It is time to end Illinois' flawed and expensive death penalty system. For more than a decade, Illinois has had a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The moratorium was adopted after a serious of high-profile incidents, including an instance in which a man's execution was stayed a mere 48 hours before the sentence was to be carried out, and was later exonerated! To date, a total of 20 innocent people have been exonerated while on death row in Illinois.

The moratorium now is in danger of being repealed, without fixing the problems that spurred the moratorium in the first place.

The death penalty system does not work: the decision about who should receive capital punishment is at best arbitrary, large numbers of innocent people end up on death row, and the whole system is extremely costly.

"The worst of the worst" - Capital punishment is supposed to be reserved only for defendants who are accused of committing the most serious crimes and who are obviously guilty. However, the decision about who constitutes the "worst of the worst" is generally arbitrary and capricious. Whether or not a person is sentenced to die depends largely on the attitudes of the prosecutors, the skills of defense lawyers, and where the prosecution takes place. In a system where only the truly guilty are supposed to receive the death penalty, quality of counsel, rather than actual guilt, tends to be a far better predictor of who gets sentenced to death and ultimately executed.

Innocents on Death Row - Given that death penalty sentences are more likely to be handed out based upon a the quality of a defendant's lawyer, rather than actual guilt, it is no surprise that a number of people on death row have later been exonerated. Thus far, 139 people have been found innocent and release from death row in the 25 different states. 20 of those people were in Illinois alone.  So long as it is possible that an innocent person may be sentenced to death, capital punishment should be ended.

The High Price of Capital Punishment - Not only does the death penalty cost innocent lives, it also costs a lot of money. The state of Illinois allocated $16,332,553 dollars for the Capital Litigation Trust Fund in the 2008 fiscal year. But this fund covers only part of the cost of capital cases and does not cover the cost of appeals, the cost of prosecuting a capital case, or the cost of housing a death row inmate. Capital punishment cases, from the trial period until the actual execution, cost states more money than life without parole.

The moratorium that for a decade has held this flawed system in check is coming under fire, and there is a current movement in the Illinois legislature to repeal it. That is why it is so important to let legislators know that the death penalty is unwanted and unwelcome.

On Thursday, March 11, the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is hosting a Lobby Day in Springfield to call for an end to the death penalty in Illinois. Join with other voters and taxpayers across the state and make your voice heard!

By Ellyn Fortino, Communications Intern

The first full-body scanners will arrive next week at O'Hare International Airport, according to a Chicago Tribune article. In the article, Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said the body scanners are an invasion of privacy:

The full-body imaging machines peer through clothing -- showing shapes, folds of fat and other anatomical characteristics -- to identify possible hidden objects. Even though facial features are blurred to protect privacy, the images reveal breasts, buttocks and other private parts, prompting some civil liberties groups to call the machines an unacceptable intrusion.

"We have continued to express concerns about the use of these machines as a primary screener because it's an invasion of privacy that isn't necessary," said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Colleen Connell, executive director for the ACLU of Illinois, spoke to ABC 7 news regarding privacy concerns of the full-body scanners last year. Connell said full-body scanners are a virtual strip search.

Watch the broadcast that aired on December 30, 2009.

By Ellyn Fortino, Communications Intern

After a student at Oak Forest High School received a five-day out-of-school suspension for creating a Facebook fan page about his teacher at his home, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois questioned the school's authoritative scope.

According to a Chicago Sun-Times article, Justin Bird, a sophomore, posted the Facebook page on his own time, in his home and on his computer. The article said:

On Feb. 9, Justin created a Facebook fan page for "anyone who has had a bad experience or plain dislikes" the teacher. The page also referred to the teacher in a derogatory way.

Justin said the page was up on Facebook for five days and attracted about 50 fans. But he said nobody posted comments about the teacher on the page.

Fearing a reprimand from school officials, he took it down Feb. 14. The following day, he was called in to Dean Lillie Holman's office and notified of his suspension.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois said it is unclear what authority the school had to suspend Bird in the article:

American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Ed Yohnka said the organization has seen a growing trend of school officials trying to extend the scope of their authority into students' homes. Often, officials base such punishment on the vague principle of "causing a disruption to school activities," he said.

"Absent of some kind of threat, it's not clear what authority a school district has to punish a student using his own resources, in his own home and on his own time," he said.

The ACLU of Florida recently won the initial round in a case also involving Facebook and other social networking tools. The lawsuit was brought by Katherine Evans against her then Principal at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, according to a press release from the ACLU of Florida. The press release said:

While a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter School, Evans created a Facebook page entitled "Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever had" from her home computer and invited other students to voice their dislike of her teacher. After several students' postings defended the teacher and berated Evans for her opinion, Evans took the page down.

The principal and teacher only became aware of the posting after it had been taken down, and never even saw it. Nevertheless, Evans was suspended for three days and removed from Advanced Placement classes as a punishment for her Internet posting. Evans sued Bayer for injunctive relief, seeking to clear her record, and nominal damages. The Principal moved to dismiss the case.

The Court's ruling recognizes that Evans' off-campus Facebook posting of her opinion about a teacher "falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech. It was a student's opinion about a teacher, which was published off campus, did not cause any disruption on campus, and was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior."

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the ACLU of Florida's case may influence Bird's school district's decision to expunge the suspension from his record.