For the record in Illinois after the governor ordered an investigation into 25 men on death row...

[NNN0LHI]

... 13 of those 25 men were deemed factually innocent. Not innocent because of some technicality. But innocent because they really were not guilty of the crimes they had been convicted of.

You see we had a Chicago Police Commander named Jon Burge, who is in the federal penitentiary right now, who with some other officers in his district had been torturing false confessions out of innocent men for decades. Mostly black men.

So having lived through this in my state I don't really understand how anyone can still remain in favor of having a death penalty knowing this has occurred. I can remember when many of these men were found guilty for the crimes they were convicted of. I was convinced in my heart they were guilty back when it happened and I read in the news accounts that they had confessed. After all who would confess to a crime they didn't commit? Common sense. Right?

So I can't support having a death penalty on the books after that.

Could you have seen this happen in your state and still be for the death penalty?

Don

[KharmaTrain]

1. Ryan May Be A Crook...

...but his accepting the findings of the Northwestern students and putting a moritorium on the death penalty in Illinois was a class move. Too bad Guv Goodhair wasn't pushed on some of the cases that can be debated were not beyond doubt...thus blood is on his hands. But that wouldn't have mattered last night after listening to the hoots for blood in that audience. The rushpublican answer to all social ills is to lock 'em away...also makes a nice buck for the donors who end up with those nice prison contracts.

Cheers...

[madrchsod]

2. i remember bush and ryan getting into a pissing contest about this issue

[struggle4progress]

3. "Well, boys, the way I see it is like this. Somebody's gotta hang for the murder

of ole Pete McGillicutty, and it may as well be this drifter. We've all got farms to work, and none of us can afford to go trampin around the countryside for who knows how long, lookin for Pete's body and whoever mighta killed him. This fella here has a shifty-eyed look, and he's actin awful scared. Why would he be scared if he was an honest man with nothin to hide? Let's just string him up and be done with it. Nobody's gonna miss him. Then we can all be home in time for supper, and we can tell everybody they're safe again"

[Dogtown]

4. K&R Absolute Agreement. n/t