Cameron Todd Willingham’s three daughters were killed as his house burned down in 1991, two days before Christmas.
Willingham escaped the fire, but was charged for the murder of his daughters. During trial, he was offered life imprisonment in exchange for pleading guilty. He turned it down, insisting on his innocence until he was executed on February 17, 2004.
Five years later, the Chicago Tribune released a report from Craig Beyler of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. He stated investigators did not examine the case properly and the state fire marshal had “limited understanding” of fire science.
It seems Willingham was innocent. How many innocent “criminals” are executed each year?
Proponents of capital punishment have an “eye for an eye” mentality that needs to stop. This mentality does not work when innocent people are executed.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 139 exonerations in 26 states since 1973, including 20 in Illinois. There were 12 exonerations in 2003 and 9 in 2009, showing the recent irresponsibility of our court system.
Capital punishment is also unfair to different races. While 44 percent of death row inmates are white, 42 percent are black, despite only making up 12 percent of the nation’s population.
A study by the University of North Carolina showed defendants whose victims were white were 3.5 times more likely to receive the death penalty. Another study by the Santa Clara Law Review concluded those who killed whites were three times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks and four times more likely than those who killed Latinos.
The most troubling statistic? While 15 whites have been executed for murdering blacks, 242 blacks have been executed for murdering whites.
Another misleading argument favoring capital punishment is it deters crime. Statistics show this is false.
Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado, conducted a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies and 88 percent rejected the death penalty acts as a murder deterrent.
The 2008 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed the South had the highest murder rate and accounted for over 80 percent of executions. The Northeast accounts for less than one percent of all executions and had the lowest murder rate.
Former Governor George Ryan’s moratorium was Illinois’ first step to abolishing capital punishment. Since the moratorium in 2000, the murder rate in Illinois has dropped from 10 deaths per 100,000 people to 6.1 in 2008. If the death penalty deters crime, why has the moratorium lowered the murder rate?
A majority of the public supports capital punishment, but that number is declining. Between 1994 and 1999, before the moratorium, the Chicago Tribune reported Illinois public support of the death penalty had dropped thirteen points.
In 2002, a Zogby poll showed 68 percent of Illinois residents favored the moratorium while 26 percent opposed it. In the same year, a Roper Starch Worldwide study found 75 percent of Illinois residents were concerned that innocent people had been executed.
National support for capital punishment is also dropping. A 2008 Gallup poll showed 64 percent of Americans support the death penalty, down from 80 percent in 1994.
These statistics indicate a population that is gradually rejecting the death penalty. We believe the Illinois government should follow and set an example for all states by abolishing the death penalty.
The only way to prevent people like Cameron Todd Willingham from being executed is to eliminate the source. Capital punishment must end.
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