Illinois abolished the death penalty March 9, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill and said doing so was "the most difficult decision" that he had ever made as governor, but he felt "it was the right step forward for Illinois."Quinn also commuted the sentence of all 15 inmates on death row, and now they will serve a life sentence instead of the death row punishment.
My question to you is how does this make you feel about the decision of the Illinois law makers and Governor Pat Quinn? Also, how do you feel about the death penalty in general? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a state having the death penalty?
Tyler Farmer (11:00)
23 comments:
I think the death penalty should be in effect for Illinois. I believe if you are going to kill someone and get sentences to death row then it should be carried out. And keeping inmates in prison for life we are paying for them to be there. I believe it is like 90,000 a year for one inmate.
Jared (1:00)
I think the abolishing the death penalty was a good move for illinois. I never believed in it. After killing someone or multiple people I think the death penalty is too easy, the person who committed the crime just dies? No, I'd rather them do a life sentence in prison.
Stephanie Odom (1:00)
i feel that governor has made the right decision on abolishing the death penalty. i feel that a person that has killed many times will always kill, or a person who likes little children will always be that way. criminals in my opinion not all but many have sickness or illness were they feel that is right to comment violent acts on other should not be killed but should be helped and shown other ways of life. if we just went around killing sick people rather than just helping them like we would to a cancer patient or a man with liver disease. we should take time out and help them instead of killing them, or on other hand if they cant be helped they could suffer in jail, dieing in ma opinion would be to easy.
As long as I am not the one who has to do the killing, I am actually for the death sentence, and disagree with our governor's decision. It costs on average $20,000 each year to house an inmate.As a tax paying citizen, I would prefer our government to spend my money on other things like education, or fixing our roads. Why would I want my tax dollars to go to feeding housing and medical treatment of a human who places no value on other human lives? It just doesn't make good sense! And as far as Mr.Quinn saying"it was the right step forward for Illinois".... I say bullcrap(something else but others will read this). Illinois has one of the most corrupt state governments of all the states and if people would actually do their damn homework, they might be able to give better insight into why some of the things that go on in our state actually happen. Watch the news ! Read the papers1 Do some research. So much for fixing all these damn potholes or putting money into education!! NOPE! Now we get to feed and house 15 lowlifes who have no respect for human lives and make bad choices on a constant basis! How do I feel about this decision?? Well, at least our lawmakers are staying true to form and continuing to make bad choices for us. How do I feel about the death penalty in general? I feel as if it is a logical choice to not only teach a lesson to the offender, but also to set an example to possible future offenders that we wont stand for them doing that stupid shit. An eye for an eye. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, especially since most political decisions are based on a big damn money game to begin with! I challenge any one of you to find out how many people in the United States are on death row, then multiply that by $20,000 and see exactly how much money we could save by not putting up with the bull.
M.S.HUMES
I'm for the death penalty in extreme cases, such as for people who torture, rape, or kill children, especially for repeat offenders (and after just one offense in some cases), but overall I'm glad to see Illinois abolish the death penalty because evidently our state was not smart enough to make sure they convicted/killed the right person in every case. There's no room for correcting an error once capital punishment has been carried out--once the person has been executed there's no way to right the wrong of his being wrongly convicted in the first place.
In the case of 95% of convicted felons, I think we should not execute them or have them sit in prisons but instead force them to work. Put them to work on the highways doing hard labor on a chain gang. Having prisoners working HARD under close supervision will be a visible reminder to other potential offenders that they will have to pay for their crimes with serious hard labor. I'm talking labor that no one else wants to do, and of course receiving no pay for it. I think this kind of punishment would deter more people from committing crimes and would also make them useful members of society. Instead of giving someone a life sentence to operate somewhat freely in prison, sentence them to a life of hard work. Make them move heavy rocks manually all day every day for the rest of their lives, or something like that. Let them dwell every day on the mistake they made in harming an innocent person.
James Burke
I definitely think death penalty should be in affect in Illinois. Honestly i think that people who rape and kill innocent children and women should be on a public death trail where they get hung in front of the public. Those people don't deserve to be treated like human beings. They should have their face in shame as they die. If there is no serious consequences to this it makes it seems as though they aren't getting a fair trial because they killed innocent people shouldn't they at least get a taste of their own medicine?3
-Nikki (1:00)
I believe the death penalty should have been still in effect. The prisonors, such as those serving life in prison, are just wasting their life away in jail. Our tax money goes into them living.
Rocky v
I think that the death penalty should still be used in Illionis. because if you killed someone in stead of just letting them rot in jail and lose money for a convict to just sit there. When they can just keep the death penalty.
Terrian J
I think that Illinois should still have the death penalty. I believe that if someone commits a crime against someone else and kills them they deserve to die. I also think it is safer for everyone if the criminal is no longer able to commit the crime again. Even if they are in a maximum security prison, the person could still escape and commit another crime against someone else. The tax payers of the state are also forced to pay for the criminal to live, eat, watch television and not do anything productive for the good of society. I don't think that letting the person sit around and "dwell" on the crime they committed is teaching them anything. They did the crime and they could do something again.
Morgan Russian
I am pro death penalty. I don't agree with it because of an eye for an eye.. I agree with it because it's more cost efficient and completely abolishes the chance of the criminal ever getting back on the streets to commit another crime. The positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion.
Allison P
i think the death penalty should still be in effect. especially for those who are beyond a shadow of dobut, convicted of cold blooded murder--kill that bastard! for the rapists of children, well anybody, i think that not only should they spend the rest of their life behind bars, they should be castrated. abolishing the death penalty and just letting these people still live on our dollar helps in the overcrowding of our prisons. i think they need to bring back hangings, firing squads, whatever for those who commit these horrible injustices. i think in some cases, the person who gets put on death row should have to die the same way their victim did, like if they stabbed their victim 200+ times, that's how they should die. take the tax money it takes to keep them fed and healthy and build a machine that will do it, since i know there isn't really any prison guard who wants to take the responsibility of killing someone in such a vicious manner. what about the families of victims? where do they get the justice for their loved one if nothing is done to these people who did what they did. should the victims' families really have to pay for those monsters to stay alive? i think they should be exempt from having to pay to keep them alive. however, no matter what any of us say, our government (state and federal) will do whatever the hell they want to do and not think twice of how it effects all us "little people." after all, they still get their money, to hell with all of us who struggle every day to feed and house our own, let alone have to pay taxes to keep some murdering raping convict alive.
mgd
i believe that abolishing the death penalty was the right thing to do because,the people who are sentenced to be on death row,should have to sit in jail and suffer because by just killing them doesn't make their life hard, it is kind of a good thing for some people to know that they don't have to sit in jail for a long time, they can just be killed.
- JaTaun
For me I think abolishing the death penalty was a good idea because death penalty is against the law of God. It is better that they commuted the death penalty to life sentence because then they can suffer for the crimes they have committed.
Samantha E.
I believe that the death penalty is morally wrong. This decision has made me respect the governor more than i did in the past.I think that there are many disadvantages to having the death penalty. Number one is that these criminals are people, they have family friends and loved ones, we must think how killing them will effect those people. It seems to me that the death penalty treats criminals like they are animals rather than a person. All in all i believe the death penalty is morally wrong and governor Quinn's choice to abolish it in Illinois is a great step for the future of the correctional system.
Brett Scott (11:00)
I feel that Gov. Quinn and the Illinois law makers should not have allowed the death penalty to be abolished. I feel that these people have committed a serious crime that they should be killed for. It costs the taxpayers lots of money every year to house these inmates and having the death penalty would save us a lot of money.
Clayton B. (11:00)
I believe that the death penatly should be in effect for Illinois. I also feel that letting someone sit for a long time to realize what they have done is a good method as well. You also have to realize that we are paying for them to sit and be sheltered and fed for the awful things that they have done.
Darci (11:00)
I think what Quinn did was a mistake. I am usually a a guy to give people second chances. But when you kill someone they don't get a second chance on this earth now do they do they? NO they do not. Why let them sit in prison for the rest of there life breathing my air. I mean they are just taking up more room in prison and when prisons are already becoming over populated. But there is the point were its like what if you kill an innocent person well it would be the first innocent person killed and I mean Jesus was killed. So why would we just leave them sitting around daily think of what they have done when they can't change it.
Micah
If a state is going to have a death penalty then they should actually use it. Even when Illinois had the death penalty hardly anyone on death row was put to death, they died in prison waiting for the state to kill them. We spend millions every year to keep inmates in prison, if we killed the inmates that are on death row we could slowly decrease prison population.
The only problem with the death penalty is how to know if someone is truly guilty of a crime, and is it bad enough to kill them for it. If they can be proved guilty with no question, then yes give them the death penalty. The problem is that most people on a jury don’t want to be the reason why this criminal dies. They just can’t live with the fact that they would be the one choosing life or death. And for mean people that is like playing god and they want no part in that at all.
I would have to agree with Governor Pat Quinn, it is a very hard choice to make.
Alex K.
I am torn on this one. If DNA can prove the guilt of a person without a doubt then I believe the death penalty should be in place. However when a person is found guilty without the hard evidence then there is a chance they could be executing an innocent person. I hate wasting taxpayers dollars to keep the truly guilty alive.
Peg (1:00)
I feel we should have the death penalty. I feel taht serial killers and people taht truely have done unforgivable things to people deserve to die and not get a chance to rot in prison. They didn't have any mercy for the people they killed so why should we waste our time and money caring for themm in jail when we could just help the world out and get rid of another bad person. I am a believer in an eye for an eye and when you kill people you deserve to get killed. I feel it was a bad decision to get rid of the death penalty, but thats out of my hands, im sure theres more to it economically than itb would seem but who knows.
-jake rone-
I think that the death penalty is a fair punishment for certain things. I think that if a person takes a life or especially multiple lives, they should have their life taken. How does the person that they killed feel?
Landon W 11:00
I can see both sides of the story, being for the death penalty cuts down on the expenses of having to feed them and keep them alive while the death penalty just gets rid of them. On the other hand I also think that the death penalty is the easy way out, if they did a crime horrible enough to even be on death row I think that they should rot and suffer in jail until they die.Also the death penalty put the family, who's child or family member that got raped or killed by this person, got put to ease knowing that that person is dead and in the ground and that that person wont have another opportunity to do the same thing to another family.
~Lauren (11:00)
It was right to abolish it, because we have some innocent men who have been sentenced to death. Which is a huge probelm, and you can't take that back, or make up for it with money. The cost for the drug to kill a single person, is so expensive it's a waste. Even when you think about it, if someone has a terrible crime. People in the jail most likely don't like it either, so they will end up punishing the criminal, anyways. But he'll be able to see his family, because taking away a man's life, you take away a father, a mother, a brother, a friend, etc.
-Daniel (1:00)
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