An interesting debate on the Illinois death penalty. If you will recall, the previous governor emptied out death row just before he left office.


chicagotribune.com

Group urges end to Illinois death penalty
Flawed system called expensive, arbitrary
By Azam Ahmed

Tribune reporter

March 7, 2008

Despite modest reforms introduced over the last several years, the Illinois death penalty system remains flawed, too expensive and arbitrarily implemented, says a new report from a state anti-death penalty group.

Thursday's report by the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty calls on Illinois lawmakers to follow the recent example of New Jersey and abolish the death penalty.

"Cook County continues to drain millions of dollars in resources to maintain between 150 to 175 capital cases annually, almost none of which end in death sentences," said Jane Bohman, executive director of the coalition.

More capital punishment defendants have been found not guilty in the last five years than have been sent to Death Row, Bohman said.

But the Cook County state's attorney's office, which prosecutes about 80 percent of the state's death penalty cases, said that arbitrary outcomes are the result of different judges and juries, not faulty screening.

.......


The coalition says in its report that judges and juries are becoming increasingly unlikely to sentence defendants to the death penalty, making spending on capital cases a waste of money. As evidence, they cite data that shows an average of less than three death sentences a year in the last five years, compared with 14 to 16 per year in the mid-1990s.

"The 'return' on the state's investment in capital punishment in negligible, given the tiny number of death sentences returned each year," said Bohman.

.......


No one has been put to death in Illinois since 1999, the year before then-Gov. George Ryan called for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Still, it's of little comfort to people like Darby Tillis. Tillis, 64, spent nine years in prison -- four of them on Illinois' Death Row -- before he was found not guilty in 1987 after his fifth trial on armed robbery and double murder charges.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-death-penalty-07mar07,1,1445445.story