In the News....
Rep. Arthur 'Art' Turner
(D-Chicago)
9th District
(773) 277-4700
E-mail: aturner@hds.ilga.gov
March 7, 2003
TURNER SEEKS ABOLITION
OF DEATH PENALTY
Bill passes out of committee, sent to floor for full consideration
SPRINGFIELD - Death penalty opponents have
new hopes of ending the state's troubled capital punishment system through
legislation sponsored by Rep. Arthur Turner (D-Chicago) that would abolish
the death penalty in Illinois.
"I have worked on this legislation for a long time," Turner
said. "Our system of justice in Illinois is a disgrace. The death
penalty is not only an immoral punishment, but an over-expensive one as
well."
The House Judiciary II Committee approved House Bill 213 Thursday morning
and the bill will now go to the House floor for consideration. The measure
would abolish the death penalty and require re-sentencing prisoners currently
on death row. It comes on the heels of the recent decision to commute
the sentences of 156 death row inmates.
"We are sending innocent men and women to be executed," Turner
said. "Governor Ryan asked to hold a moratorium on the death penalty
until all the problems could be worked out, but we know this will never
be possible. The system will never work perfectly, so we should take this
opportunity to abolish the death penalty as punishment for a crime and
work towards implementing other reforms."
Facing a packed committee room, and joined by family members of death
row inmates as well as representatives from the Catholic Conference of
Illinois and the Exonerated, Rep. Turner discussed the failing capitol
punishment system here in Illinois and the possibility of reform, as well
as the high cost of keeping an inmate on death row versus a term of natural
life imprisonment.
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