-By Warner Todd Huston
Claiming that “It is impossible to create a perfect system, one that is free of all mistakes,” Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in Illinois, despite a campaign promise that he would keep it.
In signing the order, Quinn also commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates converting the sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During his recent campaign to take his own full term as Governor (Quinn filled out disgraced Gov. Blagojevich’s last term), Quinn claimed that he’d keep the death penalty, but he also said he’d keep the moratorium in place as the system is reviewed. His opponent at the time, State Senator Bill Brady, said he would end the moratorium.
The bill’s chief sponsor, State Representative Karen Yarbrough (D, Maywood), told the Sun-Times that she thinks Illinois will “be on the right side of history” with Quinn’s signing.
Now, I have sympathy for those that say that the death penalty is not good, I have to say. They say it doesn’t work as a deterrence and in that they may be right.
But, the fact is the penalty is NOT meant to deter. It is meant to punish. Anyone that claims the DP is supposed to be a deterrent is foolish.
However, that said, I think the system in Illinois was proven to be broken where it concerns prosecutions resulting in the penalty. It was painfully obvious that it had all fallen apart in Illinois. This, however, does NOT mean that the penalty is obviously wrong. It merely means that the Illinois system was broken.
I have no problem at all with the state putting murderers to death. I think they richly deserve that fate. But we have to be sure that they are guilty of the crimes they are accused of. You can’t undo the death penalty. Illinois proved it could not legitimately prosecute for those crimes.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
MORON… ’nuff said…