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Griswold commends Illinois governor's decision in death penalty cases
2003-010-2
1/21/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold has written a letter to Illinois' outgoing Republican Gov. George Ryan, commending him for his January 11 decision to commute the death sentences of 167 people to life in prison.
'You have used your power as governor to the utmost good in the saving of lives and in bringing capital punishment once again to the forefront of public debate,' Griswold wrote in a letter dated January 17. 'It is my hope that, with your bold action as witness and example, each state and this country as a whole will reconsider the use of the death penalty and cease this practice.'
Ryan's decision followed a three-year review of Illinois death-row cases sparked by disclosures that 13 death-row inmates had been wrongly convicted. 'Because our three-year study has found only more questions about the fairness of sentencing, because of the spectacular failure to reform the system, because we have seen justice delayed for countless death-row inmates with potentially meritorious claims, because the Illinois death-penalty system is arbitrary and capricious and therefore immoral I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,' Ryan said in a prepared text.
The Episcopal Church has long taken an active stance against capital punishment. Bishops of the three dioceses that comprise the state of Illinois--Chicago, Quincy and Springfield--have worked through the Illinois Conference of Churches in supporting the call for commutations.
In 1958, the General Convention passed a resolution opposing capital punishment because 'the individual life is of infinite worth in the sight of Almighty God; and…the taking of this human life falls within the providence of Almighty God and not within the right of man.' The resolution has been reaffirmed several times since 1958. Only the District of Columbia and 11 states do not use the death penalty.
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