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" Lets be like TEXAS ??????? Or like RUSSIA ??????? when you are convicted in Russia you are taken to the basement of the court house and shot in the back of the head. Then the family is charged for the bullet. The problem is that there are to many goody to shoes that want to do the right thing. But when it happens to them THEY WANT JUSTICE RIGHT AWAY. "

" Re: The original JD I don't want my tax dollars going anywhere but back to myself, isn't that the purpose of it all! "

" To alexp: If I was convicted of a crime which carried a life sentence, and I could not prove my innocence with the lengthy appeals process already provided, I would want to be put to death instead of becoming some other man's 'lover' till I died at the age of 90. A life without freedom is not a life, it is an existance. How about this. We remove the tax support from the IDOC, and instead allow people, like yourself, who want these guys taken care of to pay for the incarceration? I am sure you would pay to keep another many alive, even if it means you would have nothing, right? "

" James Liebman conducted a study between '73 and '95 called Broken system:Error rates in capital cases, 1973-1995. After Liebmans report was released in 2000, Paul Cassell wrote, " The study's authors were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed. Thus, the most important error rate, the rate of mistaken execution, is zero." "

" It appears that most people who oppose the death penalty just don't like killing people and because of that convince themselves that all on death row are innocent. If someone has nothing better to do than to be a threat to society and you can't reform them then they need to be gotten rid of one way or the other. This is definitely an occasion where the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. Life in prison is just a way of executing someone while claiming you are not hurting them. But considering the stories of prison life, life in prison could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Our prisons are overcrowded we are good at producing criminals but not good at finding a solution. I think anyone who commits a violent crime at 3 times should get the death penalty. We should stop thinking of the death penalty as a means of detering people from committing violence, which it obviously doesn't, and use as a solution in dealing with those that do commit violence. Incidentally, I consider myself a moderate. "

" To Original JD Hopefully you are never convicted of a crime as an innocent person and executed before someone gets a chance to actually prove it. Until we can prove that we are not executing innocent people it is barbaric to be one of the few countries executing people. We are in company with the Chinese, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia among other noteworthy members of the planet earth. It is about time we became the "civilized" society we claim to be. "

" BC - The 13 people you speak of were found "not guilty" due to evidence or court procedure. Not guilty and innocent are not the same. A person may have committed the crime and walk with a not guilty. Innocent is a much more difficult standard. Due to the crime problems in this state, I support adopting Texas's death penalty laws for Illinois. Sign me up to be a rock thrower. "

" What is truly barbaric is the people of Illinois are not even a bit concerned that 13 people on death row were proven totally, and without question, not guilty. Not one out cry from you abortion whiners or vengeance seekers. Now some of you suggest it should be up to the people of Illinois to decide if the death penalty should continue? The average person does not have the compassion. or good sense, to use such a tool properly. The system is broken, partly because prosecutors and law enforcement use conviction rate further their political or employment career, and partly the people of Illinois don't really care if the right one is arrested just get someone. We have gone from investigating a crime to picking a suspect and building a case around them. The media makes it almost impossible to get an actual non-biased jury. If you don't care about the innocent being convicted lets explain how it effects you. For every innocent convicted a guilty person is still running loose threatening your family. "

" We really need to rethink the liberal bias in the correctional system. It is not right to expect contributing members of society to pay for the incarceration of individuals, especially for life term (life) penalties. It does not make sense that we allows someone to burden society for 60 years after being convicted of crimes again that same society. If anything, the death penalty needs to be expanded to cover those who recieve sentences of which they will not survive. Someone sentenced to 299 years should not be able to burden society till he dies. "

" Seems that killing an innocent baby is different than killing someone who knowingly, cold-bloodedly kills another human in order to rob them, rape them, kidnap them or whatever. Of course I truly believe that killing innocent babies is cold-blooded murder, too, and probably much worse because it is PLANNED whereas some murders might not be planned. Stone murderers to death? Fine with me. Where do I get the stones? If DNA shows a match-kill them and don't do it wimpy by using lethal injection. "

" Hey...where are you pro-choice people? Killing 100% innocent babies doesn't bother you much, so the barbarism of killing an adult who almost certainly took multiple other lives in a brutal fashion should be easy to justify! There is no connection between state sanctioned death sentences and religion - did you forget the separation of church and state?! Jesus also said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” - this is a Caesar decision because God isn't allowed in government buildings. This injection stuff is silly and wimpy... why don't we use some of the chemical weapons from Iraq that are no longer being used on their own population by Saddam.
--I'm not really that pro-death sentence, but the irony and [lack of] logic used by pro-choice, anti-death sentence people kills me. "

" How about ushering in a new era of conservatism and begin by executing Ryan for crimes against the state? "

" the worst person in the world should have to grow old in prison get sick and die of natural causes being put to sleep in a human way is only for our best friend the dog god bless all animals especiallt doggys "

" To Real American they did speak to someone on the panel Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins who runs Illinois victims support group. Doesn't say if she supports DP or not but they did at least mention someone who wasnt just abolish the death penalty. The system as it currently is is broken but I think it should be up to IL voters to decide if we should scrap the death penalty or not. "

" Hey...where are you pro-life people? Killing people ought of choice seems...barbaric. How did Jesus feel about the "Eye for eye" stuff? Read sermon on mount. Where ARE you "pro-life" people? Is bombing people who did nothing to us pro-life? This injection stuff is silly and wimpy..why don't you capital punishment enthusiasts volunteer to stone these guys to death? Just like the good old days. Come on pro-life stand up against killing! "

" I have to agree that as long as there is a minuscule chance of an innocent person being executed we have to keep the ban in place!! "

" Notice how nobody talked to a member of 1 of the many orginizations that represent victims. They only talk to one person who against the death penalty. "