©2011 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| Former Death Row Inmates Plead for Death Penalty Repeal |
(IRN)-Governor Pat Quinn has about a month before he needs to make a final decision concerning the abolition of the death penalty.
Two exonerated Death Row inmates say they'd like to talk to him before he makes up his mind. "Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past," said former death row inmate and Witness to Innocence representative Randy Steidl. "There’s only 15 on death row now, and we know they were all found guilty by a jury of their peers. That’s what they said about myself and 19 others. Let’s not go down that road and fill death row back up. And I believe in a commutation of those 15, life without parole is a very harsh sentence, in order not to risk the possibility of executing an innocent person."
Steidl was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in Illinois in 1987. He was freed in 2004. With him was Delbert Tibbs, who was also wrongfully convicted in Florida and put on death row in 1974. He was freed in 1982. "We are appealing to those Illinoisans who have seen what the criminal justice system, the inconsistencies and the errors that it has been fraught with, who've seen that, to call on the Governor to do what the Illinois Senate and what the Illinois House of Representatives have done, which is to say that we don’t need that in Illinois anymore," said Tibbs.
Tibbs says it's not the state’s duty to carry out revenge. "I interpret closure to mean revenge," he said. "And I think it's inappropriate for the state as a sovereignty to deal in revenge. Closure comes from something else, comes from one's spiritual connection, and to know that the person who committed the crime didn’t walk away scott free."
"Repeal of the death penalty is the only reform that will actually work," said Steidl. "And we believe that you can release an innocent man from prison, but you can’t release him from the grave." Illinois has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2000 since then-Governor George Ryan said Illinois was making too many mistakes. 20 men in Illinois were sentenced to death and later exonerated. Steidl was one of them.
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
|
| 02 14 11 by Newsroom |
Click here for the WGIL News Archive
Click here for national news
The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.
