Illinois: Gov. Quinn (D) to sign Death Penalty repeal today

[Tender Branson]

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign historic legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois on Wednesday, according to the House sponsor and sources familiar with the governor's plans.



The Democratic governor on Tuesday quietly invited death penalty opponents to a private bill-signing ceremony scheduled for late Wednesday morning in his Springfield office. Quinn's office confirmed that the governor has an event at the Capitol on Wednesday to announce his decision on the death penalty measure.

"They point-blank told me they were signing the bill (Wednesday)," sponsoring Rep. Karen Yarbrough told the Tribune.

Quinn has until March 18 to sign or veto the legislation or it automatically becomes law. He was poised to deal with it late last week but decided to continue listening to both sides of the issue. On Monday, Quinn told reporters he planned to act this week.

If the governor signs the ban, he will end a capital punishment system beset by flaws and brought down by evidence that freed wrongfully convicted men who spent years on death row.

The ban would come 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.

Since then, Illinois approved reforms to the capital punishment system, including taping interrogations under a proposal forged by President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois Senate. Only two days before leaving office in January 2003, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 164 prisoners to life in prison. Quinn and his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, kept the moratorium in place.

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.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-quinn-death-penalty-0309-20110308,0,4841534.story

[Tender Branson]

Very good decision.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nice! That chunk of continuous abolitionist states in the Midwest grows larger. North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois.

[Iosif]

Half a century too late.

[Antonio the Sixth]

What a joke, he had to wait until the very last days.

[Franzl]

It was clear from the beginning that he wouldn't miss this opportunity.

[ilikeverin]

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[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Excellent!

[Franzl]

Disregarding any moral arguments, it's the right thing to do. Having the death penalty is simply a waste of time and money (at least the way it's used now....especially considering that Illinois has been under a moratorium for like 10 years). It objectively is not an effective tool against crime...so I think it best to just say goodbye to the death penalty and worry about more important things.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

HP

[Franzl]

HP

Do all the financial arguments, endless appeals, lack of effectivenes, etc. really not interest you? I'd think you'd be more interested in that than whether we get to kill 5 people a year or so

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

HP

Do all the financial arguments, endless appeals, lack of effectivenes, etc. really not interest you? I'd think you'd be more interested in that than whether we get to kill 5 people a year or so

Mandatory life sentences costs more than ole sparky, so I'm not interested in those arguments.  The fact that some states are inept at carrying out the death penalty doesn't interest me and if it were used alot more it might have a deterrent effect so that doesn't interest me.  I've already stipulated all death penalty cases where DNA might exonerate the individual should be automatic and mandatory before carrying it out.
 
My belief, which many here disagree with is simpler than all of that - the convicted killer's death is the price society places on his/her premeditated murder of another.

Don't like all that?  I'm not intersted in your response!  

[Franzl]

Sounds like someone is more interested in making a point than anything else....

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Sounds like someone is more interested in making a point than anything else....

I've been making this point for the 1000th time we've discussed it......without much support.     

But you know I believe what I just wrote.......so

[Nhoj]

A very good decision.

[Franzl]

I know you believe what you wrote. I simply dispute that simple life sentences really do cost more. We're not going to change the way the death penalty is used in this country. It's not going to happen.

I'm not even really morally opposed to the concept (used to be...quite strongly), but it seems that abolition is the most logical thing to do in everyone's interest. Especially in Illinois specific case where we're spending money on a death row but have a moratorium on executions.

[Roemerista]

Well, despite its uselessness in Illinois, I will have to say that I am not in agreement with this decision. It would cost far more political capital to reinstate it period, let alone in some effective form now, than reforming it to usefullness.

[minionofmidas]

What took you so long? Goddam cocktease.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Meh, it's not like anyone was executed in the meantime while he was waiting to sign it.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Meh, it's not like anyone was executed in the meantime while he was waiting to sign it.

Indeed......and as Franzl noted, they so rarely use it, it's basically a symbollic repeal.  If it make Quinn and his cohorts feel good.......hey ok by me. 

There really was no need for this legislation at all.

[opebo]

Interesting how Illinois, with a very hair's-breadth win for the c*******d party is so different from Wisconsin just next door with a quite narrow win for the p***-*****r party.

[Franzl]

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2011/03/quinn-signs-death-penalty-ban-commutes-15-death-row-sentences-to-life.html

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a historic ban on the death penalty in Illinois and commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole.

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.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Meh, it's not like anyone was executed in the meantime while he was waiting to sign it.

Indeed......and as Franzl noted, they so rarely use it, it's basically a symbollic repeal.  If it make Quinn and his cohorts feel good.......hey ok by me. 

There really was no need for this legislation at all.

     States do many things that are symbolic, though. Look at the number of amendments ratified by states long after they went into law. I think Mississippi ratified the 13th Amendment at some point in the 1980s.

     If we want to look at symbolic gestures more generally, the House of Representatives is very guilty of this. I don't know how it is now, but I read a story a few years ago about how they were constantly passing resolutions. Symbolic acts of a legislative body are a great way to make the voters think you're actually doing something.

[YL]

Excellent news.

Any chance of any more states doing this soon?

[Verily]

Meh, it's not like anyone was executed in the meantime while he was waiting to sign it.

Indeed......and as Franzl noted, they so rarely use it, it's basically a symbollic repeal.  If it make Quinn and his cohorts feel good.......hey ok by me.  

There really was no need for this legislation at all.

It's absolutely not "just symbolic". It's symbolic as long as the current status quo prevails in Illinois, but the status quo changes. Previously, the death penalty could have made a comeback through a more or less unilateral decision of some future AG, which was quite realistic. One could certainly imagine Illinois electing someone who decides executions are good and that the state should start prosecuting death penalty cases more frequently. Unlike truly outdated laws, for example, old miscegenation laws that are clearly ruled unconstitutional, never enforced and never coming back (not sure there are any still on the books, but I know Alabama repealed one around 2002 or so), the death penalty statute could very well have made a comeback without legislative action.

Now it would have to go through the entire legislative process, a much less likely (although not entirely impossible) prospect.

As for other states, I believe Connecticut has been considering repeal.