An edi­to­r­i­al in the Chicago Sun-Times applaud­ed Illinois Governor Pat Quinn for sign­ing the bill abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. The edi­tors wrote, ​“We’ve learned that the sys­tem makes too many mis­takes to entrust it with the ulti­mate pow­er of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. We’ve learned that legal safe­guards can be pushed aside when emo­tions are high after a heinous crime. We’ve learned that polit­i­cal ambi­tion some­times blinds those in pow­er to the weak­ness­es of a case. We’ve learned that evi­dence can dis­ap­pear or be mis­rep­re­sent­ed, that wit­ness­es seek­ing spe­cial deals may lie, that juries may be swayed by emo­tion instead of facts.” For Gov. Quinn, the flaws in the sys­tem that can lead to a wrong­ful exe­cu­tion played the most pow­er­ful role in his deci­sion. In a state­ment deliv­ered imme­di­ate­ly after the sign­ing, he said, ​“I have con­clud­ed that our sys­tem of impos­ing the death penal­ty is inher­ent­ly flawed. The evi­dence pre­sent­ed to me by for­mer pros­e­cu­tors and judges with decades of expe­ri­ence in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem has con­vinced me that it is impos­si­ble to devise a sys­tem that is con­sis­tent, that is free of dis­crim­i­na­tion on the basis of race, geog­ra­phy or eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stance, and that always gets it right.” He con­tin­ued, ​“Since our expe­ri­ence has shown that there is no way to design a per­fect death penal­ty sys­tem, free from the numer­ous flaws that can lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions or dis­crim­i­na­to­ry treat­ment, I have con­clud­ed that the prop­er course of action is to abol­ish it. With our bro­ken sys­tem, we can­not ensure jus­tice is achieved in every case.”

(“Editorial: Death penal­ty repeal a vic­to­ry for jus­tice,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 10, 2011; Statement from Governor Pat Quinn, March 9, 2011). See Recent Legislative Activilty or read more Editorials on the death penalty.

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