Abolish death penalty in Illinois | Everyone deserves justice
Image | ACS Law
Please click on and sign the following two messages:
1. Abolish the Death Penalty in Illinois
1. BACKGROUND | From Amnesty International
Illinois is a signature away from becoming the 16th state in the U.S. to abolish capital punishment. Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly have passed a repeal bill; now it is up to the Governor. Illinois’ death penalty is flawed, biased and wastes money. After a 10 year moratorium, it has become clear that these problems cannot be fixed. Urge Governor Quinn to sign the death penalty abolition bill. If you can, please also call the Governor’s office at 312-814-2121 and simply ask him to sign the bill.
MESSAGE TEXT
I am writing to urge you to sign the bill that repeals the death penalty in Illinois. As you know, Illinois has had a moratorium on executions for ten years, because of the biased and error-prone nature of its capital punishment system. It has become clear in the last decade that these problems cannot be fixed, and that retaining capital punishment is only wasting enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars.
I strongly urge you to do what is right, both morally and practically, and end Illinois’ experiment with the death penalty. There are better ways to fight crime and support families of victims. Capital punishment is an outdated practice that does nothing but divert resources from policies that can actually be effective.
When Governor Ryan established the moratorium and commuted all sentences on death row, he did so because more innocent people had been released from death row than had been executed. The only way to truly guarantee that an innocent man or woman won’t be executed is to do away with the death penalty.
Please sign the repeal bill, so Illinois can get out of the business of killing prisoners and devote its energies and resources to policies and programs that truly work to prevent crime and support victims’ families.
RELATED | Nightline: The Wrongful Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham
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2. BACKGROUND, TEXT | From The Innocence Project
I support DNA testing in every case where it can overturn a wrongful conviction or confirm guilt. Everyone deserves justice, and there is no reason to deny testing that could lead to the exoneration of an innocent person. Post-conviction DNA access benefits the wrongfully convicted and their families and it also helps crime victims, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and the public because it often identifies the true perpetrators of crimes.
The few states without DNA testing laws should immediately enact reforms that explicitly allow access to post-conviction testing.
All 50 states should have laws that ensure that DNA testing, when it has the possibility to overturn a wrongful conviction, is:
- available to every person convicted of a crime, regardless of whether he or she is currently incarcerated;
- available regardless of whether a convicted person confessed, pled guilty, or has exhausted his or her appeals; and
- not subject to an expiration or sunset date.
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Our Compass 
the problem with this death penalty scenario is that it carries with it a vast complexity of issues.
we all know of pedophiles, spouse abusers, animal abusers, killers, rapists etc whose very existence on this planet is a drain of our dwindling natural resources….
but what of the one innocent who dies, so that these others can too?
the one person who should have long been exonerated, but was put to death before he/she had the chance.
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Exactly, thanks, Karen. There are monsters on this earth who are nothing but wastes of space. But as long as there is uncertainty and inconsistencies there can be no justice in the name of “justice”. It makes for nice drama and debate, but in the end it comes down to one distinction: a victim is a victim regardless of executioner.
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This issue is very complex. As a citizen of this shitty state, I have to say, I hated that Ryan repealed the death penalty. What I see is that monsters like the three that cut the baby out of a young woman’s womb while she pleaded and begged for her life, getting a pass on the punishment EVERYONE KNEW they deserved. After killing the mother, they then proceeded to kill her daughter, then after kidnapping and torturing her other son, they forced him to drink toxic liquids. When that didn’t kill him fast enough, they beat, then strangled him until he finally died. These evil beings SHOULD be put to death but instead, they will just be one more burden on Illinois taxpayers.
The burden should be on the prosecutor, the judge, and the jury to not only seek the truth, but to find that truth to be beyond a doubt. I think it was wrong to cast a blanket immunity across everyone…..it should have been looked at case by case. These monsters were guilty beyond a doubt, as many are.
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