I think that it is a shame that thirteen men were put to death in Illinois that were innocent. This is a travesty of justice. I do believe though in the death penalty. The article talks about how the governor looked into different ways to make it fair and just. The fact he did not find any solution honestly surprised me. Why this amazes me is because he talks about it not discriminating based on race or economic standings, which I agree with. With all of the technology we have at this time plus all of the technology to come, I feel like it would be harder than ever to convict someone wrongly. I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion. The death penalty should not discriminate. What we should do is pick certain crimes that everyone deems horrendous crimes and say that if you commit this crime whether you are white or black or green, male or female, rich or poor you should get the death penalty. Obviously, there has been discrimination within the criminal justice system which makes me sad because it is such a noble profession that people should have respect for and trust. I think a way to lower the discrimination and corruption in the criminal justice system is if a judge or officer is caught being bias to give them the death penalty. I think that eliminating the death penalty was a very tough choice that was not an easy decision because there are pros and cons to it. -Legion001
I completely agree that the death penalty should not discriminate. However, I do not believe that there will ever be a system in place where it does not discriminate and solely focuses on facts. Bias is also a hard subject to identify. Where one person says there is bias, another could have thought the punishment was fair. Jackrabbit001
This article was very shocking. I had known that Illinois had abolished the death penalty but really had no idea why. I had assumed that it was in due to the fact that Illinois and many other states were just moving away from the death penalty. I had no idea that Illinois had put 13 men to death unjustly. I also did not know that it had been abolished in 2011. I believe that the death penalty has many problems. I agree with the statements made by the former governor, Pat Quinn, that it would be impossible to create a perfect system at which the death penalty may function through. I honestly do not believe that a capital punishment system will ever exist where there is no discrimination or prejudice involved in decisions. I also believe that it is nearly impossible to be 100% sure that the convicted is guilty. In order for an execution to even occur, the average stay on death row was 13 years. That nearly defeats the purpose of the death penalty by itself. One other shocking fact was that the last person executed was in 1999. That was before I was even born. Jackrabbit001
One of the most sad truths of the death penalty is the possibility of executing the wrong individual who is innocent. For Illinois to abolish the death penalty was most definitely a very big ordeal but the governor at the time had a lot of considerations in making this decision. 13 innocent men had been executed in the state and governor Quinn also took 15 more off of death row and had their sentence changed to life in prison due to the risk of making that number of 13 any bigger. As Quinn stated "Discrimination should never discriminate", that is a very true statement to me because I believe the same thing. Bias is in everyone's brains whether we realize it or not and that is a very big issue when it comes to sentencing, Illinois has had a past of corrupt courts and for them to eliminate the death penalty lessons the chance of a wrongful execution. Society has come so far with advances in technology that the possibility for DNA evidence to be wrong is a very slim chance but there still can be potential for it happen because nothing is 100% positive. I do think it is a good thing for Illinois to have eliminated this sentence, but I still do believe some people really do deserve it for the evil crimes they have committed. -Blues001
I agree with you. I think that the death penalty definitely should have been abolished at the time in which it was. After reading your blog, I really liked how you mentioned that technology for DNA evidence being wrong is very slim. It is probably for the best that Illinois eliminated the death penalty due to all the mistakes that we have made with sentencing individuals to death who did not deserve it.
This article talks about the abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois. Governor Quinn signed the bill when the moratorium goes back to 2000 when Governor George Ryan made international headlines by suspending executions. I think abolishing the death penalty in Illinois is a smart move. More and more states are doing it, so the earlier you do it the better it will make your state look. I do not see why they do abolish the death penalty at the federal level because sooner or later majority of the states will abolish it. Governor Ryan cleared death row commuting the death penalty sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison. To me, life in prison is a harsher and way more deserved punishment than the death penalty. If you think about it, no one wants to spend life in prison because it is a very tough life. Majority of those offenders would probably want to be sentenced the death penalty rather than be sentenced life without parole. If the convicted was a murderer, I could see how it could be unfortunate for families of the victim. These families have to understand that life in prison is way harder for them instead of death. Yes, death may sound the best but it is not. -lilbaby001
According to the article former Illinois governor Pat Quinn had abolished the death penalty. Before this there was a moratorium that gave 13 innocent men that were wrongly condemned the death penalty. It's not right that innocent people were put to death. Now the fifteen people that were originally given the death penalty are now serving life in prison. Who knows if all states will eventually abolish the death penalty, I guess time will tell. Quinn says it was the most difficult decision he had ever made, but that it was the best step forward. Before leaving office former governor Ryan cleared death row of 167 inmates and gave them life in prison. The last execution was in 1999. Personally I don't think that the death penalty should be abolished entirely, because there are people out there who have done very horrible crimes. It must have been even more difficult for Quinn to pass this bill when families of victims killed by gun violence came to talk him out of it. I can only imagine how difficult it can be to make a decision like this with victim's families telling their stories. As I said before, the death penalty should not be abolished entirely. There are criminals out there who have done very horrible things that should not be given a normal sentence. -Ram001
I agree that putting innocent people to death is extremely wrong. The fact that Illinois wrongly did this to 13 men is extremely concerning because it’s the state that I live in. I can’t help but think of the families of these men and how if the death penalty wouldn’t of existed they would have been reunited with them. Celtics001
This article talks about the death penalty and how Illinois joined 15 other states and eliminated it. It doesn’t surprise me that Illinois couldn’t handle the death penalty because we can’t really seem to do anything right or legal. The reasoning behind taking away the death penalty is because 15 men were wrongly executed. That is completely unacceptable and tells me that we were rushing to give out the death penalty on cases that we weren’t 100% on. This can’t happen with any charges given and especially not with the death penalty. I think that the death penalty should go away all together because it is too risky to use. There are just too many statistics that imply that the death penalty is racist, and has been used improperly over the years. And I know I that if I was one of the people being put on death row then I would do anything I can to take that over sitting out the rest of my years in a cell. That would be the worst way to live my life, in a cell for 50 plus years just doing the same thing over and over again. That is what we should punish the worst criminals with instead of giving them the easy way out. Celtics001
I agree with your point that those 15 wrongly convicted people were put to death because Illinois rushed the process when they did not have all the facts or evidence necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these men were guilty. I also agree that spending a life in bondage in prison every day would be worse than dying and that the death penalty was a somewhat easy way out. Drums001
Besides what Dr. White told us about in class, I had no idea how flawed the death penalty in Illinois was. It is simply terrible and unacceptable that 13 innocent people were punished by the death penalty in Illinois. I agree with Pat Quinn’s statement, that we can never have a perfect system free of racial or economic bias. Humans are not perfect and never will be, therefore a system run by humans to punish humans cannot ever be perfect. Therefore, I agree with his later statement which states that if Illinois doesn’t use the death penalty, no state should. The death penalty reduces the prison population, saves some money for prisons, and gives victims and families closure, but it is flawed and will always be. Consequently, over time innocent people will be wrongly convicted and sentenced to the death penalty as long as it exists. I think that the reason Illinois’ death penalty was given to so many innocent people compared to other states is that Illinois has relatively individualistic values, which allows changes when people rule that they are better off a different way than before. For example, a judge with a 10 year old daughter in Illinois is likely to give a harsher sentence to someone who raped a young girl than a judge without kids would. This discretion can be beneficial at times, but not when a possibly innocent person’s life is on the line. -Drums001
i couldn't agree with you more. we as humans are flawed meaning that we could never have a perfect system. we are bound to make catastrophic errors that can ruin someone else's life, but we can at least take small steps to mitigate the consequences of our errors. id much rather have an innocent man do 10 years than be put to death for a crime he never did. sexyinbikini001
Up until only a few years ago I was a strong supporter of the death penalty and would argue that certain criminals need to die. After hearing countless stories of people being falsely accused and wrongly executed, I’ve changed my mind. This article opened my eyes to just how serious of in issue this was in Illinois. The article starts by telling us readers how 13 innocent people had their lives stolen by a corrupt system. This is not to say that there are not sick and horrible people in this world that need to be punished. I just feel that the system must be revised so that people can be sentenced properly with no chance of error. The system we have right now still targets those in lower class and those in the minority. We see this in our prisons today. For example, a young African American guy is accused for something he never did and gets a life sentence, but 16 years later its revealed that he really was innocent. He has now lost 16 years of his life that he can never get back. Until we find a way to fix this issue, I don’t believe that anyone should be put to death. sexyinbikini001
In my opinion, I believe that the death penalty has some good and bad things about it. I think that if the evidence is certain about the person who was convicted then the death penalty should be used wisely, but if there is any doubt at all or any type of discrimination being used, then the death penalty is better off being eliminated. To think that there are people who have been killed and sentenced to death when they were not even the ones who committed the crimes is a terrible thing though. It is hard to believe that in Illinois, multiple people, thirteen to be exact, were put to death that were innocent of the crimes that they were said to have committed. I personally think that the governor getting rid of the death penalty in that date and time was probably for the best, but now in 2019, technology has come so far and would be nearly impossible to be wrong when it comes to whether or not an individual is guilty or not. But I guess there is always mistakes to be made and accidents to happen. With this being said, I do think that if a person takes an innocent person’s life, that they do not deserve to be on this earth anymore either. When one person takes another person’s life, does locking them up for life in prison really do the same justice as the death penalty would? It may be for the better that the death penalty is no longer in Illinois due to the fact that the state has made too many mistakes. -Anchorman001
While I do not like that so many innocent people have been put to death because of capital punishment, I do think there is a need for the death penalty. I personally do not think all states need to abolish capital punishment. In cases where innocent people, including children, are murdered, I think there is no question their killer should be put to death for what they did. Pam Bosley said "I can't see my son at all no more. I can't see him grow old. They took all that from me, so I feel that their life needs to be ended." I could not agree more. If someone takes it upon themself to play God and take the lives of the innocent, they give up their own right to live. The death penalty was made for those kinds of people and needs to be used in those cases. As for the people who were wrongly put to death, there is no way to make that right. We just need to be sure to have one-hundred percent certainty the person committed the crime (by having hard, undeniable evidence) before we put them on death row and kill yet another innocent person. -Reid001
Illinois did away with the death penalty after we saw that 13 men were killed after being innocent. Former Governor Quinn said doing away with the death penalty was best, but is this true? Illinois has supposedly studied the death penalty more than any other state. I can see why it is touchy and debatable. But there are many reasons as to why the death penalty should be in use. For one, if prosecution and the legal system did as much as they could to PROVE guilt, then I feel it should be used with specific crimes. Why should child molesters ever walk the streets? Or psychotic killers? Why should taxpayer money be used to keep mass-murderers and sick people like this alive? I do not feel people like that deserve to live. They do not deserve the solitude of being able to live going day to day having their meals paid for by civilians like us. I feel it should be used only in certain crimes when there is a 100% chance that person did it. It must be done with complete certainty. Innocents would not be put to death if the criminal justice system does its job properly. I am sorry but life in prison is a waste of taxpayer money. -freckles001
It is interesting to know that Illinois was the state with the most people of death row but was still able to abolish it. I agree that the death penalty was taken away because of different flaws the criminal justice system had. Like it was mentioned in the article but Gov. Pat Quinn “there is no perfect system,...” I think it also ties in with other topics we have been having in class like about implicit biases and not having good enough evidence to convict someone. There are many mistakes made, there is discrimination that comes with bias, and also prosecutors that might obtain evidence to condemn someone. Yes, the death penalty was ideal for when there was 100% evidence and without a doubt that someone committed a crime, but when someone is truly innocent is put to death for a crime they didn’t do is for me very heartbreaking. Even though the death penalty is good for deterrence when it comes to crime and lessing it because of fear. I think that not having it also good because someone that is innocent can not be wrongfully given it. For example, the 13 men that didn’t deserve to be put to death. I think with the technology that we have today is would be better to find who is really innocent. taco001
I think that it is a shame that thirteen men were put to death in Illinois that were innocent. This is a travesty of justice. I do believe though in the death penalty. The article talks about how the governor looked into different ways to make it fair and just. The fact he did not find any solution honestly surprised me. Why this amazes me is because he talks about it not discriminating based on race or economic standings, which I agree with. With all of the technology we have at this time plus all of the technology to come, I feel like it would be harder than ever to convict someone wrongly. I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion. The death penalty should not discriminate. What we should do is pick certain crimes that everyone deems horrendous crimes and say that if you commit this crime whether you are white or black or green, male or female, rich or poor you should get the death penalty. Obviously, there has been discrimination within the criminal justice system which makes me sad because it is such a noble profession that people should have respect for and trust. I think a way to lower the discrimination and corruption in the criminal justice system is if a judge or officer is caught being bias to give them the death penalty. I think that eliminating the death penalty was a very tough choice that was not an easy decision because there are pros and cons to it. -Legion001
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the death penalty should not discriminate. However, I do not believe that there will ever be a system in place where it does not discriminate and solely focuses on facts. Bias is also a hard subject to identify. Where one person says there is bias, another could have thought the punishment was fair. Jackrabbit001
DeleteThis article was very shocking. I had known that Illinois had abolished the death penalty but really had no idea why. I had assumed that it was in due to the fact that Illinois and many other states were just moving away from the death penalty. I had no idea that Illinois had put 13 men to death unjustly. I also did not know that it had been abolished in 2011. I believe that the death penalty has many problems. I agree with the statements made by the former governor, Pat Quinn, that it would be impossible to create a perfect system at which the death penalty may function through. I honestly do not believe that a capital punishment system will ever exist where there is no discrimination or prejudice involved in decisions. I also believe that it is nearly impossible to be 100% sure that the convicted is guilty. In order for an execution to even occur, the average stay on death row was 13 years. That nearly defeats the purpose of the death penalty by itself. One other shocking fact was that the last person executed was in 1999. That was before I was even born. Jackrabbit001
ReplyDeleteOne of the most sad truths of the death penalty is the possibility of executing the wrong individual who is innocent. For Illinois to abolish the death penalty was most definitely a very big ordeal but the governor at the time had a lot of considerations in making this decision. 13 innocent men had been executed in the state and governor Quinn also took 15 more off of death row and had their sentence changed to life in prison due to the risk of making that number of 13 any bigger. As Quinn stated "Discrimination should never discriminate", that is a very true statement to me because I believe the same thing. Bias is in everyone's brains whether we realize it or not and that is a very big issue when it comes to sentencing, Illinois has had a past of corrupt courts and for them to eliminate the death penalty lessons the chance of a wrongful execution. Society has come so far with advances in technology that the possibility for DNA evidence to be wrong is a very slim chance but there still can be potential for it happen because nothing is 100% positive. I do think it is a good thing for Illinois to have eliminated this sentence, but I still do believe some people really do deserve it for the evil crimes they have committed. -Blues001
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think that the death penalty definitely should have been abolished at the time in which it was. After reading your blog, I really liked how you mentioned that technology for DNA evidence being wrong is very slim. It is probably for the best that Illinois eliminated the death penalty due to all the mistakes that we have made with sentencing individuals to death who did not deserve it.
DeleteThis article talks about the abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois. Governor Quinn signed the bill when the moratorium goes back to 2000 when Governor George Ryan made international headlines by suspending executions. I think abolishing the death penalty in Illinois is a smart move. More and more states are doing it, so the earlier you do it the better it will make your state look. I do not see why they do abolish the death penalty at the federal level because sooner or later majority of the states will abolish it. Governor Ryan cleared death row commuting the death penalty sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison. To me, life in prison is a harsher and way more deserved punishment than the death penalty. If you think about it, no one wants to spend life in prison because it is a very tough life. Majority of those offenders would probably want to be sentenced the death penalty rather than be sentenced life without parole. If the convicted was a murderer, I could see how it could be unfortunate for families of the victim. These families have to understand that life in prison is way harder for them instead of death. Yes, death may sound the best but it is not. -lilbaby001
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article former Illinois governor Pat Quinn had abolished the death penalty. Before this there was a moratorium that gave 13 innocent men that were wrongly condemned the death penalty. It's not right that innocent people were put to death. Now the fifteen people that were originally given the death penalty are now serving life in prison. Who knows if all states will eventually abolish the death penalty, I guess time will tell. Quinn says it was the most difficult decision he had ever made, but that it was the best step forward. Before leaving office former governor Ryan cleared death row of 167 inmates and gave them life in prison. The last execution was in 1999. Personally I don't think that the death penalty should be abolished entirely, because there are people out there who have done very horrible crimes. It must have been even more difficult for Quinn to pass this bill when families of victims killed by gun violence came to talk him out of it. I can only imagine how difficult it can be to make a decision like this with victim's families telling their stories. As I said before, the death penalty should not be abolished entirely. There are criminals out there who have done very horrible things that should not be given a normal sentence.
ReplyDelete-Ram001
I agree that putting innocent people to death is extremely wrong. The fact that Illinois wrongly did this to 13 men is extremely concerning because it’s the state that I live in. I can’t help but think of the families of these men and how if the death penalty wouldn’t of existed they would have been reunited with them. Celtics001
DeleteThis article talks about the death penalty and how Illinois joined 15 other states and eliminated it. It doesn’t surprise me that Illinois couldn’t handle the death penalty because we can’t really seem to do anything right or legal. The reasoning behind taking away the death penalty is because 15 men were wrongly executed. That is completely unacceptable and tells me that we were rushing to give out the death penalty on cases that we weren’t 100% on. This can’t happen with any charges given and especially not with the death penalty. I think that the death penalty should go away all together because it is too risky to use. There are just too many statistics that imply that the death penalty is racist, and has been used improperly over the years. And I know I that if I was one of the people being put on death row then I would do anything I can to take that over sitting out the rest of my years in a cell. That would be the worst way to live my life, in a cell for 50 plus years just doing the same thing over and over again. That is what we should punish the worst criminals with instead of giving them the easy way out. Celtics001
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that those 15 wrongly convicted people were put to death because Illinois rushed the process when they did not have all the facts or evidence necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these men were guilty. I also agree that spending a life in bondage in prison every day would be worse than dying and that the death penalty was a somewhat easy way out.
DeleteDrums001
Besides what Dr. White told us about in class, I had no idea how flawed the death penalty in Illinois was. It is simply terrible and unacceptable that 13 innocent people were punished by the death penalty in Illinois. I agree with Pat Quinn’s statement, that we can never have a perfect system free of racial or economic bias. Humans are not perfect and never will be, therefore a system run by humans to punish humans cannot ever be perfect. Therefore, I agree with his later statement which states that if Illinois doesn’t use the death penalty, no state should. The death penalty reduces the prison population, saves some money for prisons, and gives victims and families closure, but it is flawed and will always be. Consequently, over time innocent people will be wrongly convicted and sentenced to the death penalty as long as it exists. I think that the reason Illinois’ death penalty was given to so many innocent people compared to other states is that Illinois has relatively individualistic values, which allows changes when people rule that they are better off a different way than before. For example, a judge with a 10 year old daughter in Illinois is likely to give a harsher sentence to someone who raped a young girl than a judge without kids would. This discretion can be beneficial at times, but not when a possibly innocent person’s life is on the line.
ReplyDelete-Drums001
i couldn't agree with you more. we as humans are flawed meaning that we could never have a perfect system. we are bound to make catastrophic errors that can ruin someone else's life, but we can at least take small steps to mitigate the consequences of our errors. id much rather have an innocent man do 10 years than be put to death for a crime he never did. sexyinbikini001
DeleteUp until only a few years ago I was a strong supporter of the death penalty and would argue that certain criminals need to die. After hearing countless stories of people being falsely accused and wrongly executed, I’ve changed my mind. This article opened my eyes to just how serious of in issue this was in Illinois. The article starts by telling us readers how 13 innocent people had their lives stolen by a corrupt system. This is not to say that there are not sick and horrible people in this world that need to be punished. I just feel that the system must be revised so that people can be sentenced properly with no chance of error. The system we have right now still targets those in lower class and those in the minority. We see this in our prisons today. For example, a young African American guy is accused for something he never did and gets a life sentence, but 16 years later its revealed that he really was innocent. He has now lost 16 years of his life that he can never get back. Until we find a way to fix this issue, I don’t believe that anyone should be put to death. sexyinbikini001
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe that the death penalty has some good and bad things about it. I think that if the evidence is certain about the person who was convicted then the death penalty should be used wisely, but if there is any doubt at all or any type of discrimination being used, then the death penalty is better off being eliminated. To think that there are people who have been killed and sentenced to death when they were not even the ones who committed the crimes is a terrible thing though. It is hard to believe that in Illinois, multiple people, thirteen to be exact, were put to death that were innocent of the crimes that they were said to have committed. I personally think that the governor getting rid of the death penalty in that date and time was probably for the best, but now in 2019, technology has come so far and would be nearly impossible to be wrong when it comes to whether or not an individual is guilty or not. But I guess there is always mistakes to be made and accidents to happen. With this being said, I do think that if a person takes an innocent person’s life, that they do not deserve to be on this earth anymore either. When one person takes another person’s life, does locking them up for life in prison really do the same justice as the death penalty would? It may be for the better that the death penalty is no longer in Illinois due to the fact that the state has made too many mistakes. -Anchorman001
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not like that so many innocent people have been put to death because of capital punishment, I do think there is a need for the death penalty. I personally do not think all states need to abolish capital punishment. In cases where innocent people, including children, are murdered, I think there is no question their killer should be put to death for what they did. Pam Bosley said "I can't see my son at all no more. I can't see him grow old. They took all that from me, so I feel that their life needs to be ended." I could not agree more. If someone takes it upon themself to play God and take the lives of the innocent, they give up their own right to live. The death penalty was made for those kinds of people and needs to be used in those cases. As for the people who were wrongly put to death, there is no way to make that right. We just need to be sure to have one-hundred percent certainty the person committed the crime (by having hard, undeniable evidence) before we put them on death row and kill yet another innocent person.
ReplyDelete-Reid001
Illinois did away with the death penalty after we saw that 13 men were killed after being innocent. Former Governor Quinn said doing away with the death penalty was best, but is this true? Illinois has supposedly studied the death penalty more than any other state. I can see why it is touchy and debatable. But there are many reasons as to why the death penalty should be in use. For one, if prosecution and the legal system did as much as they could to PROVE guilt, then I feel it should be used with specific crimes. Why should child molesters ever walk the streets? Or psychotic killers? Why should taxpayer money be used to keep mass-murderers and sick people like this alive? I do not feel people like that deserve to live. They do not deserve the solitude of being able to live going day to day having their meals paid for by civilians like us. I feel it should be used only in certain crimes when there is a 100% chance that person did it. It must be done with complete certainty. Innocents would not be put to death if the criminal justice system does its job properly. I am sorry but life in prison is a waste of taxpayer money. -freckles001
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to know that Illinois was the state with the most people of death row but was still able to abolish it. I agree that the death penalty was taken away because of different flaws the criminal justice system had. Like it was mentioned in the article but Gov. Pat Quinn “there is no perfect system,...” I think it also ties in with other topics we have been having in class like about implicit biases and not having good enough evidence to convict someone. There are many mistakes made, there is discrimination that comes with bias, and also prosecutors that might obtain evidence to condemn someone. Yes, the death penalty was ideal for when there was 100% evidence and without a doubt that someone committed a crime, but when someone is truly innocent is put to death for a crime they didn’t do is for me very heartbreaking. Even though the death penalty is good for deterrence when it comes to crime and lessing it because of fear. I think that not having it also good because someone that is innocent can not be wrongfully given it. For example, the 13 men that didn’t deserve to be put to death. I think with the technology that we have today is would be better to find who is really innocent. taco001
ReplyDelete