Death Penalty Over in Illinois

The abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois was just. The decision was not based on opinion, but on facts. Even if you are for the concept of a death penalty, you should still agree with Illinois's reasoning behind abolishing it. Before the death penalty was abolished, its existence was not serving its purpose. Its goal is providing justice by killing those who murdered, was not what was happening in the state. The same reasoning was used by Gov. Ryan in 2003 when he decided to commute all persons on death row. Ryan talked about the 17 men on death row in Illinois that were later proved innocent. Those of you who are for the death penalty probably think so because its your definition of justice. But I am assuming that killing innocent people is not your idea of justice. The death penalty contradicts itself because its purpose is to stop innocent people from being killed and provide justice, but the system itself kills innocent people. The most powerful part of Ryan's speech was when he spoke of newly freed Anthony Porter. He said, "I watched in surprise as freed death row inmate Anthony Porter was released from jail. A free man, he ran into the arms of Northwestern University Professor Dave Protess, who poured his heart and soul into proving Porter's innocense with his journalism students." Reading this I immediately felt for Anthony. A horrible feeling came over me when I realized this innocent man was within 2 days of being executed because of our justice system. I thought, what if that was me? I was innocent but it didn't matter because the way the death penalty works is 12 people on a jury vote if you're going to live or die. It's that simple, they get to choose between life and death for somebody. This bothers me. It's that simple, just a yes or no vote and then it's ok to kill someone. If it weren't for the Northwestern students and their journalism project this innocent man would have been killed and there was nothing he could have done about it. With our justice system and the death penalty being final, it is that easy to kill innocent people. This is why Gov. Ryan commuted all persons on death row to life in prison without parole. That way those who need to can work to prove their innocence.

It took a few years after Gov. Ryan's blanket commutation for the death penalty to be eliminated in Illinois completely. Ultimately it was because of the same reasoning Ryan gave. The article from the New York Times on Illinois's decision to abolish the death penalty said "The debate over the death penalty was transformed. Suddenly, it was about accuracy." Again, the decision was just because when Pat Quinn signed the bill to abolish the death penalty, he did not do it because of his personal opinion. He did it because it was unlawful to execute innocent people and in reality that's what the death penalty does. The death penalty's lack of accuracy justified the decision to abolish it.

My last reason for it being just to abolish the death penalty was based on a personal experience. In my Issues class we did a project on the death penalty. The class is the clemency board and we hear a lot of death penalty cases as if they are happening now and vote for commutation or not. For many of the cases our class voted different than what went down in real life. Most of the time the class voted for life, and in real life the person was sent to death. This showed me the reality that while one jury might vote death , another jury might vote life. To me, it doesn't seem fair someone's life is dependent on which jury they get. If they had gotten a different jury, then maybe they would still be alive. This is not a just way to kill someone. However, a jury system is essential to democracy. Therefore, in a democracy the death penalty is unjust.

Ryan's speech commuting all persons in Illinois on death row stated "half of the capitol cases in Illinois had been reversed for a new trial or resentencing. Nearly Half!" What does that show about the fairness of America's Justice System?