“Exposé Hits Hard At Death Penalty System”

If you want to find out where capital punishment stands in IL and how ineffective it is, you need to read (this article, here) and the full official report below. :

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT REFORM STUDY COMMITTEE FINAL REPORT

“…The report found that taxpayers spend huge sums on prosecution of an inordinate number of death-penalty cases, though we’ve seen 18 death sentences since 2003; that prosecutors seek the penalty as a bargaining ploy in pursuit of a lesser guilty plea and sentence, and that $64 million has been spent on civil damage awards to men whose death row convictions were reversed…

…Since 2000, she learned, $100 million in taxpayer money has been spent via the Capital Litigation Trust Fund. That honey pot was meant to ensure defense counsel in capital cases, especially in places where public defender offices aren’t staffed adequately and must enlist private lawyers…

…But prosecutors made sure that the fund would also pay for their often-ample nonsalary expenses, including those for investigators, not just for private defense counsel and the nonsalary expenses of public defenders…

…Mrs. Bienen’s breakdown offers a view of both the perverse economic incentives inspired by the fund and the variances in county practices — especially startling since, as studies nationwide show, it’s far more expensive to pursue the death penalty than to keep an inmate in prison for life…

…But assuming it’s not a deterrent — which the data suggest — it’s worth asking how much we’re willing to pay just to appease a sense of public vengeance….”