Article from Reason by Zuri Davis.
An Illinois lawmaker has filed a bill to reinstate the death penalty in hopes that it will deter violent crime, such as mass shootings.
Rep. David McSweeney (R–Barrington Hills) filed HB 3915 last Thursday. Co-sponsored by Rep. Andrew Chesney (R–Freeport), the bill aims to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the state by former Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat, in March 2011.
“The intent of the General Assembly in enacting this Act and reenacting the death penalty is to have the death penalty serve as a deterrent to violent crime with the specific goal of reducing mass shootings, serial killings, and gun violence,” the bill reads. “The General Assembly has confidence in the ability of crime laboratory biochemical testing, including DNA testing, to reduce or eliminate wrongful criminal convictions in Illinois, including, but not limited to, cases involving the death penalty.”
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“Illinois itself saw 12 people exonerated from its death row before the state ultimately did away with this broken, big government failure. It would be foolish to think the system would run any better were it to be reinstated. Lawmakers should instead focus on programs that actually work to deter crime; the death penalty isn’t one of them,” Hannah Cox, national manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, tells Reason.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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Yes, I do think they should bring back the death penalty for all murders unless they are in self-defense.Any age after 10 years old. Don’t call me heartless if you favor abortion because you don’t really care about human life.
Might work if it didn’t take 20 years on death row to actually carry out the sentence.
Reduces repeat offenders. Add crimes against children and rape.
Great idea IF the penalty is implemented in a timely manner that doesn’t include twenty years of appeals. There must be 100% certainty of guilt before executing the sentence!
I don’t think the death penalty will deter anybody – most of these people are just trying to prove how ‘tough’ they are – and many of the shooters get the death penalty anyway.
It will sure deter the one who gets the death penalty, now won’t it?
Stop hiring illegal aliens to teach any of our children. God we have been infected with haters of peace. Anyone speaks anything but English report to ice ASAP. California is the future for all of our states if Trump loses but he aint cause we all are voting and alert because illegals will be voting again terrorist never stop its up to us to not let them.
Make it a fast trip to death row.