Since the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois in 1977, thirteen people who were condemned to die have been exonerated. Three people were freed from death row in Illinois after a journalism class at Northwestern University established their innocence and proved that someone else had committed the crimes. One condemned man came within two days of execution. It is virtually self-evident to me that now no combination of procedural rules or substantive regulations ever can save the death penalty from its inherent constitutional deficiencies. The problem is that inevitability of factual, legal and moral error gives us a system that we know must wrongly kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent and reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution.
Capital punishment ignores corporate and community guilt.
The 1965 statement argued that the death penalty does not address community responsibility for those conditions that may contribute to criminal behavior poverty, unemployment, injustice, and racial discrimination. Such factors may diminish but certainly do not destroy the responsibility of the individual. Yet society also bears some responsibility for directing efforts and resources toward correcting those conditions that may foster such behavior. Capital punishment perpetuates the concepts of vengeance and retaliation. Capital punishment ignores the entire concept of rehabilitation.