Will the Death Penalty Return to Illinois?

[dogday]

This week's sweeping guilty verdict in the federal corruption case against former Illinois Governor George Ryan seemed sure to seal the gruff Republican's legacy as yet another in a long line of crooked Illinois politicians. But Ryan’s other major legacy — the moratorium he placed on executions in 2000, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination — is also under attack, and the reverberations could be felt across the entire country's criminal justice system.

Six years after Ryan's unilateral move set off a wave of capital punishment reforms nationwide, conservative prosecutors throughout the state are hoping a change at the Governor's Mansion this fall can usher back the death penalty. While Democratic incumbent Rod Blagojevich has said Ryan's moratorium should remain in place, at least for the foreseeable future, his Republican challenger and state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has hinted that enough safeguards have now been put into place for the death penalty to be reinstated.

"It's time to have a Governor who exercises authority in the way it was intended," said Topinka's running mate Joseph Birkett, the state's attorney in Republican DuPage County, who helped author some of the reforms in Illinois. "People felt betrayed by what Ryan did."

Only seven inmates currently sit on Illinois Death Row, where about 170 were before Ryan cleared it out shortly before leaving office three years ago. Even though no executions can currently be carried out, the death sentence can still be handed down, and some 200 cases are currently in the pipeline in which prosecutors have signaled their intention to seek capital punishment.

This week's sweeping guilty verdict in the federal corruption case against former Illinois Governor George Ryan seemed sure to seal the gruff Republican's legacy as yet another in a long line of crooked Illinois politicians. But Ryan’s other major legacy — the moratorium he placed on executions in 2000, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination — is also under attack, and the reverberations could be felt across the entire country's criminal justice system.

Six years after Ryan's unilateral move set off a wave of capital punishment reforms nationwide, conservative prosecutors throughout the state are hoping a change at the Governor's Mansion this fall can usher back the death penalty. While Democratic incumbent Rod Blagojevich has said Ryan's moratorium should remain in place, at least for the foreseeable future, his Republican challenger and state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has hinted that enough safeguards have now been put into place for the death penalty to be reinstated.

"It's time to have a Governor who exercises authority in the way it was intended," said Topinka's running mate Joseph Birkett, the state's attorney in Republican DuPage County, who helped author some of the reforms in Illinois. "People felt betrayed by what Ryan did."

Only seven inmates currently sit on Illinois Death Row, where about 170 were before Ryan cleared it out shortly before leaving office three years ago. Even though no executions can currently be carried out, the death sentence can still be handed down, and some 200 cases are currently in the pipeline in which prosecutors have signaled their intention to seek capital punishment.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1185875,00.html

The Right-To-Lifers are really right-to-killers, these people are more about dying than living..