Illinois Capital Punishment System :: essays research papers

Clemency, compassion?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How exactly can I explain the Capital Punishment System here in Illinois? Well to be honest, I would have to go with, total chaos. For you who don’t know what Capital Punishment is, it is the system we use to place criminals who commit very serious crimes on Death Row. Out of the 50 states in our wonderful country, 38 of them have a Capital Punishment System, Illinois being one of them. Recently, while Governor George Ryan was in office, it was decided to halt all executions, making Illinois the first of the 38 states to do so.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capital Punishment was brought back to Illinois in 1977. From ’77 to ’87 there were a total of 128 prisoners enrolled on death row. In 1990 alone there were 125 murderers waiting to face the ultimate punishment. Out of those people, a total of 12 people have been executed through lethal injection, but 13 prisoners were released from death row as innocent. 7 of the 12 executed were after 1976, 5 were in 1995 alone. Is it just me, or is this a bit confusing? The Government seemed to get a little death hungry during these years. It’s obvious that there are bound to be many other innocent people, sitting in jail cells suffering for a murder that they did not commit.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Governor Ryan stepped in office determined to find out what is wrong with this system in Illinois. He came in actually as a firm believer of the death penalty, but seeing that 13 people were found innocent, Governor Ryan became frustrated and decided to take action. After researching how the system works, and becoming aware of the flaws, the former Governor pardoned 4 more prisoners (Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange) who confessed under police torture and convicted because of those confessions. â€Å"I believe these men are innocent or I wouldn’t have pardoned them, the system has failed for all four men and it has failed for all the people of this state.† Governor Ryan said at Depaul University. He also believes that there are at least 33 wrongly convicted, and since Capital Punishment was reinstated 93 have been released from custody because they were found innocent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This system in Illinois is obviously full of error and no one can ever seem to be 100% sure of determining who’s guilty and who’s innocent, and if they should die or not.