FORMER DEATH ROW INMATE WANTS THE DEATH PENALTY FIXED, NOT ABOLISHED! [PRO DEATH PENALTY QUOTE OF THE WEEK (PRISON INMATES) ~ SUNDAY 9 DECEMBER 2012 TO SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER 2012]

QUOTE: Dugan’s conviction was part of a tangled legal saga that saw two other men — Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez — get convicted and sentenced to death before ultimately being exonerated. The case was one of the many that led then-Gov. George Ryan to put a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000.

Former death row inmate Rolando Cruz also favors keeping the death penalty.

“It’s sad that there’s a death penalty in this society that we exist in right now; unfortunately, we are forced to have that as a last means tool to attempt to decrease the outrageously increasing numbers of murders in the United States,” Cruz said. “The problem we’re having is the implementation.”

Cruz, 47, was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. He was acquitted and later pardoned. Years earlier, though, Brian Dugan, who was already in jail for raping and killing another girl and a woman, admitted to the crime. Dugan plead guilty to the crime in 2009.

He said he and other former death row inmates should be allowed one-on-one audiences with Gov. Quinn to discuss the issue.

“I think the state government in Illinois owes me that opportunity and owes all of us former death row inmates. The government and high courts and joint committees owe us the opportuntity to speak in front of those who made those laws.”

Cruz, who is rearing three young children in Wisconsin where he is completing a degree in psychology, working and playing in a pool league, said he and other former death row inmates have been used as pawns of anti-death penalty groups. He said he and other inmates have received small stipends of about $100 per appearance.

But cases can be made for the punishments, he said, citing last week’s shooting in Tucson as an example.

AUTHOR: Rolando Cruz - a Hispanic man from Aurora, Illinois named Rolando Cruz and a co-defendant were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for the 1983 kidnapping, rape, deviant sexual assault and murder of 10-year old Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County Circuit Court despite the fact that the police had no physical evidence linking them to the crime. Cruz was pardoned after more than 10 years in custody. Cruz, who is rearing three young children in Wisconsin where he is completing a degree in psychology, working and playing in a pool league, said he and other former death row inmates have been used as pawns of anti-death penalty groups. He said he and other inmates have received small stipends of about $100 per appearance. 

Comment: Just like Charles Fain and Aleksandr Biryukov, Rolando Cruz still supports the death penalty and wants the system fixed. I am grateful that he does not want to work for the Abolitionists anymore. Thanks to the abolitionists in Illinois, the homicide rate had more than doubled after the death penalty was abolished.