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LOCAL News :: Civil & Human Rights : Crime & Police

STOP DEATH PENALTY REINSTATEMENT

PLEASE HELP THE PROGRESSIVE/ LIBERAL ELEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNDERSTAND HOW STUPID IT WOULD BE TO FALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. THEY HAVE BEEN DOING SO WELL, AND TO FALL FOR THIS FROM THE DEADLIES WOULD BE JUST ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING.
PLEASE HELP THE PROGRESSIVE/ LIBERAL ELEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNDERSTAND HOW STUPID IT WOULD BE TO FALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. THEY HAVE BEEN DOING SO WELL, AND TO FALL FOR THIS FROM THE DEADLIES WOULD BE JUST ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING.

PLEASE WRITE TO THEM

The moratorium, the reforms in sentencing, the proposed prison reform, and increased awareness and actions to remove guns from the streets have been very effective in reducing crime. the crime rate overall has gone down 16%, and the murder rate has also dropped double digits.

These reforms have resulted in less tension on the streets, which raises the panic threshhold, thus reducing the chances people resort to violence to resolve conflicts.

The death penalty is a mechanism of terror, used by politicians to pacify frightened elements within their constituency. It does nothing to reduce crime, it never has. The purpose of the justice system is to reduce crime and remove harmful elements from our midst, it is not to exact revenge. The death penalty being reinstated in ANY form would be an escalation of violence in our society, as we have been enjoying a reduction in violence in the past few years.

Our politicians should NOT BE ENGAGING IN VIOLENCE at a time when violence has been decreasing. Illinois has been an example of forward thinking and successful strategies, WE SHOULD NOT TURN BACK NOW.
~~
A bid to end execution doubts
Bipartisan plan would raise standard of guilt

By Ray Long
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 26, 2005

SPRINGFIELD -- A bipartisan group of legislators called Friday to raise the standard of proof for sentencing a person to death in Illinois by requiring a judge or jury to determine a defendant is guilty beyond "all doubt," a move that could renew efforts to lift Illinois' moratorium on executions.

The proposal would hold prosecutors in Illinois to the highest burden in the nation before a criminal is sent to Death Row and is designed to ease many concerns about injustices in applying the death penalty.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) and Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville) are among a group of tough-on-crime legislators who introduced the legislation that underscores a commitment to prevent any executions unless there is absolute certainty of a person's guilt.

"It ensures, we believe, that innocent people are not sentenced to death," Cross said. "Just because I'm for the death penalty doesn't mean we should sentence people that are innocent to Death Row."

The legislation would not change the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of proof long required to win a criminal conviction. The beyond "all doubt" standard would only be applied once a guilty verdict has been rendered and a jury or judge is weighing whether to invoke the death penalty.

If there remained what the legislation calls "residual doubt" during the sentencing phase of a capital trial, the defendant would be sentenced to life in prison instead of lethal injection.

One staunch opponent of the death penalty, Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago) said he's leaning toward support for the change, which he said would reduce chances that an innocent person would be executed.

But he also worried the legislation could hurt the abolition movement by reducing doubts about the correctness of decisions made in death penalty cases.

"It just says before we do it, you need to be absolutely certain," Turner said. "I thought that was how the system was designed anyhow."

An aide to Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine said the beyond "all doubt" standard would set the bar so high that it would be hard to sentence anybody to death no matter how heinous the crime.

"DNA evidence that might be introduced at trial might say that there's one chance in a billion that the perpetrator was someone other than the convicted defendant," said John Gorman, the Devine spokesman. "Then the burden would appear to compel a jury to come up with no death [penalty]."

Executions halted in 2000

After the exposure of numerous wrongful convictions of Death Row inmates, then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in 2000. Just before he left office in 2003, Ryan pardoned four Death Row inmates and commuted the sentences of 167 others.

The General Assembly followed with a package of reforms, including one that authorized the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn a death sentence if justices find it was fundamentally unjust even if a defendant's trial was not flawed.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has said he will continue Ryan's moratorium.

But Hoffman, a close Blagojevich ally, said it should be lifted and suggested the legislation could speed justice.

"If a jury finds beyond all doubt that a person has committed this crime, I think that there is a lot of finality to that, and it probably decreases the likelihood of it being overturned on appeal," Hoffman said.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said it was too early to talk about resuming executions in Illinois. "We need to give all of the reforms time to be implemented and to work before the moratorium can be lifted," Rausch said.

The proposal goes beyond anything in place in other states.

However, an aide to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said the Republican is expected to put forward a similar bill in an attempt to reinstate the death penalty in his state.

Among the sponsors of the Illinois initiative is Rep. John Millner (R-Carol Stream), a former Elmhurst police chief who oversaw the case of Andrew Kokoraleis, the last person put to death in Illinois before Ryan imposed the moratorium.

"I want to make this very clear, that we're not soft on crime," Millner said.

Aides to House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) said they will review the legislation.

Two-tiered standard attacked

Some critics argue the injection of a two-tiered standard of guilt in death penalty cases could undermine the proposal.

The Illinois Supreme Court, which consistently rules against attempts to define reasonable doubt, would likely reject two standards in a death penalty case, said Gorman, the spokesman for Devine.

A state commission appointed by Ryan that looked into death penalty reforms rejected a higher standard than reasonable doubt to define guilt because it would undermine the due process rights of both the accused and the prosecution, Gorman said.

Peoria County State's Atty. Kevin Lyons said the legislation could cause jurors to vote to convict in some cases where they might otherwise have not because they don't have to worry that their action will lead to someone's death.

"This will be the first time that a statute will suggest to Illinois citizens, 12 people at a time, that it's OK to judge the guilt of the person going to prison for the rest of their life and still feel a little wiggly on it," Lyons said.


Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
 
 

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