Illinois House committee votes to abolish death penalty

BY KEVIN McDERMOTT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- An Illinois House committee this morning voted to abolish the state's death penalty, after a contentious debate, with critics alleging the bill was being rushed through the Legislature for political reasons.

The measure could come to a House floor vote as early as this afternoon. ``I'm still counting votes. Last night we had 58,'' said the sponsor, state Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Broadview. It needs 60 for House passage, and then would move to the Senate.

Illinois has had a moratorium on executions since 2000, when it was discovered the state had 13 innocent men on death row. Death sentences have continued being handed down, but the state has indefinitely stopped all executions, pending on-going review of the system.

Death penalty opponents this month have launched a major push to take the death penalty off the state's books completely, arguing that the special legal reviews and safeguards necessary for death-penalty cases are costing the cash-strapped state millions of dollars, for what has become a merely hypothetical sentence. (Here's our earlier story on the new lobbying effort.)

``There are huge budget implications'' in addition to the continuing danger of executing the innocent, Jeremy Schroeder, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the House Judiciary II Committee, arguing in favor of the abolition bill.

He argued the $100 million the state has spent in the past 10 years to ensure the validity of capital cases ``has just been tossed away,'' since there appears to be no realistic possibility of resuming executions in Illinois. ``Ten years in limbo is long enough.''

Proponents of the abolition bill (SB3539, Amendment 1) say life imprisonment without parole is often a more severe penalty than death anyway. Opponents disputed that point.

``What do you do with these people?'' Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons asked the committee, after recounting details of some of the murders committed by some of the Illinois' current death row inmates. ``There is value to life, and there is value to justice.''

Lyons and other opponents of the bill expressed anger that it was being rushed through a morning committee hearing, during a brief lame-duck veto session of the Legislature, instead of being debated statewide over a longer period.

``This sausage is not cooked,'' said Lyons. He noted that prosecutors are often accused of ``rushing to judgment,'' and he alleged: ``That's what's happening today.''

The measure passed the committee 4-3. We'll update it here if the full House votes on it this afternoon.




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