Capital Punishment -The Imperfect Process of State-Sponsored Death

This column addresses an area of law that I don't practice in, the defense of capital (i.e. death penalty) cases. I speak as a citizen of Illinois, where Governor George Ryan yesterday commuted the sentences of 164 prisoners who had been sentenced to death to life in prison without possibility of parole. Ryan previously pardoned four men whose convictions were the result of confessions allegedly coerced by torture.

Prosecutors and families of murder victims whose killers will now live behind bars instead of being executed are outraged, and I understand that. But the purpose of the death penalty is supposed to be to deter criminals, not to give family members whatever satisfaction comes from state-sponsored execution or to further the political careers of prosecutors who want to appear "strong on crime". It does not further the aims of the justice system and society to leave decisions about justice and fairness to those blinded by hurt and anger. As for deterrence, there is no proof that the death penalty works any better than life in prison to persuade others not to commit murder. The biggest deterrent to murder is knowing that it is likely you'll get caught and that there will be severe punishment; those who think they won't get caught or who don't care about punishment will not be deterred by the death penalty, life in prison or any other penalty.

There are many other good reasons to stop Illinois from applying the death penalty the way that it has since 1977. Convicts in Cook County (where Chicago is) are five times less likely to get the death penalty than if convicted anywhere else in the state. Minorities are much more likely on a percentage basis to get the death penalty than whites, and those convicted of killing whites are much more likely to get the death penalty than those convicted of killing non-whites. In short, the death penalty is historically applied in Illinois not for what one did, but for what category one falls into. And Governor Ryan correctly pointed out that in recent years we have freed thirteen people from death row who were proved to be innocent while only executing twelve.

This is not to say that some horrendous crimes have not been punished by a sentence of death. In 2002, Luther Casteel was sentenced to death for a shooting spree that left two people dead and over a dozen wounded in a bar across the street from where one of my children was working. Two in DuPage County were condemned to death for murdering a mother and her children and cutting a child out of the mother's womb, and the list goes on. The death penalty is nevertheless wrong because it encourages bloodlust in the rest of society (remember those dressed up as clowns outside the prison when John Wayne Gacy was executed?) and invites us to sit in judgment of life or death where only God should sit. Life in prison without possibility of parole is sufficient for these murderers, and the State will spend less money on housing and feeding them than it would otherwise spend on prosecuting and/or defending twenty years worth of appeals.

Whatever his motives may have been, Governor Ryan made the correct decision. Some of the problems of the Illinois death penalty as applied can be corrected (if the state legislature cares to try), but as long as imperfection is part of the human condition, humans will still sentence innocent people to death and those imperfect decisions to murder innocents will still be carried out. That's why only God must stand in judgment on matters of life and death, not us.

Ken Runes
January, 2003

Next Column - "Bankruptcy Reform" - Finally a reality! Let the suffering begin.

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