Quinn should sign bill to end death penalty
I have toiled to abolish the death penalty most of my adult life. For 35 years, I have practiced as a criminal defense lawyer. I always knew that capital punishment would come to an end. But I never thought it would happen here, in Illinois, in my lifetime.
I am a veteran of many capital trials and many more capital appeals. I have seen exculpatory evidence withheld by prosecutors. I have seen snitches lie about the “facts” in order to get sweet deals from too-willing prosecutors. I have seen innocent men sent to Death Row.
I have represented people prosecuted for their political beliefs and their sexual orientation and sent to Death Row, not for the crimes they committed, but for the unpopular positions they took.
The death penalty brings out the worst in the state. And the results of capital trials often are unreliable and unsupportable as a consequence. My experience with the death penalty has led me to a firm belief that it must be abolished.
Justice Harry Blackmun famously wrote in one of his last opinions on the death penalty, “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Justice Stevens, who recently retired from the Court, said that he regretted his support for the death penalty as a justice. He no longer believes that capital punishment is a deterrent. He no longer believes that capital punishment can be even-handedly administered. He now supports abolition.
George Ryan reminded us that as governor he was “haunted by the demon of error — error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die.”
Gov. Quinn, the time has come to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. Sign SB 3539 into law.
Jed Stone
Highland Park