Beating the death penalty in Illinois
The US National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty held its annual meeting between January 13-16 in Chicago. A few days before, the senate of Illinois had passed a bill for the repeal of the death penalty in the state.
The director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolition the death penalty, Jeremy Schroeder, explains how local abolitionists have been campaigning for two years to have the bill passed at the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate. It is now in the hands of the governor.
The NCADP Conference is the premier gathering of civil and human rights leaders, citizen activist volunteers, families of murder victims and death row prisoners, attorneys, and law enforcement & crime prevention professionals who support repeal of the death penalty in the US.
At this year’s meeting, keynote speaker Bryan Stevenson said: “One of the truths of the death penalty is poverty. If we eliminate poverty, we would abolish the death penalty. Our justice system treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it is justice. We are against the death penalty, but we also are for justice, against violence, crime and murder. I bleed every time a victim is murdered.”
Categories
United States
