Time to lift death penalty moratorium

I am very disappointed that the lives of Juan Luna and James Degorski were spared for committing a heinous act at the Brown's Chicken in Palatine 16 years ago. A horrid and cruel act of maiming and freezing seven innocent people must receive the ultimate punishment our society is armed with. Unfortunately, these capital criminals will continue to receive life's luxuries at the state's expense, while the seven victims will be a footnote in history.

The only thing "flawed" about Illinois' death penalty system is that is not used. There was no doubt that Degorski and Luna committed these acts, so you can drop the "innocence" argument. For that matter, innocence is not the issue here, but whether or not death was the ultimate punishment. If a few changes were made, more of these capital cases would receive a death sentence.

Making the jury a majority vote and restricting the appeals system would streamline the process. This way, we would not need a unanimous jury vote, and these inmates would not grow old on death row with excessive appeals. Most appeals are fruitless delaying tactics to hold off an execution for as long as possible, and have nothing to do with innocence. If we cannot prove innocence or guilt in court, then perhaps we should scrap the entire justice system? That is not an option, but expanding the death penalty is. We have always used the harshest punishment for the harshest crimes, and utilizing capital punishment for such heinous acts is the adequate response. So instead of removing the death penalty, it is time to use it. But first we must lift the moratorium.

Mark Egebrecht

Huntley