pursue the path of legal assassination.
Illinois “is no longer in the company of countries which commit the worst violation of human rights: it has joined the world of civilization, putting an end to the suppression of innocent lives”, commented Senator Kwame Raoul, one of the key sponsors of the anti-death penalty bill.
Source: Sant'Egidio, March 9, 2011
Capital punishment in the United States
The governor of Illinois on Wednesday signed a bill banning the death penalty in the state. The following are some facts and figures about the death penalty in the United States since 1977, when executions resumed following the lifting of a ban on the practice by the U.S. Supreme Court the previous year.
* There have been 1,242 executions in the United States since 1977. The peak year was 1999, when 98 were carried out, while no inmates were put to death in 1978 and 1980. The number of executions dropped 12 % last year to 46. 8 people have been executed so far this year.
* The year 2009, the last for which data is available, saw 112 death sentences imposed, the lowest number over the past three decades. The peak year was 1996 when 315 were handed down.
* The death penalty is sanctioned by 34 of the 50 states and the U.S. government and military -- not counting Illinois, where the ban will take effect July 1. Lethal injection is the main method used by all of the death penalty states.
* The Death Penalty Information Center said there have been 138 exonerations of death row inmates since 1973.
* Texas has been by far the most active death penalty state in the post-1976 era, with 466 executions. Virginia is a distant 2nd at 108.
* In 2008, the United States ranked fourth in the world in the number of executions carried out with 37. China carried out by far the most with 1,718, followed by Iran with 346, Saudi Arabia with 102, the United States, Pakistan with 36, and Iraq with 34.
Source: Reuters, March 9, 2011
Scott Turow: The conservative argument to abolish the death penalty
This week's abolition of the death penalty in Illinois is commonly viewed as a triumph for progressives. But some of the most persuasive arguments for doing away with capital punishment basically reflect conservative views. The last decade has seen many noted conservatives like George Will, Richard Viguerie and L. Brent Bozell III emerge as death-penalty opponents. One reason that abolition became a political possibility here was not simply because it attracted Republican votes in the House and the Senate, but because many conservatives have grown more ambivalent about the issue and less fierce in their opposition.
Here are some of the leading conservative arguments for ending executions.
The death penalty is one more government program that's failed.
This oft-quoted observation is an elaboration on comments and more than a clever turn of phrase by former Illinoisan, George Will, perhaps the nation's leading conservative columnist.
Illinois reinstituted capital punishment in 1977, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all prior statutory schemes as unconstitutionally arbitrary and capricious. We have now conducted a 33-year experiment in seeing whether death sentences can be meted out in a rational, proportionate fashion that has clearly failed.
I was a member of the 14-person Commission on Capital Punishment appointed by then-Gov. George Ryan in 2000 to study the death penalty. I started out ambivalent, because I knew there will always be certain murders and killers who will cry out for this ultimate form of retribution. But after two years I came to realize that we will never construct a capital system that functions with anything resembling fairness.
Despite decades of legislation and litigation aimed at establishing procedural bulwarks, the imposition of the death penalty in Illinois remained haphazard. Studies authorized by the commission found that, in Illinois, defendants were five times more likely to be sentenced to death if they committed their crimes in rural areas, as opposed to cities; twice as likely to be sentenced to death if they killed a woman; and 21/2 times more likely to be capitally sentenced for the murder of a white person, as compared to an African-American.
Worst of all is the institutional propensity to sentence innocent people to death. Since 1977, 20 people have been sentenced to death in our state only to be legally absolved of the murders that put them on death row. This reflects what I refer to as the paradox of capital punishment. We have lived with the illusion that we can reserve capital punishment for the so-called "worst of the worst," the most heinous, brutal or repetitive murders. What we have failed to realize is that those very crimes stir our deepest anxieties and outrage, and thus are hardest to deal with in the kind of rational, highly deliberative way that taking a life should require. As a result, police, prosecutors, judges and juries too often have engaged in a rush to judgment that ignores the presumption of innocence and has led now and then to the law's ultimate nightmare, condemning the innocent.
For conservatives who believe government is too large, too inefficient and too unwieldy to deliver health care, or even the mail for that matter, it should come as no surprise that government efforts to justly select those worthy of death has been a moral disaster.
The death penalty is a waste of money.
Study after study has shown that the death penalty costs far more than sentencing defendants irrevocably to life in prison without parole. That may seem counterintuitive because executions, of course, shorten prisoners lives. But the costs before that point overwhelm those savings. Most of the money is spent dealing with people like me — lawyers. Everyone recognizes that in U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous phrase, "death is different." We want to be sure that the condemned have enjoyed every legal right before they die, and as a result we have pyramided costs: 2 defense lawyers at trial —almost always government paid because capital defendants are overwhelmingly poor — and prosecutors to match them. Then there are the endless parade of appeals and post-conviction proceedings, which typically cost the state money for more than a decade.
Of course, if the death penalty clearly served a practical purpose like saving lives, these increased costs might be worth it. But in Illinois we have experienced a steady decline in our murder rate since Gov. Ryan first declared the moratorium on executions in January 2000 that has remained in place since. Murders in the vast majority of cases are impulsive acts by people who give no thought to getting caught. Thus the idea of deterrence is largely phantom. In a state that is now $15 billion in debt we cannot afford to throw good dollars after bad on a system that exists only to do a botched job of vindicating citizens' sense of moral outrage.
The death penalty is incomaptible with the notion of limited government.
In western Europe, all of our allies have outlawed the death penalty, most them taking that step after World War II. The reason was not so much popular opposition as historical experience. In Germany, Hitler had come to power as the result of his election, and proceeded to enact a series of tyrannical laws. The fact that the horrors of the World War II sprang directly from a democracy run amok persuaded European intellectuals and politicians that the state should never have the lawful power to kill.
In the United States, we are cheerfully oblivious to those risks and with good reason. From 1998 to 2001, for example, we saw one president impeached, another empowered without a popular majority, and our nation attacked by a pernicious foreign force; never once in any of those crises did we see troops in the street. The extraordinary durability of the American democracy is one of our greatest achievements, but it is naive to believe in Sinclair Lewis' phrase that it can't happen here. The conservative-libertarian view that says that the powers of government must be strictly limited supports drawing a clear line prohibiting a democratic government from ever lawfully killing any of the citizens from whom it draws power. That way a regime that vanished its political enemies or executed despised minorities would mark itself, whatever the legal rigamorole, as an outlaw.
At the end of the day, Illinois' abolition of capital punishment is part of an evolving national recognition that the death penalty is truly un-American.
Source: Scott F. Turow, a Chicago attorney and best-selling author, was a member of the Commission on Capital Punishment; Chicago Tribune, March 9, 2011
Statement from Governor Pat Quinn on Senate Bill 3539
Today I have signed Senate Bill 3539, which abolishes the death penalty in Illinois.
For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death. This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal reflection.
Since the General Assembly passed this bill, I have met or heard from a wide variety of people on both sides of the issue. I have talked with prosecutors, judges, elected officials, religious leaders from around the world, families of murder victims, people on death row who were exonerated and ordinary citizens who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me. Their experiences, words and opinions have made a tremendous impact on my thinking, and I thank everyone who reached out on this matter.
After their guidance, as well as much thought and reflection, I have concluded that our system of imposing the death penalty is inherently flawed. The evidence presented to me by former prosecutors and judges with decades of experience in the criminal justice system has convinced me that it is impossible to devise a system that is consistent, that is free of discrimination on the basis of race, geography or economic circumstance, and that always gets it right.
As a state, we cannot tolerate the executions of innocent people because such actions strike at the very legitimacy of a government. Since 1977, Illinois has seen 20 people exonerated from death row. Seven of those were exonerated since the moratorium was imposed in 2000. That is a record that should trouble us all. To say that this is unacceptable does not even begin to express the profound regret and shame we, as a society, must bear for these failures of justice.
Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it. With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case. For the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or release.
I have found no credible evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on the crime of murder and that the enormous sums expended by the state in maintaining a death penalty system would be better spent on preventing crime and assisting victims’ families in overcoming their pain and grief.
To those who say that we must maintain a death penalty for the sake of the victims’ families, I say that it is impossible not to feel the pain of loss that all these families share or to understand the desire for retribution that many may hold. But, as I heard from family members who lost loved ones to murder, maintaining a flawed death penalty system will not bring back their loved ones, will not help them to heal and will not bring closure to their pain. Nothing can do that. We must instead devote our resources toward the prevention of crime and the needs of victims’ families, rather than spending more money to preserve a flawed system.
The late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin observed, “[i]n a complex, sophisticated democracy like ours, means other than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society.” In our current criminal justice system, we can impose extremely harsh punishments when warranted. Judges can impose sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Where necessary and appropriate, the state can incarcerate convicted criminals in maximum security prisons. These means should be sufficient to satisfy our need for retribution, justice and protection.
As Governor, I took an oath to uphold our state’s Constitution and faithfully execute our laws. Honoring that oath often requires making difficult decisions, but I have found none to be as difficult as the one I made today. I recognize that some may strongly disagree with this decision, but I firmly believe that we are taking an important step forward in our history as Illinois joins the 15 other states and many nations of the world that have abolished the death penalty.
Source:
Illinois Government News Network, March 9, 2011
Ryan hails death penalty abolition, calling it ‘a long time coming'
Former Gov. George Ryan, who fought aggressively to abolish the death penalty after he left office — and who issued the moratorium against state executions when he was governor — dispatched this exclusive message to the Sneed column after Gov. Quinn signed historic legislation ending executions in Illinois.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Ryan, who is now serving a sentence for public corruption at a federal prison in Indiana.
“I’m so glad the legislation has finally passed and Gov. Quinn signed the bill. It’s the result of all the good work of those who fought long and hard in advance of anything I did to help bring this about. I just hope more states join in as well as the federal government.
“We now know with a moral certainty an innocent person will not be put to death in Illinois. I want to thank Gov. Quinn for making the right call."
Ryan’s son, Homer, who talked to his father Wednesday evening, told Sneed: “I was with my dad the night he made his decision to place a moratorium on executions in Illinois. This was not an easy decision, but it came down simply to killing an innocent person. There are flaws in every system but this is what really bothered him."
“I’m sure George was absolutely elated,” said Rob Warden, executive director of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions. “It was very gracious of Gov. Quinn to give George credit during his press conference,” added Warden.
A somber note: “But you know . . . even though I’m absolutely elated and never thought I’d see this happen in my lifetime, there is something very surreal about it,” said Warden. “It all happened so quickly and without much [fanfare]."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, March 9, 20011
Gov. Pat Quinn turned to Bible and writings of late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin for difficult death penalty decision
Gov. Pat Quinn turned to the Bible for wisdom. He drew strength from the writings of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. And he pored over the impassioned pleas from families of murder victims who begged him to give them a chance at closure.
Finally, after 2 months of struggling with what he said is the hardest decision he's had to make as governor, Quinn decided over the weekend to abolish the death penalty in Illinois and clear out death row.
"It is impossible to create a perfect system, free of all mistakes," Quinn said Wednesday, moments after signing the death penalty ban into law. "I think it's the right and just thing to abolish the death penalty and punish those who commit heinous crimes — evil people — with life in prison without parole or any chance of release."
The governor conceded he talked to few of the families of victims of the 15 murderers on death row, and he grasped for ways to console them.
"There are no words in the English language, or any language, to ease your pain," Quinn said soberly. "I want to tell them, it's impossible, I'm sure, to ever be healed. But we want to tell all of the family members, the family of Illinois … we want to be with you. You're not alone in your grief."
It was a legacy moment for Quinn, whose historic action might end up as the foremost achievement of a governor previously noteworthy for his succession of the impeached Rod Blagojevich.
Newly elected to his own term, Quinn's decision also caps a strong liberal shift for a state that had long been known for centrist, pragmatic politics. In the last few months, Democrats led by Quinn have imposed a major income-tax increase, legalized civil unions for same-sex couples and taken the death penalty off the books.
The political impact of those measures will play out in the coming years. Quinn already is being criticized by lawmakers and prosecutors who point out that violent criminals can now kill police officers and murder multiple victims without fear of losing their own lives.
Rep. Dennis Reboletti said the "big winners" were murderers on death row.
"The people of the state of Illinois aren't the winners," said Reboletti, R-Elmhurst.
A man of Catholic faith, Quinn cited Bernardin's own words: "In a complex, sophisticated democracy like ours, means other than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society."
Life sentences to maximum security prisons, Quinn said, "should be sufficient to satisfy our need for retribution, justice and protection."
The governor called it impossible to create a justice system "free of all discrimination with respect to race or economic circumstances or geography" in a state where 102 separate state's attorneys impose different standards. And he weighed what's the appropriate justice for the worst killers against how Illinois exonerated 20 people once "in grave danger" of facing an irreversible punishment.
Pressed for a deeper explanation, Quinn acknowledged that child killer John Wayne Gacy, the poster boy for why Illinois has used the death penalty, committed the heinous crimes of an "evil man."
But Quinn said a system that risks killing an innocent man "cannot stand."
One of those whose sentence was commuted is Brian Dugan, sentenced to death for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, of Naperville. Dugan had been serving 2 life sentences for 2 other rape-murder cases, but his death sentence for Nicarico's murder had seemingly brought a measure of closure to a saga seared into the collective minds of Chicago-area residents.
Yet that chapter did not end without exposing overwhelming human mistakes. Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez — two of three men originally charged with the girl's murder — served years on death row before they were cleared.
Quinn signed the bill in his office with only a handful of leading supporters, including the chief sponsors from each chamber, Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, and Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago. The two clutched pens Quinn used to sign the legislation as they hugged behind the governor's wooden desk.
Tears welled in Raoul's eyes several minutes after Quinn defended his decision.
"God bless the state of Illinois. The light of God is shining," Raoul said. "Shining positively upon our state. This is a historic day. We enter into this business trying to have some impact on lives. There's no greater impact that you can have than to do something that will save a life."
Yarbrough said she once supported the death penalty but that the exonerations serve as a "painful and stirring reminder that death is an absolute penalty. Once imposed, there is no second chance, no reversal and no way to correct a mistake."
Exonerated former inmate Gordon "Randy" Steidl, who spent 17 years in prison, including 12 on death row, was among the death penalty opponents who praised Quinn.
"He made a decision today, a moral, righteous decision, when he realized that there are flaws in this system that almost took my life and 19 other men in Illinois," Steidl said.
Not everyone at the Capitol cheered, given the legislation cleared the General Assembly with only a few votes to spare in the waning days of a lame-duck session in January. Death penalty proponents already are seeking to reinstate capital punishment.
Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, predicted Quinn's actions would haunt him if he plans to run for re-election in 2014.
Quinn chose to focus on the arguments lawmakers gave when they approved the ban. He also deflected questions on how he campaigned last fall as a death penalty supporter. Quinn had kept in place the moratorium first imposed by Republican adversary and predecessor Gov. George Ryan, who cleared death row in 2003 by commuting to life in prison the death sentences for more than 160 inmates.
But Quinn hesitated when asked to draw comparisons between his actions and those of Ryan, who is serving time in federal prison for corruption. The governor said the 2 each followed their consciences.
"I think God wants you to do it that way," Quinn said.
Source: Chicago Tribune, March 9, 2011
Quinn ends death row at Pontiac prison
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| Pontiac Correctional Center |
Gov. Pat Quinn signaled the end of Pontiac Correctional Center's role as home to Illinois' death row Wednesday.
Although state prison officials are not sure what will happen to the 22 cells reserved for condemned prisoners, the governor's decision to abolish the death penalty and commute the sentences of the 15 men on who reside there will symbolically and physically alter the makeup of the 140-year-old lockup.
Quinn's landmark move also will end Dwight Correctional Center's role as the designated death row for women and eliminate Tamms Correctional Center as the home of the state's execution chamber, last used in 1999 when Andrew Kokoraleis was executed by lethal injection.
The formal abolition will go into effect on July 1, meaning death row will technically remain in place until then.
The 15 residents of the gallery whose sentences were commuted to life in prison without the possibility of release eventually will be moved into other units.
"I know they will stay in a maximum-security facility," said Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman.
John Maki, executive director of the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group, was on a team surveying Pontiac on Jan. 11 -- the day the Illinois Senate approved the death penalty abolition.
He said condemned prisoners were curious about what the abolition would mean for their sentences, which are served in isolation from the general prison population.
Elman could provide no timetable for when the prisoners would be moved out of their current cells, but Maki said the inmates should be prepared for significant changes, including possibly having to share a cell with another inmate.
"Their life in prison arguably gets worse," Maki said.
At least one state lawmaker said Pontiac officials should be given clear directions on what to do with the inmates.
"Those correctional facilities need to know what to do with those death row inmates and transition them to wherever they will be housed to comply with the law as it stands now," said state Rep. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, who represents Pontiac.
Elman said it is too early to know how the emptied space will be used. For the most part, the section set aside for condemned inmates looks similar to the rest of the 1,650-inmate facility.
"It's basically indistinguishable from other parts of the prison," said Maki.
There is no official space dedicated to a female version of death row at Dwight because there were no women sentenced to death at the time of Quinn's action.
If there were, however, Elman said they too would be separated by sight and sound from other inmates.
Source: Bloomington Pantagraph, March 9, 2011
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