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Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty
180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2300, Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 849-2279; Fax: (312) 201-9760
Website: www.icadp.org
For immediate release--November 19, 2003
Contact: Jane Bohman:
(312) 849-2279
Cell (312) 213-4250
ILLINOIS Coalition to Abolish THE DEATH PENALTY
RESPONDS TO PASSAGE OF REFORM LEGISLATION
(Chicago) . . . The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty responded
to the passage of reform legislation to the Illinois capital punishment
system.
“While the legislation improves aspects of the criminal justice
system, it does not make the criminal justice system foolproof,”
said Jane Bohman, Executive Director of the Coalition. Key reforms of
non-partisan Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment are not
included in the package. Significantly, one of the findings was that
Illinois’ system of capital punishment was arbitrary as to application
by race of the victim and geographic location of the crime, both of
which should be irrelevant to who gets the death penalty.
"The new law ignores several of the major mechanisms suggested
by the Commission to deal with arbitrariness, including a statewide
review panel for capital charging decisions by local prosecutors and
a major reduction in the existing aggravating factors in the current
statute. “Already, the issue of fairness has fallen victim to the
political process. In addition, among other things, the new law does
not deal with the major problem of prosecutorial misconduct, which has
led to a number of wrongful convictions,” continued Bohman.
Based on these shortcomings, it is imperative that Governor Blagojevich
should continue the moratorium on executions, and the Coalition applauds
his stated intention to do so. Not only are major reforms missing, the
new law has yet to be tested. One of the crucial aspects of the proposed
legislation is a study committee to review the effectiveness of reforms
on the capital punishment system. Time and care must be taken to determine
whether Illinois’ death penalty system can be made fair and accurate.
Continuing the moratorium will not be a controversial move among voters.
The citizens of Illinois have shown a steadfast support of the moratorium
on executions and also a willingness to reexamine the death penalty
and consider alternatives.
In the end, the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is confident
that as the General Assembly, Governor Blagojevich and the public continue
to review of the use of death penalty, it will conclude, as the Governor’s
Commission on Capital Punishment did, that no system can be devised
that will guarantee that an innocent person will never again be sentenced
to death.
“Ultimately, the only way to ensure that innocent people are not
executed is to substitute the punishment of death with the sentence
of life in prison without the possibility of parole, which protects
public safety but allows for the correction of the inevitable mistakes
that will be made,” concluded Bohman.
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The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a statewide grassroots
not-for-profit organization that seeks to educate the public on the
flaws and injustices in the Illinois death penalty system and to promote
humane and effective alternatives to capital punishment.
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