Alvarez 'Disappointed' With Death Penalty Ban
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Wednesday that she was "disappointed" that Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Lisa Fielding reports, Alvarez said she had been pushing Quinn to keep the death penalty in place in the weeks leading up to his decision Wednesday to sign the measure banning the death penalty.
"We met with the governor, along with victims' families, two weeks ago. We spent a long time with him, we met with him for about 2½ hours and he listened to us," Alvarez said. "I would've hoped he would've listened to the voices of victims' families as to what this means and so I'm a little disappointed."
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Lisa Fielding reports
Podcast
Alvarez said capital punishment is a just sentence for certain cases.
"What we've seen in recently in the city of Chicago, five police officers being killed, it should be a sentence that remains as a potential sentence for us as prosecutors," she said. "Obviously, our cases are still going to be tried. There will probably be more trials as a result."
She said that's because many prosecutors use the death penalty as a bargaining tool. Many defense attorneys try to plea bargain with prosecutors to get death off the table.
"This will no longer be an option," Alvarez said.
She cited a case that went before the Illinois Supreme Court on Feb. 25.
"The State Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the death sentence on a defendant named Theodoro Biaz," she said. "In that opinion, they stated that life imprisonment was not enough to protect society from this offender. He's one of the 15 on death row."
Quinn commuted the sentences of those 15 death row inmates to life in prison, saying that if he was going to end the death penalty, he'd end it for all inmates, even those already facing the death sentence.
As for pending cases, Alvarez noted capital punishment remains an option until July 1, when the legislation takes effect, but she said her office still needs to evaluate what they will do.
Out of the 15 men on death row, six of them are Cook County cases, all now commuted.
Alvarez said there are 80 potential death penalty cases pending in Cook County.
"The decision to abolish the death penalty in our state is a matter that should have been put in the hands of voters to decide," she said. "I was disappointed. I had hoped he would've vetoed this bill."
