llinois House passes death penalty reform
March 17, 2005
Daily Herald

SPRINGFIELD - Lawmakers who support and oppose the death penalty combined to narrowly pass a reform to the system Wednesday.

The measure, proposed by House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego, would require jurors to find convicted murderers guilty beyond all doubt to be able to sentence them to death.



That's not reform. That's a moratorium. The deception continues.

What if a guy confessed the crime in no uncertain terms... in open court?

Surely they could still put SOME people down.

Imagine the appellate court that writes an opinion finding no doubt. How long before the creative postcoviction lawyer invents a doubt.

Tell it to OJ.

Will we ever be able to prove, such that it could NEVER be doubted, that all of the witnesses didn't get together to frame the defendant, to manufacture evidence, to bribe the defense attorney and the judge to look the otehr way? Unless you are prosecuting a case where the defendant committed the murder in court in front of the jury, you cannot ever prove that something happened beyond any possible doubt. And if you think this is farfetched, talk to the people who say the Nazi Holocaust never happened. If people can doubt millions of murders that eyewitnesses have testified about hundreds of times, then what hope is there for any individual case.

"Sir, I know you have heard this question asked and answered by the previous 49 panel members," says the DA, "but can you imagine a set of facts showing a capital murder occurred such that you would have no doubts whatsoever?"

"Uh, no," the panel member replies, being a rational person.

"Your honor," says the DA, "I move to strike the last panel member and request a new panel."