Milgaard Inquiry

"Despite the good intentions of judges, death penalty errors continue," according to George Ryan, outgoing Governor of Illinois. Ryan made these comments in a special article to the Register on February 13, 2005 .

Ryan cited the following facts, which affected him so powerfully that he declared a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois:

<<-Fact: For every eight people executed in this country since 1977, one innocent person has been set free. In the last 28 years, 117 death row prisoners have been exonerated and found innocent of the crimes that put them in line to meet the executioner.

In Illinois, we have executed 12 men on death row and we have exonerated 18.

Fact: Death sentences continue to be overturned all the time -- not just in Illinois, but also in 23 of the 38 states where the death penalty is legal.

Fact: A study done by a Columbia University law professor found that over a 23-year period, 68 percent of the cases which resulted in a death sentence had to be retried because of errors in the original trial.

And of those cases that were, 82 percent of the defendants did not get the death penalty at the second trial. Seven percent of them were found not guilty. ">>

WOW! This article should be mandatory reading in every high school, college and university class on current events, history, criminal law and political science. Anyone who has any ambivalence whatsoever about the death penalty should read this article. So should people who are 100% certain that the death penalty is required in some instances.

I admire George Ryan for changing his mind about the death penalty, and for implementing a moratorium. I support that. I think that we need to look at our sentencing, too. For example, giving Christopher Pittman a 30 year sentence for killing his grandparents when he was only 12 years old, and obviously having an adverse reaction to Zoloft is unfair. 12 years old? What about the studies that show that some teenagers are more prone to committing suicide on antidepressants? How does suicide differ from homicide -- they're both forms of violence. One is directed outwards and the other is directed internally.

The other sentence that was a horrible injustice was the guilty verdict for poor Andrea Yates, who was completely psychotic at the time that she took the lives of her little children. Thankfully, Andrea's sentence has been reversed. I hope that Christopher Pittman's attorneys launch a strong appeal.

But I digress. Back to the death penalty. In the 1970s, there was a trend towards a more rehabilitative model in the justice system as opposed to the punitive model that had been operating. Many criminals were seen as victims of class, race and bad circumstances. Then we had the victims' rights movement, which is essentially a good thing, but it led many people to return to the "eye for an eye" mentality.

Prisoner's rights aren't very popular at the moment. Many people think that prisoners lounge around in their Club Feds with their tennis courts and DVD players. Certain victims' rights groups strongly support the death penalty. We can understand why. We empathize -- I know that I do. I'm not foolish and naive. I don't think that all prisoners can be rehabilitated. Some people are too violent or disturbed to ever be readmitted to society. Fine. Lock the door and throw away the key. Do what we can for them inside the penitentiary but don't ever let them out.

Whatever happened to life WITHOUT parole? Many juries are only given the opportunity to sentence someone to life or to death. We need something in between that guarantees that violent criminals do not get out. Having said that, obviously, we have to be absolutely certain that someone is guilty as charged before we sentence them to anything, particularly life or life without parole. And we need to reserve this option for the most dangerous offenders, not kids who are incarcerated for selling drugs on their third strike.

Why is it that so many death penalty cases in Illinois, and in the United States in general, were thrown out upon retrial? That should make us all think twice before supporting something as irrevocable and final as the death penalty.

Read Governors Ryan's speech at

http://www.initiative-gegen-die-todesstrafe.de/George%20Ryan%20.htm

Sigrid Macdonald