Beyond deciding whether to abolish Illinois’ death penalty, Gov. Quinn faces a moral dilemma involving the fate of the 15 condemned killers now on death row.
The death-penalty repeal bill that narrowly passed the General Assembly last month would ban executions going forward. But it wouldn’t apply retroactively to those already sentenced to death, including condemned killers like Brian Dugan, who was convicted of the 1983 murder of Naperville 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.
If Quinn signs the death-penalty abolition legislation, should he also spare the state’s current Death Row population from execution and commute their sentences to life in prison without parole?
Or, should he simply postpone a decision until a potential 2nd term or place it in the lap of a future governor since none of the inmates is likely to exhaust his appeals and face death until sometime after 2014?
On Friday, Quinn would not divulge his plans for the death-penalty legislation or whether he is considering a commutation for the 15 inmates now awaiting a death sentence as part of a possible bill signing.
"I'm going to make a decision on everything at the right time. It won’t be that long from now,” Quinn said during an appearance in Downstate Normal. “But I do think it’s important to have a period of reflection and review, and that’s what we’re doing."
But the lead legislative architects of the repeal and the Catholic Conference of Illinois believe Quinn should set aside the death sentences for everyone on death row, as former Gov. George Ryan did in early 2003, and commute the inmates’ sentences to life in prison without parole.
"That inconsistency just doesn't make sense," said Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), the repeal bill’s chief Senate sponsor. “Then you start killing people in a state that decided not to kill people."
Raoul said he does not know the full details of the 15 convictions or the investigations. But he said wrongful convictions have happened in the past — 20, he said — and will continue to happen in the future.
The caveat in the bill exists because the Legislature cannot constitutionally change a convicted person’s sentence retroactively, Raoul said. The Legislature can only affect future sentencing.
Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Chicago), and chief House sponsor of the bill, said life without parole would be a harsher sentence than execution for those unaffected by her legislation.
"I hear these stories about cable TVs and country clubs,” she said. “That’s not Illinois prisons. And death would be a relief."
Others, however, believe Quinn should leave intact the death sentences for those already convicted and sentenced since Ryan’s historic mass commutation.
One of those voices pushing to leave the death sentences in place comes from an unlikely source: Rolando Cruz, a former Death Row inmate who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Nicarico. Cruz was later exonerated after Dugan confessed to the crime.
"They don’t deserve their lives,” Cruz told the Chicago Sun-Times, referring most notably to child killers like Dugan now on Death Row. "There is no proof that they are innocent. Execute them."
Quinn's election opponent, Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), who voted no on the bill, said modern technology and research, like the advancement of DNA testing, strengthens the death-penalty system. Because of it, no reason exists to diminish the sentences of the current inmates, he said.
"No one has given me any evidence to show that they were unjustly convicted,” Brady said.
Quinn has until mid-March to act on the legislation.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 8, 2011
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