On the Death Penalty

From New York I came to Illinois for college over 50 years ago and I’ve become a fixture! During those decades I’ve observed the ebb and flow of judicial temperament. From a time of light sentences for crimes committed, to times of retributive justice. Harsh sentences imposed to keep society safe from violent people. Death penalties handed down often and for increasingly lesser crimes.

Then doubts sprang up. Public debate continued to favor death penalties for heinous crimes but society was building toward a collective cringe of the severity of taking a life.

They knew it was in their name that a criminal was put to death.

And then the pendulum swung away from the death sentence as a few convicted felons were found to be innocent. DNA science became more common; finally DNA testing results became available more quickly. And much more reliablely. Yes. Innocent people had been condemned to death. The horror swept over us, numbingly real.

Death sentences were still imposed, but appeals took more time just to be sure, and these sentences were used less frequently, too.

We were becoming nervous of the finality. Of the certainty of guilt. But we weren’t. We were not certain at all.

A moratorium on implementing death penalties was declared by Governor George Ryan. As years went by more innocent people were discovered on death row and removed. Finally the governor made the death penalty forbidden.

Innocence projects continue unabated. Now our horror is saved for those who have languished in prison for 20 years or more for crimes they did not commit. So in Illinois justice is still pursued; and the weight of the death penalty has been removed.

Not so elsewhere in our nation, especially Texas. But they too are imposing the sentence less frequently; and they too are implementing the death sentence more haltering.

I believe the death penalty is a just penalty in certain cases. These involve horrific crimes of victim death and other cases where evil has scarred victims for the remainder of their lives. And these cases must be iron clad in the finding of truth. No doubts whatsoever.

Such cases are rare. Thank God! But they do exist. And in them the death penalty is appropriate.

All else is not, however. Plain and simple. Bringing the death penalty to the brim of extinction should prove to us that its use should be very rare. Or we become as bad and vengeful as………; Oh please, let us no go on with any more excuses!

December 19, 2011