Why Repeal the Death Penalty?
In 2000, then Gov. George Ryan took the justified first step of halting all executions after media investigations revealed a myriad of problems with the state's capital punishment system. More inmates were found wrongly sentenced to death than were executed, prompting Ryan to order a more detailed review process and other reforms. In 2003, Illinois' death row was cleared. Lawmakers created a Capital Litigation Trust Fund to provide equity in funding for death penalty cases. There have been accusations of overbillings and other misuse of taxpayer dollars dedicated to the fund. To date, more than a hundred million dollars has been spent on cases that have produced no executions because of the moratorium.
Illinois' Death Row
On January 10th, 2003, Governor George Ryan pardoned four men from Illinois' death row. That brought the total up to 17 men who had been sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit, exonerated after years of wrongful imprisonment. The next day, Governor Ryan, historically a proponent of capital punishment, commuted 167 death sentences to life without parole. When announcing the pardons, Ryan called the criminal justice system under which these men and women were sentenced to die "deeply flawed," "arbitrary," and "haunted by the demon of error."*
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Death penalty in state a costly travesty
Op-Ed by Judge Kathleen Kallan
Illinoisans are all too familiar these days with waste and frustration in state government. But there is one lesser-known example of a flawed program with deep costs and nothing to show for it: the death penalty.
Illinois spends at least $12 million a year to prosecute and administer death penalty cases, yet only one person was sentenced to death in Illinois last year, and no one has been executed in more than a decade. That's $12 million wasted, tossed into lawyer fees, legal proceedings and precious court time for a handful of executions that may never take place.
Read more at: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/opinions/2567890,4_4_...
