Lake Zurich High School Student Media

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Lake Zurich High School Student Media

Bear Facts

Lake Zurich High School Student Media

Bear Facts

Illinois death penalty needs to be repealed

Illinois+death+penalty+needs+to+be+repealed

The Illinois death penalty has been operating since 1930, executing prisoners for crimes they were thought to be guilty of. The state of Illinois has voted to repeal the death penalty for good reasons, and all it needs now is the signature of Pat Quinn, the state governor, to become a law.

About 100 prisoners sentenced to death in have been killed in Illinois over the years the death penalty had been operating. Out of those hundreds of prisoners executed, a mistake must have been made at some point, and maybe even one of those prisoners was innocent of the crime they had died for. The death penalty has faults in the system and innocent people could be sentenced to death. To save innocent lives, the death penalty should be banned for good.

In the span of almost 70 years, 157 prisoners were sentenced to death by the Illinois death penalty. Of those 157 prisoners, 102 were found guilty and killed, according to the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center. That means 55 prisoners had their sentences to death overturned and were released from prison, where they waited on death row.

In 10 years, 17 death row inmates were released due to evidence proving them not guilty. Out of those 17 inmates, seven of them had spent at least 52 years on death row, and another 36 years in county jails and state prisons, according to the UAA Justice Center.

Not only are innocent people sometimes sentenced to death and even executed because of the death penalty, but the death penalty has a high price to pay, figuratively and legitimately, for both the people sentenced to death and for the people doing the sentencing.

Keeping death row inmates imprisoned for so long costs lots of money, which comes out of the pockets of citizens, according to the UAA Justice Center. Since 2003, $100 million have been spent from the Litigation Trust Fund, and this sum only represents portion of the costs associated with the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

There have been several studies conducted demonstrating the high costs associated with the death penalty in comparison with life imprisonment, according to Hugo Adam Bedeau in his book The Case Against the Death Penalty.

Not only are the costs higher than the costs of life imprisonment, but also, citizens may have been spending their money on the executions of innocent people.

Case studies of official misconduct had, at times, resulted in the conviction and execution of innocent people on capital charges, according to Michael Kroll in his book Killing Justice: Government Misconduct and the Death Penalty.

“I believe the history of the death penalty in Illinois demonstrates that we are not in a position to get it right 100 percent of the time,” Illinois Democratic State Representative Elaine Nekritz, said to the DPIC.

The Illinois death penalty has not had executed a person since 1999, and since then, the use of the death penalty has sharply declined, according to the DPIC. For the past 10 years, an average of about one person per year has been sentenced to the death penalty, but in past years the average exceeded 10 people per year, according to the DPIC.

The only thing standing in the way of having the death penalty banned for good is Quinn’s signature on the bill passed by the Illinois Senate. The death penalty shows the true barbaric nature of Americans. The same way killing is illegal, the barbaric punishment the death penalty is should also be made illegal.

“This historic vote is the latest sign that the USA is gradually moving away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” Rob Freer of Amnesty International, said to Israel News. “It is encouraging that legislators have recognized that the death penalty comes with high costs and risks for no measurable benefit. Governor Quinn should now sign this bill into law as soon as possible and set an example to other states that still retain the death penalty. This is a punishment that should have no place in a modern criminal justice system.”

If Illinois bans the death penalty for good, then 17 states in the USA will be free of the death penalty. 17 states will prove themselves to be civilized, will save money and put it to better use, and will save the lives of innocent people. Illinois needs to sign the bill repealing the death penalty and finally make it a law.

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