Tell Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn: It's Time to End Executions

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has two options on the death penalty -- one of them will make history and the other will perpetuate the status quo of a broken, unequal, racist, classist, brutal system. Can you tell which one I'm pulling for?

As you've heard, the Illinois legislature this month passed a bill abolishing the state's death penalty. Gov. Pat Quinn can end capital punishment in the state with a stroke of his pen -- he says he's pondering the decision and wants to hear from us. Let's oblige. Join Equal Justice USA in calling for an end to the death penalty in Illinois by signing their petition, or call Quinn directly at 217-782-0244.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the death penalty in Illinois. My first exposure to the issue of wrongful convictions, the issue I focus on in most of my work, was as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. In Professor David Protess’ class more than a decade ago, I heard Dennis Williams speak about his years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. I worked on possible wrongful conviction cases, and celebrated with classmates when former Gov. George Ryan cited exonerations from death row in his decision to impose a moratorium on executions.

But while Ryan's moratorium was held up as evidence of a crumbling death penalty in the decade that followed, the state quietly refilled its death row. It's a moratorium on executions, not on death sentences. The state has spent well over $100 million to send 15 people to the purgatory of death row under an ongoing moratorium. Let's put aside for a moment that the death penalty is wrong; there's no point in taxpayers bearing the enormous expense of death sentences for people who will probably never be executed. It makes sense -- both pragmatically and morally -- for Quinn to sign the death penalty abolition bill into law.

Illinois has seen 31 people exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing in the last two decades -- five of them were on death row. Many more were exonerated through evidence other than DNA testing. Over the same period, the state executed 12 people at an enormous cost. I made a 45-second video to help spread the word about this life-and-death issue -- take a look after the jump. Send it to friends if you like it. And please give Quinn a call. He needs to hear from us that it's time to do the right thing.

(Opinions expressed here are mine alone and don't represent any organization.)

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Photo Credit: Chris Eaves