Money Blagojevich Might Need Vetoed

McHenry County Libertarian Party Chair Dave Brady sent this link to a Chicago Tribune article from Monday by Ray Long.

It’s about Governor Rod Blagojevich’s veto of $5.5 million appropriated to make sure the death penalty works fairly.

Hey, why video tape interrogations of suspected murderers like State Rep. Monique Davis championed? (Long gives credit to Barack Obama, but I remember voting for the Davis bill before I left office in 2001.)

What difference does it make that Blagojevich got press for signing the bill to ensure “the integrity of the state’s capital punishment process?” as Long puts it.

The Champaign-Springfield Downstate Illinois Innocence Project and its clients are just out of luck.

I guess looking at non-death penalty cases of prisoners is frivolous to Blagojevich.

Now, it’s obvious that the governor is not being investigated for a capital crime, but eventually Blagojevich might run out of campaign money to pay Jim Thompson’s law firm for fending off the Feds.

I’d guess he shouldn’t count on the Downstate Innocence Project as a last resort after any trial is over.

In any event, Libertarian Brady sent this email, which started this train of thought:

“How do I put this?

“Maybe if the prosecutors weren’t so interested in their batting average, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

“I just don’t get it.

“The old line, ‘Everyone in jail is innocent’ might have some teeth when now we are finding out that there are so many people in jail due to prosecutors inflating their batting average.

“Maybe this is the is a wake up call that we no longer vote for State attorneys and have them appointed.

“Personally, I’d rather have patronage then this criminal trend of sending innocent people to jail just to win the case.”

Brady was building on the opinion piece about the relationship of state’s attorneys’ batting averages and unjust prosecutions.

I reflected on the current situation in McHenry County under Brady’s opinion piece yesterday.

A further reflection I sent Brady:

I served on the Prison Reform Committee for the better part of 4 years, two actually as a permanent, rather than replacement member.

That, plus my casework, makes me know that too many are incarcerated who should not be.

Unfortunately, it’s only the high profile death penalty cases and those with old DNA that attract attention.

I do not believe that McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi focuses on how many cases his assistants win. It’s usually politically ambitious prosecutors who do that.

My impression of Bianchi is that he tries to do the right thing, even if it results in public criticism.

My hypothesis (and I have told him this several times) is that someone who has faced down cancer and managed to live through it owes nothing whatsoever to this world.

And, my impression is that Bianchi would be perfectly happy with an appointive process, to address one of Brady’s points.


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