Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.
Illinois conducted its last execution in 1999. Then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in 2000, after a series of death row inmates were exonerated. Quinn said his review had convinced him that it was impossible to administer capital punishment without mistakes, and abolishing it was "the right and just thing."
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Today criminals in illinoid rejoice. Coutries that have far fewer crimes don't have a built-in system of unproducing, uneducated morons that basically the entire population has to support because they are too stupid and would just die off on their own.
to all the idiots against this: it's not about coddling murderers – it's about how poorly our justice system works and how many innocent people are imprisoned. You willing to do 20 years or die when you committed no crime? Willing to visit your son on death row when you know he's innocent? If you're not, demand reform of our prosecutors – and THEN demand the death penalty. (I'd support it for child molesters myself – the minute prosecutors are made criminally and civilly liable for wrongful convictions).
So if Joe blow walks up in front of a police officer, a priest, and a hundred other folks with videos running kills a man drops the gun loaded with fingerprints...... i see your point. wouldnt want to put him to death just in case all that evidence wasnt enough.
't-bone – So if Joe blow walks up in front of a police officer, a priest, and a hundred other folks with videos running kills a man drops the gun loaded with fingerprints...... i see your point. wouldnt want to put him to death just in case all that evidence wasnt enough'
ah so now you set the criteria that must be met before the death penalty is given. So what do you fancy setting it to? 3 witnesses? How about if there were 2 witnesses and 1 grainy close circuit camera, is that good enough to be counted? Where do you think you want to draw the line between here you die and here you dont?
And the winners are the prison lobby, the unions that represent this lobby and off course the criminals.
That's absurd, other John.
About 1% of the whole population of the United States is incarcerated.
Most people on death row in States Courts stay there for at least twenty years or so before they take the needle.
And death row populations, relative to overall prison populations, is very small.
There are about 3200 people on death row in the United States,
Unitil this legislative change was made, 12 of those were in Illinois.
This change is commuting the sentences of 12 people.
...Yeah, I'm sure the prison lobby was THROWING BILLIONS AT THAT.
What I mean to say, here, in case I haven't made myself clear, is that the prison industry was doing FINE before this change, and it would continue to do fine if the death penalty were entirely abolished, because less than 1/1000 of all the prisoners in the United States is facing the death penalty.
PS: We have way too many people in jail... Almost 1/4 of all the prisoners in the WORLD are in the United States.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.
Nice nod to Lincoln. I like that.
It's a not only a shame that criminals can now kill and conduct heinous crimes without the possibility of being killed themselves (legally under the court of law) but now the tax payers will have to pay to jail them for the rest of their lives, potentially providing them with better shelter, food, and health care then they previously had before being arrested. Genius, Illinois. Pure genius.
Who cares if the death penalty is a deterent. Enjoy higher taxes Illinois as your money goes to house ,feed and clothe the people with no chance of ever seeing freedom again. A bullet would have saved you a lot of money. Freaking Liberals.
the vast majority of death row inmates will die of old age or some other medical issue long before their death sentence is ever carried out. To keep an inmate on death row is exponentially higher than keeping one in general population. So a disproportionate amount of their tax dollars will go for maintaining death row over G.P. So it figures that eliminating the death penalty will save tax dollars in both the penal system AND legal system.
Yeah despite all studies showing it costs more to execute someone than keep them in prison for life.
Sad that those who should face justice will get three meals a day and a place to sleep while their victims are buried never to see their families again
Execution is not necessary for justice. It is an irreversible punishment-which makes it cruel and unusual. People found innocent can be released from prison to go on with what is left of their lives. The wrongly executed cannot be released from the grave-as pointed out from a man wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. How do you think it makes the loved ones of murder victims feel when they learn that the wrong person was convicted? I hope you never find out.
the us is the only "civilized" nation in the world with capital punishment.
we should a long look in the mirror.
Make sense that he says that it can't be administered without mistakes, even though some are guilty and others are innocent. However, how about outlawing abortion, where all the victims are innocent?
Thank you God... for guiding Gov Pat Quinn
I used to be pro-death penalty until the Innocence Project started proving that many many people have been imprisoned unjustly as well as proving that there were quite a few people on death row in most states that had been unjustly convicted. Since DNA testing is only a recent activity, we must believe that innocent people have been executed in state death chambers ALONG with those who are actually guilty. Since a carried out death sentence obviously cannot be reversed on appeal or stopped due to a DNA test – the death penalty should be stopped.
I agree with this based on the fact that there are probably quite a few people who make up juries in murder cases who shouldn't be trusted with those decisions. I was always more partial to solitary confinement, but there are bleeding hearts who cry that's cruel and unusual punishment as well.
Kudos to an extremely courageous and enlightened Governor!
Now IF we can only enlighten the legislators, governors and the American Delta-heads in our 35 other states!
These comments show what happens when hicks are given the right to speak. Take away the first amendment so they stop infecting the world with their brain-dead, inbred, bloodthirsty swath.
[end sarcasm] (I can make ridiculous statements with logic misconstrued too)
saying the death penalty is good and we should keep it is as ignorant as Charlie Sheen, the governor knew this when he did this, the Declaration of Independence referenced this (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness), the Supreme Court said this many times. 2 crimes punishable by death: murder and treason.
You think spending all day every day for 25 years is an easy punishment? Do the time and tell us how it feels. You'll be begging to get out in a month, if not less.
Courts are not perfect. Many hicks like you don't care who pays as long as someone does. A guy did 25 years for a murder he did not commit, based on the witness of a guy who guessed 5 times to get the weapon right, and only did so to collect a reward (collecting money to provide false testimony is called bribery), the prosecutors withheld evidence from the court, and this isn't the only time it has happened.
Get your heads out of Faux news' asses and stay in school.
If you have higher than a JD, let me know. Let someone slice up your family and smile in the cameras and then tell me what they want and not what your self-righteous self wants. Get over yourself. You are not smarter than anyone.
Wussification. Just give them internet, paints, books and education and then let them sell their killer "art" online or have groupies. Keep their stories in the news.
you know, the "jocks" in high school used to call some of the kids "wuss." those wusses are now wealthy and even more intelligent while the jocks have gone on to get fat, lazy, dumber and completely useless.
wussification of america? sign me up. we could use more intelligent, thoughtful people and fewer morons.