Illinois, on the Right Path

The Democratic governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, has signed a law abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. The state legislature had approved this measure two months ago, but the governor’s signature was still required. The law will enter into effect on July 1, although all 15 prisoners currently on death row have already had their sentences commuted.

It should nonetheless be emphasized that the reasons given by Quinn — a recent convert to the cause, inasmuch as not long ago he was defending capital punishment — are incomplete. He says that he arrived at this decision after deep personal reflection and that he came to realize that the system was inherently flawed and could not guarantee the guilt of those condemned to death. It was evidently a surprise for him to learn that DNA tests had exonerated a number of people condemned to death. But anyone with a logical mind should have known that a certain percentage of death sentences are mistakes, just as with any other human endeavor.

Doubt is one of the names of intelligence, Borges said, and to be in favor of capital punishment one has to be very sure of oneself. Quinn has forgotten one essential point: The State should never descend to the level of a criminal. The death penalty makes the State no different from any murderer. This is well-known, at least in the United States, since the identity of executioners is kept secret, and in addition, they are paid very little. Perhaps because it is recognized that if they were paid even $1,000 for each execution, the line of job seekers would be embarrassingly long. What is certain is that the executioner should be the governor of the State himself or, in his absence, the judge who pronounced the sentence.

But it is a cause for joy that Illinois has become one of the 16 states in which there is no death penalty, although several brainless ones are planning to reinstate it.