Today's Chicago Sun-Times carries the editorial, "It takes courage to correct injustice."
It’s not easy to do the right thing when it comes to an issue as emotional as the death penalty.
Exhibit A is a statement circulated earlier this year by the parents of Jeanine Nicarico, murdered at 10 years old in 1983 by Death Row inmate Brian Dugan. Jeanine’s parents called the House vote in January to abolish the death penalty “an act of cowardice, laziness and disregard for justice” and asked the Senate and Gov. Quinn to reject it.
That’s a strong statement, especially coming from two people who long publicly sought the execution of three men who turned out to be innocent.
Former Gov. George Ryan revealed a different emotional reaction to the death penalty in a 2010 deposition that recently came to light. At one point, he talked about a former classmate who had asked, “Are you going to kill my son?” At another point, he cited the case of Anthony Porter, who was within 50 hours of execution when a legal technicality saved him. Porter also later turned out to be innocent.
And:
The legislation to abolish the death penalty has been approved by the General Assembly and sits on the governor’s desk.
Signing it would not be an act of cowardice or laziness.
It would be an act on the side of justice.
"Quinn should sign bill banning death penalty," is the title of Jerry Moore's column in the Batavia Republican.
When it comes to capital punishment, there’s no moratorium on opinions.
Illinois residents have wrestled with capital punishment since 2000 when Gov. George Ryan placed a ban on executions. During a veto session earlier this year, state legislators voted to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Pat Quinn has until March 18 to sign the bill.
The voting went largely along party lines. Two local legislators, however, broke ranks with their caucus and sided with their political rivals.
Former state Rep. Bob Biggins, R-41st District, of Elmhurst and Sen. Ron Sandack, R-21st District, of Downers Grove voted to abolish capital punishment.
And:
Measures can be passed to provide more safeguards, but what if even these don’t work all the time? How can a government compensate a victim of injustice when the person is dead?
Rotting in prison for the rest of your life is no walk in the park. The best way to avoid executing an innocent person is to ban the practice. Quinn should sign the bill.
Both Chicago papers examine the last-minute lobbying. The Sun-Times report is, "Cardinal George, world leaders lobbied Quinn on death penalty," written by Dave McKinney.
Cardinal Francis George, politicians from Great Britain and Germany and the mother of a murdered college student are among thousands of people who have lobbied Gov. Quinn on death-penalty repeal legislation now on his desk.
Since the General Assembly narrowly passed the landmark measure in January, Quinn’s office has been inundated with calls, letters and e-mails that decidedly tilt in favor of doing away with the death penalty.
Quinn spokesman Grant Klinzman said roughly 12,000 people have urged the governor to sign the death-penalty repeal, while about 700 have encouraged him to veto it.
Late Tuesday, Quinn’s office released 167 pages of correspondence from those advocating both sides of the issue in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Tribune report, "Quinn under pressure on executions," is by Monique Garcia.
Gov. Pat Quinn sat stoically and took pages of handwritten notes as family members of murder victims begged him to preserve the death penalty as an option for those convicted of killing their loved ones, the impassioned pleas coming during a closed-door meeting last week with the prosecutors who helped put the killers behind bars.
Weeks earlier, the governor followed much the same routine as he was told the capital punishment system is too broken to keep in place by Sister Helen Prejean, a New Orleans nun whose experiences with a Death Row inmate became the basis for the film "Dead Man Walking."
In both cases, Quinn gave no indication of what he'll do with a bill sitting on his desk that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois. It's a historic question for Quinn that will help define his term as governor. And he's had no shortage of advocates on both sides trying to sway him in a state where the death penalty has a high-profile and troubled past.
The Sun-Times also publishes, "Kankakee father shaped George Ryan’s Death Row decision," by Natasha Korecki.
A Kankakee father who once asked George Ryan to spare his son from the death penalty said Tuesday he’s surprised to hear that Ryan credits him for helping him make the now-famous decision to clear out Death Row in 2003.
In a jailhouse deposition given last year — but released just this week — Ryan said an encounter with a worried father he had long known from their native Kankakee made “a big impact on my decision.”
Claude Lee, 76, confirmed Tuesday he was one who approached then-Gov. Ryan and asked: “Are you going to kill my son?”
Lee’s adult son, Eric, was on Death Row at the time for killing a police officer during a traffic stop in Kankakee in 1996.
“I asked him, was there a way he could save my son’s life?” Lee recalled Tuesday.
But he didn’t know the impact he made.
“That does surprise me, but it wasn’t just me,” he said.
Lee said Ryan recognized Illinois’ death penalty system was flawed. Lee was able to put a personal face on the men who were on Death Row, he said.
When Ryan put a moratorium on executions and commuted all death sentences to life terms, he spared Eric Lee, who is now at Menard Correctional Center.
“My son was a sick man, he was a mental case,” Claude Lee said. “George was a friend before [my son] was in jail. . .. We were in the same party. I was a committeeman. He was a state rep.”
Earlier coverage from Illinois begins with articles on the Ryan deposition and this update on Gov. Quinn's consideration of the repeal bill.
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