Today, Gov. Quinn signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. He also commuted the current death sentences to life without release.
Today, Illinois joins fifteen other states on the right side of history.
Today, thirty-four states, plus the federal government remain on the wrong side of history.
Over the next decade, the number of states which have abolished the death penalty will grow and grow until we finally end this experiment with the death penalty in this Nation.
Our current situation reminds me of those juveniles who were executed only months before the United States Supreme Court ended that practice as fundamentally inconsistent with our standards of decency. Those who watch history knew that a national ban on the execution of juveniles was coming. The only question was who and how many would be killed before the ban was erected.
On May 28, 2002, Napoleon Beazley, who was 17 when he committed the murder that led to his death sentence, was executed. He had asked the US Supreme Court to block his execution because he was a juvenile. He asked too soon. Only months later, the Missouri Supreme Court held that the execution of juveniles was unconstitutional. That case then went to the US Supreme Court, which agreed in its opinion issued in early 2005. Nothing had changed between Beazley's execution in 2002 and the US Supreme Court's decision in 2005, legally speaking. Put another way, it was clear by May 28, 2002, that the prohibition against killing juveniles would be put in place very soon. It was only a matter of time. It was only a question of when.
Napoleon Beazley knew it, too. He told me so.
However, between Mr. Beazley's execution and the constitutional ban in 2005, three more juveniles were executed.
We are in the same place today with regard to the death penalty in this country. It will be abolished nationwide soon. The only question is: How many more people will be executed between now and then?
We should not wait to place ourselves on the right side of history. Instead, the actions in Illinois today must compel the remaining states to join the abolitionist states on the right side of history and to do so now.
