OpenLeft: Illinois may repeal Death Penalty

[marmar]

No current death penalty statute: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Statute ruled unconstitutional: Massachusetts and New York.

Illinois may repeal Death Penalty

by: Daniel De Groot
Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 07:00


Next week, the Illinois State House is slated to vote on SB 3539 which now contains a House amendment from Rep Karen Yarbrough (D) which repeals Illinois' death penalty. The bill would then have to go back to the Senate, and then to Gov. Pat Quinn (D) who has not yet announced whether he would veto it.

Illinois has not executed anyone since Governor George Ryan (R) halted executions (and famously commuted all death row inmates at the time to life in prison) back in 2000. His successors in office have maintained the executive branch ban on executions, but since the law is still on the books, prosecutors have still sought, and juries have still imposed the death penalty. While the status quo is better than the State actively imposing capital punishment, in another sense it is the worst of both worlds, as in addition to still being prone to the issues I discussed here, Illinois also has to bear the costs of keeping people on Death Row and the necessary appeals as no convict can be sure the next Governor won't overturn the ban.

Nobody seems very sure whether the bill can pass though it appears to have the votes in the House, and with Democratic majority in the Senate and Illinois being a No-filibuster, majority rule state, it is at least possible. If you're interested in helping out, the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is having a lobby day on January 4th to try and push legislators to pass the repeal. It would be a significant liberal victory to have the fifth largest state make its de facto repeal permanent. Even having the vote is some kind of progress, indicating the issue is alive and on the agenda.


http://www.openleft.com/diary/21276/illinois-may-repeal-death-penalty

[NNN0LHI]

1. Can you believe that after finding 13 out of 25 men on our death row were factually innocent ...

... that this is even still an issue? Not innocent because of some technicality or some other bullshit. They were proven to be innocent with DNA and such. 13 out of 25 men on our death row were proven innocent. They had been tortured by a Chicago Police commander named Jon Burge and his underlings into confessing to crimes they had not committed. Think about that for a minute. And we are still debating this?

Don

[lunatica]

2. Better to execute 5 innocent people than to let one guilty one go free

:sarcasm:

[ladjf]

3. Good. nt

[mwooldri]

4. Let the death penalty end. Ironically the UK is trying its part...

... the government (specifically Vince Cable - a Lib Dem) is mulling blocking the export of certain chemicals to the USA that are used in the lethal injection process.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11865881

From this article it would appear that sodium thiopental exports may well have been blocked to the US on the news that this drug is only being used for executions.