OP-ED: ​“Abolishing Death Penalty Was Right Choice for State”

Charles Hoffman, an assis­tant defend­er in the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender, recent­ly wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times, mark­ing a year since the death penal­ty was repealed in Illinois. Hoffman, who has argued more than 30 death penal­ty cas­es before the Illinois Supreme Court, says that repeal­ing the death penal­ty was the right choice for the state: ​“The right­ness of that deci­sion is more clear than ever. Violent crime rates have not climbed. The pub­lic is no less safe. And the pur­suit of jus­tice has been served, not under­mined.” He notes that, in the year since doing away with the death penal­ty, the mur­der rate in Chicago remains at a 40-year low, and mil­lions of dol­lars in Illinois’ Capital Litigation Trust Fund have been des­ig­nat­ed for ser­vices to help those affect­ed by past crimes and help pre­vent future crimes. Hoffman con­cludes, ​“Our sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was abol­ished because it was bro­ken beyond repair, infect­ed with racism and inher­ent­ly arbi­trary and prone to mis­takes. There is no doubt we’re bet­ter off with­out the death penal­ty, both moral­ly and fis­cal­ly.” Read full op-ed below.

Abolishing death penal­ty was right choice for state
By Charles W. Hoffman

One year ago this Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed leg­is­la­tion abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in Illinois.

The right­ness of that deci­sion is more clear than ever. Violent crime rates have not climbed. The pub­lic is no less safe. And the pur­suit of jus­tice has been served, not undermined.

Although hun­dreds of con­vict­ed mur­der­ers had been sent to Death Row since Illinois rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1977, only 12 men had been exe­cut­ed in the 34 years the death penal­ty law was on the books. Yet dur­ing that same peri­od, 20 inno­cent men were con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death, only to be exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing decades in prison fac­ing exe­cu­tion for crimes they didn’t commit.

The last exe­cu­tion in Illinois took place in 1999, one year before for­mer Gov. George Ryan declared a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty, as the only way to avoid what he termed ​“the ulti­mate night­mare” of the state wrong­ful­ly exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. That mora­to­ri­um remained in effect until cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment final­ly, and offi­cial­ly, end­ed last year.

Death penal­ty pro­po­nents had long argued that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was nec­es­sary to deter mur­ders. But no evi­dence ever sup­port­ed such an argu­ment. In fact, in the year since abo­li­tion, the Chicago Police Department reports that the mur­der rate in the city remains at a 40-year low.

Death penal­ty pro­po­nents also argued that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was nec­es­sary to bring clo­sure to the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims. Yet in prac­tice, the death penal­ty process had the oppo­site effect, pro­long­ing the agony those fam­i­lies had to suf­fer, as cap­i­tal cas­es took decades to slow­ly wind their way through the courts. And, as many vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers have painful­ly acknowl­edged, noth­ing can ever bring true clo­sure when mur­der has vio­lent­ly tak­en a loved one.

Decades of death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion also proved to be a huge waste of scarce judi­cial and law enforce­ment resources. Capital cas­es cost untold mil­lions of dol­lars that did noth­ing to make us safer. Since abo­li­tion, the mil­lions that remained unspent in Illinois’ Capital Litigation Trust Fund have been des­ig­nat­ed for sup­port ser­vices for fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims and for train­ing law enforce­ment per­son­nel; expen­di­tures that will actu­al­ly help to heal those affect­ed by past crimes and help to pre­vent future crimes.

Beyond the enor­mous costs of cap­i­tal tri­als and appeals, Illinois tax­pay­ers have also had to pay more than $64 mil­lion in dam­ages to men wrong­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death, due to the cor­rup­tion or incom­pe­tence of police, pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers and judges, who refused or failed to fair­ly and hon­est­ly apply the law.

Even with­out the death penal­ty, Illinois law pro­vides severe pun­ish­ment for con­vict­ed mur­der­ers. Many mur­ders require a manda­to­ry sen­tence of life with­out parole. And any mur­der com­mit­ted with a firearm calls for a min­i­mum sen­tence of 45 years in prison, with no cred­it for good behavior.

Our sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was abol­ished because it was bro­ken beyond repair, infect­ed with racism and inher­ent­ly arbi­trary and prone to mis­takes. There is no doubt we’re bet­ter off with­out the death penal­ty, both moral­ly and fiscally.

The first anniver­sary of the abo­li­tion of that bar­bar­ic prac­tice in Illinois is a joy­ous, and yet somber, occa­sion, which gives us all the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on the pro­found fact that we, as a sov­er­eign state, no longer kill peo­ple to show that killing peo­ple is wrong.

Charles W. Hoffman is an assis­tant defend­er in the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender. He has argued more than 30 death penal­ty appeals before the Illinois Supreme Court, and he is a mem­ber of the board of direc­tors of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

(C. Hoffman, ​“Abolishing death penal­ty was right choice for state,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 4, 2012). Read more edi­to­ri­als on the death penalty.