Capital Crimes

In today's Illinois news, we got rid of our death penalty.

I have very mixed feelings about this. The way I see it, there are people who deserve to be killed by the state. Unfortunately, the state has a history of convicting the wrong people. Partly this happens because murders are most likely to occur in communities where the people don't like to talk to the police.

Personally, I'd be in favor of keeping the death penalty, if we could raise the level of evidence needed to justify it. Something beyond what now passes for "beyond reasonable doubt". What would that extra-sure standard be? Good question. But there are some high-profile murder cases where there is no doubt who did it - such as the case of Jared Loughner who shot all those people in Arizona.

In cases where such certainty is found
I don't mind consigning him underground.