Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.
Illinois conducted its last execution in 1999. Then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in 2000, after a series of death row inmates were exonerated. Quinn said his review had convinced him that it was impossible to administer capital punishment without mistakes, and abolishing it was "the right and just thing."
03-09-2011 02:57 PM
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(03-09-2011 02:57 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.
Illinois conducted its last execution in 1999. Then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in 2000, after a series of death row inmates were exonerated. Quinn said his review had convinced him that it was impossible to administer capital punishment without mistakes, and abolishing it was "the right and just thing."
Certainly well intentioned, but IMHO not in the people's best interests.
(03-09-2011 02:57 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.
Illinois conducted its last execution in 1999. Then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in 2000, after a series of death row inmates were exonerated. Quinn said his review had convinced him that it was impossible to administer capital punishment without mistakes, and abolishing it was "the right and just thing."
Certainly well intentioned, but IMHO not in the people's best interests.
The right and just thing for who? I can't believe he signed that bill to abolish it. I'd rather have that shady ass Blagojevich back. So now us tax payers gets to pay for all those criminals to sit and die on their own. JMO on this.
LUCASVILLE OHIO— Johnnie Roy Baston became America's first inmate executed solely by a massive overdose of the powerful anesthetic pentobarbital Thursday morning.
Baston, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. for the March 21, 1994 slaying of Chong-Hoon Mah, a former South Korean journalist who emigrated to Toledo and owned the downtown shop Continental Wigs ‘n Things.
“For a long time I didn’t see a lot of value in myself,’’ Baston said shortly before the drug began to flow into his veins inside the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution. “It wasn’t until this moment, 'til I had to go through this ordeal, that I have seen so much love from so many people, letters from people all over the world, and even Ohio.’’
He briefly interrupted his final statement as he fought back tears.
“I was hoping I didn’t cry,’’ he said.
“It’s OK. It’s OK if you cry,’’ an older brother, Richard Baston, told him from behind the glass separating witnesses from the lethal injection chamber.
Another brother, Ron Baston, stood, slammed his right arm against a wall, and uttered an expletive as Johnnie Roy Baston, who was adopted by the Baston family, appeared to stop breathing.
I would like to say to my family I am very sorry. I know this is not what they wanted to have happen. I hope they won’t be too bothered by what is taking place today.
It is not their doing. Just the way things go.
I hope my execution, that it will be the last, that people will open up. The victims in my case didn’t want me to be executed. They wanted life
without parole. That should have been respected. That should have been respected by our governor ...
I made a bad decision and I hope my family can move on and find some comfort and peace. I would like to say I’m sorry to my family. I made a bad decision.
I want you to reach out to my children. I love them so much. I want you to tell them stories about me. I want them to know the good things about me, even through my time in prison I wanted to better myself, encourage others. Remind them of that. My daughter, she’s quiet, a lot like me. Just like me.
I want you to watch her. If she talks, listen.
I want to thank all the members of my church, my friends who petitioned, letters, faxed, Twittered, hopefully, to the governor, to show mercy.
For a long time I didn’t see a lot of value in myself. It wasn’t until this moment till I had to go through this ordeal that I have seen so much love from so many people. Letters from people all over the world, and even Ohio.
I appreciate every last letter, I appreciate every last card, every last prayer, every last encouragement.
I was hoping I didn’t cry.
Dear heavenly father, I have sinned, and I repent of my sins, I pray for forgiveness. As I close my eyes on the light of this world, I hope to open my eyes to the light in heaven.
While admittingly participating in a robbery of Mr. Mah, Baston had maintained for 17 years that a man he knew only by the name of “Ray Ray’’ was the one who killed the victim in the back of his store. But the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Baston on Friday confessed to the slaying after his family and legal team had arranged for a polygraph test in hopes of improving his chances for gubernatorial clemency.
Gov. John Kasich denied Baston’s petition for clemency later on Friday. He agreed with a 9-0 recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board that Baston’s case did not warrant mercy, despite the fact that the Mah family presented a united front in opposing the execution.
“I hope my execution, that it will be the last, that people will open up,’’ Baston said Thursday. “The victims in my case didn’t want me to be executed. They wanted life without parole. That should have been respected. That should have been respected by our governor.’’
He concluded his statement by saying, “Dear Heavenly Father, I have sinned, and I repent of my sins,’’ he said. “I pray for forgiveness. As I close my eyes on the light of this world, I hope to open my eyes to the light in Heaven.’’
Baston was escorted from his cell into the death chamber at 10:04 a.m. For the first time, medical technicians inserted the intravenous shunts into someone scheduled to die while inside the execution chamber instead of doing that while inside the inmate's prison cell.
Although a curtain prevented witnesses from directly seeing that process, a court settlement provided for it to take place in the execution chamber so that Baston’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Rob Lowe, would be able to hear if Baston called out if something went wrong. He did not.
Baston appeared to demonstrate some brief discomfort during the shunt process. At the point when the drug appeared to be setting in, Baston briefly grimaced and then fell still. He took a few deep breaths and then moved no more.
“Oh, man …’’ Ron Baston cried in the witness chamber. “That is so barbaric, man.’’
His brother, Richard, held him as he sobbed. “We’ll clear his name … we’ll get justice for him,’’ he told him.
DRC spokesman Carlo Loparo again confirmed Thursday that Baston had confessed to the murder. Baston did not address the subject in his final statement beyond saying he made a “bad decision.’’
Prior to his confession, Baston claimed that “Ray Ray’’ had come to Toledo from Chicago to recruit for the Vice Lords gang and that the robbery was to be Baston’s initiation. Baston had the gun in his possession when he was arrested soon afterwards while attending a church retreat in Columbus.
Police also found clothing stolen from the store in an apartment Baston was sharing with a friend after his adoptive mother, his biological aunt, had thrown him out of the house for taking the gun.
No one from the Mah family witnessed the execution.
Just prior to the execution, Richard Baston denounced the contention that his younger brother had confessed, saying he still maintains he wasn’t the gunman. Under Ohio law, if Johnnie Baston wasn’t the shooter, there could be no death penalty.
Richard Baston characterized the confession as a “miscommunication,’’ saying his brother made the statement believing it was a test for the polygraph. The test itself was never completed.
“”He did not confess to any crime whatsoever in shooting Mr. Mah. We want that known,’’ he said.
He said his brother told him earlier that morning, “I’m at peace. I know what I did, and I know what I didn’t do.’’
Pentobarbital has typically been used to induce coma in heart patients and has been used in assisted suicides. This marked its first use as the sole method of executing an inmate in the United States.
Oklahoma has used the drug as part of a three-drug cocktail.
Ohio switched drugs after the sole U.S. manufacturer of its prior drug ceased production as it merged operations with a plant in the United Kingdom, which does not have capital punishment. The manufacturers of both drugs have denounced their use as part of executions.
"I made a bad decision." How typical. It's all about him, not the man whose life he took. "I,I,I" And he's excited and pleased about all the attention he has gotten because of the anti-death penalty people who, as usual, have swarmed around him.
Murderers should IMO experience revulsion, disgust and condemnation by the community at large as they face their execution. They should daily be reminded of the pain they have caused others, and of how unforgivable their crime was.
Instead, thanks to all the anti-death penalty people, murderers are showered by love and attention, which further diminishes the significance of what they have done in their eyes, and in the eyes of their family and friends.
Taking another person's life, tearing out the hearts of the loved ones they leave behind - that translates in this animal's mind into Oh, "I made a bad decision."
(03-09-2011 02:57 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.
The fifteen death row inmates, sentences now commuted to life without parole, are:
Anthony Mertz, for the rape, killing and mutilation of an Eastern Illinois University student.
Ricardo Harris, for killing two Oak Lawn liquor store employees and hurting two people during a robbery.
Teodoro Baez, for killing two people and dismembering their bodies with a sword after a drug dispute.
Cecil Sutherland, for sexually assaulting and killing a 10-year-old Marion County girl.
Andrew Urdiales, for the murder of a 21-year-old Hammond woman.
Joseph Bannister, after conviction for shooting his ex-girlfriend and killing her sister.
Paul Runge, for raping, killing and setting on fire a mother and her 10-year-old daughter.
Dion Banks, for killing a woman during a carjacking.
Daniel Ramsey, after conviction for raping and killing a girl, shooting to death another girl and hurting three other people.
Rodney Adkins, for killing an Oak Park woman after breaking into her home.
Gary Pate, for killing his wife and stepdaughter.
Eric Hanson, for killing his sister and brother-in-law and his parents.
David Damm, for hiring an acquaintance to kill a 13-year-old girl to silence her accusations of sexual abuse.
Brian Dugan, for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 10-year-old suburban Chicago girl.
Edward Tenney, for killing a 24-year-old Aurora man during a robbery.
A murderer who killed two fathers more than 20 years ago waved goodbye today as he was executed - despite concerns over a state's lethal injection drugs.
Eric John King, 47, was executed in Florence, Arizona, following a 1989 robbery in Phoenix, and will be one of the last to have the three-drug lethal injection.
King smiled at around 30 witnesses as the death chamber’s curtains opened at the state prison, waving his hand underneath a sheet up to his neck.
He was convicted of fatally shooting security guard Richard Butts and clerk Ron Barman during a $72 robbery in 1989. Both men were married fathers.
King was the first person to be executed in Arizona since last October, although his lawyers were concerned over one of the lethal drugs and doubted his guilt.
He was declared dead 13 minutes after a medical staff member walked into the death chamber and stated he had been sedated, Corrections Director Charles Ryan said.
King’s lawyers literally fought until the death to get his sentence reversed or delayed.
(03-30-2011 03:58 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: A murderer who killed two fathers more than 20 years ago waved goodbye today as he was executed -
Bye-Bye ass-clown. Again, I don't know why it takes so long to execute these monsters. The appeals process is ridiculous. At times, punishing people so long afterward makes no sense. It's like waiting a week to discipline your small child after they've screwed up.
We need to introduce punishment that's an actual deterrent.
I say, for sexual predators/monsters that've actually raped/murdered a child, let's say anyone under 21, they get this:
Thrown into a lion/tiger cage/living space at any of the nations' really nice zoos (I'm thinking San Diego zoo). There'll be no way to escape, but they might live awhile, while they're evading the animals. Eventually, however, when the zoo neglects to feed the lions/tigers, the animals will become hungry and will make the said 'monster' their next meal.
And, it should be televised for those who'd like to see it.
03-30-2011 08:28 PM
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Mock Gelder
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This is going to come as a big shock but I'm not sure I support the death penalty.
I can read some of these stories (and imagine someone hurting/torturing/killing) my child and yep, I want these murderers dead. But that's pretty much revenge. Do I think the state/federal government should carry out revenge? Mmmmmmmmmmm, not so sure.
Does the death penalty actually deter violent crime? Dunno and I'm too lazy to google it right now. What costs more to us taxpayers, sentencing someone to LWOP or putting them on deathrow? Again, there's debate about that. Finally, I think since the 1970's when capital punishment was reinstated, 138 people who were ON deathrow were exonerated of their crimes. Troubling.
If I knew for a fact that it was reducing violent crime, didn't cost us significanlty more than sending someone to prison LWOP and no innocent peoples were be putting to death, I could probably support it.
03-30-2011 10:24 PM
Cynical Ninja
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(03-31-2011 11:19 AM)Ordinary Peephole Wrote: I see it as the 100% most effective way of the ensuring the offender in question never reoffends.
Murderers do get released/escape and commit more crimes.
True but LWOP ought to be just that and those people convicted of those types of violent crimes ought to be locked up so tight, escapes would be near impossible.
Meh, I don't have a strong opinion about it. But the cost for all the appeals etc. bothers me and on the other hand, if we sped up the process, we run a greater risk of executing someone who might have later been exonerated.
(03-31-2011 11:19 AM)Ordinary Peephole Wrote: I don't view the death penalty as revenge.
I see it as the 100% most effective way of the ensuring the offender in question never reoffends.
Murderers do get released/escape and commit more crimes.
You can't reoffend if you're dead.
That sums up my opinion, quite nicely.
As to the possibility of "innocents" being put to death . . . I am more concerned about the countless innocents who have lost their lives due to the actions of criminal monsters.
Our judicial system is like prescription drugs . . . the existence of possibility serious and fatal side effects.
On the eve of his execution, a Texas death row is saying that he does not want to be the state’s guinea pig for the use of a new drug for lethal injection.
Cleve Foster, who is accused of murdering Sudanese refugee Nyaneur Pal in 2002, is set to be executed on Tuesday, but he doesn’t want to be the first Texan to be executed with the new drug pentobarbital.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been unable to find a supplier of sodium thiopental, one of the three drugs it has been using in a lethal chemical mixture used in execute prisoners. Instead the department announced last month it would begin using pentobarbital as a substitute as Oklahoma and Ohio have in executions.
Supplies of sodium thiopental have been dwindling, as the drug is no longer produced in the U.S.
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