Last death penalty post: Ryan Vs death

While I have mixed feelings on the death penalty and capital punishment in general, because whether someone lives or dies depends heavily on the law of the state the crime was committed and on the crime itself.  Due to the flaws and various problems presented with not only the laws, but also the defense, jury selection, and other cases of improper trial procedures and forced confessions, I believe the suspension and commutation of death sentences in Illinois was just.

            In Governor Ryan’s speech, Ryan, after holding conferences with many different parties with different views on the death penalty decided to suspend the death penalty in Illinois.  Governor Ryan does this because, “Thirty-three of the death row inmates were represented at trial by an attorney who had later been disbarred or at some point suspended from practicing law.” This means that the trials of most of the death row inmates were faulty because the defense of the murder was either not adequate or sneaky and bad to the point of losing their law license.  Governor Ryan mentioned that Illinois had an issue with race and the jury in most cases where the defendant was black, the jury was all white and they sentenced the defendant to death.  The jury was not of the defendant’s peers nor was it mixed with even the slightest bit of color. With these mistakes and unfair trials, this being before the death penalty was declared unconstitutional under the eighth amendment; Ryan mentioned that 33 people, all of whom executed, were innocent of their crime.  Ryan then states, “Since we reinstated the death penalty there are also 93 people - 93 - where our criminal justice system imposed the most severe sanction and later rescinded the sentence or even released them from custody because they were innocent.” This meaning that the system of justice was so faulty that before anyone else on death row gets executed something had to be done right away, and the only thing to do or the only right thing to do was to stop the executions before more innocent people find themselves with a needle in the arm, dying for a crime someone else committed, and is still out committing (if the real person who committed the crime was an idiot). In the newspaper article  James McKay, chief of capital legislation task force of Cook County, mentioned, "With the death penalty off the table, there'll be even more trials. There'll be no incentive to plead guilty. I do not believe for one second that taking the death penalty off the table will save the state of Illinois any money whatsoever."  The death penalty should not have been abolished because now it would no longer deter people from committing capital crimes.  McKay mentions money, but it I do not believe that the reasoning behind killing the death penalty was money; the reason  was the many innocent people who were corrupted, or forced by corruption, by our justice system this leading to an unfair and unjust trial that lead to an unjust sentence for the crime they did not do. There would be more cases and trails where the defendant is only facing life in prison if the defendant believes he or she deserves to die for their crimes then they would not have any reason to plea guilt. Also the jury would have no real incentive to verdict guilt either because it is no longer life or death, it is life in prison or out. McKay also claims that based off of statistics in a previous death penalty case, in a decision of 10 to 2, death was sentenced telling him that juries and the people of Illinois want the death sentence and getting rid of it was wrong.  Ryan knew that he was going to be criticized by others about his decision because there are people who defiantly want the death penalty and there are people who deserve it, but what if that 10 to 2 vote to execute someone was on an innocent person.  Governor Ryan was worrying about that scenario when he correctly and justifiably suspended and executed the death penalty.