Illinois Governor Patt Quinn (D-IL) signed legislation this morning abolishing the death penalty. He also commuted the death sentence of 15 inmates to life in prison.
"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."
More than a decade ago, prisoners on Illinois' death row were being exonerated for their crimes mostly by DNA evidence. In all, 13 men on death row were wrongly convicted. In other words, they were sentenced to die by the State and were not guilty of the crimes charged. That's a huge number when we're talking about the State having the power to kill.
However, even with the inexplicable errors, false convictions, rampant corruption and probably innocent people being executed, I still think the death penalty is necessary in some instances. The death penalty is not a deterrent. But it is punishment. And some crimes are so abhorrent there is no other alternative. My opinion only. I was really hoping Quinn wouldn't sign this bill.
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