In a move that should serve as a wake-up call to the nation, outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of all 156 of the state's death row inmates. His successor, Rod Blagojevich, has been critical of a move so near the end of Ryan's term, but his action should be commended as courageous.
At the end of the 1990s, Ryan recognized that the death penalty system in Illinois was grossly unjust and addressed the problem by imposing a moratorium on the implementation of the penalty in the state. Now, Ryan has made that temporary moratorium effectively permanent through his act of mercy, saving lives from needless slaughter at the hands of the state.
In some ways, the death penalty is a relic of an earlier time, especially since the United States remains the only Western democracy in which capital punishment is still carried out. Although on a superficial level capital punishment's eye-for-an-eye style retribution might seem just, in truth the state exacting vengeance on one of its citizens reeks of barbarism and megalomania on the part of the government, which falsely believes that it can and should make life-and-death decisions for its citizens. Opposition to capital punishment begins with the idea that the state is fallible and inefficient. It is extremely difficult to trust the government to fairly and efficiently carry out the death penalty, and statistics show that the government has done neither of these things over the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973.
One large problem with capital punishment as it currently stands is its inequitable application: Poor, minority males are sentenced disproportionately to death, indicating a serious flaw in the system since this punishment is not meted out equally to all criminals regardless of their race, sex or socioeconomic class. Another significant problem is that because of the huge time-lag between the issuance of a death sentence and the actual execution, capital punishment does not deter crime.
The United States is founded on the ideal that individuals have the right to life, which capital punishment denies. Although the government certainly does have some power to revoke its citizens' rights for the greater good (such as by imprisoning criminals) and has the power to wage war, which often results in death, when there are viable alternatives to death, the government should take them. Life imprisonment--assuming this punishment truly means for life--can forever remove a murderer from society, immunizing the threat he or she presents, but without the threat of government tyranny through vicious capital punishment or the risk of innocents being executed.
Although Ryan's political career is now over, 150 lives have been saved by his action. Other states and the federal government need to reexamine their death penalty practices and hopefully take steps to eliminate this institution. Locally, the Durham County Board of Commissions has urged the General Assembly to institute a statewide moratorium on executions, and Gov. Mike Easley should listen to opponents of capital punishment. Ryan deserves praise for this action, which will hopefully remind America of the primary importance of life, something too sacred to allow a government to take away.
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