 For more than a decade of debate, moratoriums and studies, the state of Illinois has finally come to the conclusion that the death penalty is not worth it.
As a result, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a death penalty ban into law last week, making Illinois the 16th state to end capital punishment.
Illinois came to the obvious conclusion that the death penalty is neither worth the cost nor the risk. The risk has always been the most compelling reason to oppose capital punishment.
In 2000, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan exonerated 13 individuals on death row and then suspended the state's death penalty.
Ryan had been a longtime advocate of capital punishment, but declared that he could no longer support a system that has "come so close to the ultimate nightmare -- the state's taking of innocent life."
Calling the decision the most difficult he has made as governor, Quinn stated, "If the system can't be guaranteed, 100-percent error-free, then we shouldn't have the system."
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has previously stated that the "execution of a legally and factually innocent person would be a constitutionally intolerable event."
But continued support of the death penalty suggests the execution of an innocent person is not intolerable.
Moreover, by banning the death penalty Illinois is now in a position to reallocate funds currently spent on defending individuals facing capital punishment to provide law enforcement with training and services to the families of homicide victims.
What Illinois has achieved would hopefully provide the momentum for other states to follow, in particular California.
According to Stefanie Faucher, associate director of Death Penalty Focus, "California's death penalty system is just as flawed as Illinois' and it will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion over the next five years. Replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole will save our state hundreds of millions of dollars each year and ensure that no innocent people are ever executed."
I've listened to a number of individuals calling for California to replicate the courage of Illinois. But to do so, would not California need to first embrace common sense?
A dispassionate examination of the facts clearly leads one toward opposition of the death penalty. But emotion remains the powerful tool that lies at the foundation of death penalty advocacy.
The emotion derived from an unbelievably heinous crime serves as the standard bearer for the death penalty and understandably trumps taxpayer costs and any risks of executing the innocent.
Instead of doing the sensible thing, which is to eliminate capital punishment, emotion leads us down the unrealistic path of offering an unattainable justice for the family of victims.
The emotion-laden arguments are effective in swaying public opinion, but quickly wilt under the pressure of facts.
There is no data beyond speculation and forecasting that proves the death penalty saves lives. It is frankly outrageous and morally incomprehensible to offer the elimination of so-called frivolous appeals as a way to speed up justice.
Those who wish to counter my last observation via e-mail please consult the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution prior to responding. There is nothing that effectively demonstrates retribution is the balm that soothes victims' pain. Because of the length of capital cases, it may actually have the reverse effect.
To even have a death penalty that is remotely close to fair would require far more taxpayer dollars than what's currently being allocated. I'm not sure there is groundswell to support that.
Opposition against or support for capital punishment ultimately has little to do with the perpetrators and more to do with who we are as a society.
Surely, we can rise to the level of Rwanda, a country known more for its genocide, but managed to outlaw the death penalty in 2007.
But the emotional arguments successfully dehumanize the culprits to a level that places them collectively below the protections of the Constitution, allowing us to exist with a death penalty with an error percentage higher than zero.
The simple and ghoulish fact is there is no such thing as a perfect capital punishment system and that must be the point of entry, if we are to maintain such barbarism. Illinois has learned this, when will California?
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