An Illinois man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison — rather than life imprisonment or the death penalty — despite torturing and murdering a disabled pregnant woman, who died after weeks of horrific abuse and agony. As a result, he will be out of prison and in a position to commit murder and torture again someday.
Penalties for murder are distressingly lenient, and getting more so in some states. Illinois governor Pat Quinn (D) recently signed a bill to abolish Illinois’ death penalty, after falsely claiming in his reelection campaign that he supported the death penalty. (He won an incredibly close race for reelection by a tiny fraction of one percent. He also claimed to oppose tax increases, but after getting reelected, he promptly signed into law a 67% increase in state income taxes).
Opponents of the death penalty in Illinois are now pushing for an end to life imprisonment without parole for certain violent crimes, such as for juveniles who commit murder.
Juveniles who commit violent crimes other than murder are already shielded from life imprisonment without parole under a recent Supreme Court ruling. Last May, the Supreme Court, citing “international opinion,” outlawed life imprisonment without parole for juveniles who commit rape and other non-homicide crimes.
Earlier, New Zealand was pressured to end life without parole for adults who commit “the worst” murders, based on a supposed rule of “customary international law” against life imprisonment without parole. Bureaucrats and left-wing “human rights” activists claimed that New Zealand would be violating international law by keeping murderers and torturers locked up for life.
Citing Spanish law and supposed international human-rights norms, Spain now refuses to extradite terrorists who plot mass murder to the United States unless the U.S. agrees not to seek life imprisonment without parole.
These sanctimonious coddlers of violent criminals have forgotten the wisdom of the great Athenian lawgiver Solon, who observed that true justice will not be achieved until those who have not been victimized by crime are just as indignant as those who were victimized. As Midrash sagely notes, “He who is kind to the cruel is cruel to the kind.”
