Unit 1012: The Victims' Families For The Death Penalty.: Illinois

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. - William Shakespeare 1a

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.relicsworld.com/william-shakespeare/mercy-but-murders-pardoning-those-that-kill-author-william-shakespeare]

We do not need psychologists to tell us the simple truth that if you reward bad behaviour you will get more of it. We should not be surprised that we are now engulfed in crime. The offenders have taken their cue from us.

- A Land Fit for Criminals by David Fraser

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/hcsc78h4mskg/1129/we-do-not-need-psychologists-to-tell-us-the-simple-truth]

https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2019/11/unit-1012-book-club-land-fit-for.html

It has been 10 years since Illinois abolished the death penalty on March 9, 2011. It was a sad day for murder victims and their families and a victory for murderers. As we have consistently warned: Once Capital Punishment is abolished, the ACLU (and any Pro Murderer rights Groups) will start abolishing prison sentences next.

We will write two articles refuting Scott Reeder’s article on his Valentine’s Day on Death Row. The first article we will talk about why the guilty murderers should not be allowed to live and in the second, we will talk about the feelings of murder victims’ families.

As some of us and Scott Reeder are Christians, we will use Bible verses and also quotes and examples of incidents that happen. We are not attacking Reeder here and we are sure he is a nice person but we disagree with what he wrote.

SPRINGFIELD — I once spent Valentine’s Day on Illinois’ death row.

This week, I couldn’t help thinking about the strangest Valentine’s experience I’ve ever had. I spent Feb. 14, 2000, in the death row visitor’s room at the Pontiac Correctional Center.

I was there to interview a mentally-ill death row inmate who had become lost in the system. His schizophrenia had incapacitated him to such a degree that he couldn’t assist with his appeals.

RESPOND: We believe that that Inmate was faking his mental illness to give an excuse to escape execution. Dr Michael Welner and the late, Dr Thomas Szasz will agree that mental illness is used as an excuse to escape punishment.

Mental illness is a myth, whose function is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter pill of moral conflicts in human relations. – Thomas Szasz

Here is a recent example, Edward O’Neal, A self-proclaimed “devil worshipper” who has been charged with a 2016 murder is accused of killing once again. He was just 18 when he first arrested over the 2016 murder of Ryan Roberts, whose body was discovered in the woods by an overpass near his home with stab wounds. On November 28, 2020, he shot Derrick Mike, his cousin’s ex-boyfriend dead. We do not believe that this recidivist killer has mental illness, I believe that he knew what he was doing, as he committed premeditated murder.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/ppk8kfvphtp6/1132/the-world-now-understands-the-concept-of-desk-murderer-we]

"The world now understands the concept of 'desk murderer'. We know that one doesn't need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to murder millions; that it is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one's duty."

[Justice, Not Vengeance, 1988] - Simon Wiesenthal

Nazi Hunter, Simon Wiesenthal was referring to Nazi War Criminal, Adolf Eichmann, after an Israeli psychiatrist, who had 30 sessions with Adolf Eichmann during his pre-trial detention, was disclosed today to have reported that the defendant was a completely normal person. The psychiatrist examined Eichmann in an effort to detect the sources of his behavior in the crimes for which he is under trial here. He was quoted as saying: “By purely psychiatric tests, Eichmann seems more normal than I am by now. “

Walid Shoebat, a Palestinian-American author and speaker who converted from Islam to Christianity was quoted from his book, ‘Why We Want to Kill You: The Jihadist Mindset and How to Defeat it’ – “Muslim terrorists are not crazy, but they adhere to an ideology that wants to gulp up the world.”

http://shoebat.com/2016/07/06/deranged-muslim-with-a-history-of-violent-crime-and-mental-illness-rapes-a-child-uk-court-awards-him-140k-usd-for-wrongful-imprisonment/

When making arrangements for the interview, I hadn’t thought about it being Valentine’s Day. The realization hit me when I walked through the prison gates and surveyed the visitor’s room.

Women from across Illinois were there dressed in their nicest clothes, visiting their husbands and boyfriends on that day set aside for romance.

And make no mistake, folks, there was love in that room.

RESPOND: As Christians ourselves, we do not object to doing Prison Ministry or visiting prisoners. We agree that it is good to show love to our enemies and to bring the Gospel to them. However, we must remember Jesus Christ on the Cross and what he said to the penitent thief:

³⁹ Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." ⁴⁰ The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? ⁴¹ And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." ⁴² Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." ⁴³ He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

– Luke 23:39-43

Crucifixion by Hans von Tübingen showing the good thief on the right side of Christ, and the impenitent thief on the left side of Christ with a devil. Others portrayed are the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John, and the three Marys (Mary Cleophas, Mary Salome and Mary Magdalene).

This article by Pastor John Piper explains that even a condemned criminal has the opportunity to repent and accept Christ before his execution.

We were touched by the penitent thief who repented and acknowledged his sins in front of Christ, he reminded us of Reverend Larry Townsend’s last rite with the convicted killer, William Sallie. We also will not forget Japanese Criminal, Tokichi Ishii and the Hitler’s General, Wilhelm Keitel, both converted to Christianity before they met their ends at the gallows.

As Paul Washer was quoted in some of his sermons:

When you refuse to teach on the radical depravity of men, it is an impossibility that you bring glory to God, His Christ, and His cross, because the cross of Jesus Christ and the glory thereof is most magnified when it's placed in front of the backdrop of our depravity! - Paul Washer

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/703917]

https://lutherandcalvinbrigade914.blogspot.com/2020/03/expository-sermon-by-paul-washer-ii.html

Our society doesn’t like to talk about this. It’s far easier to vilify those a judge and jury have ruled so worthless that they shouldn’t be allowed to live.

But the more striking thing about the room was how ordinary the men were, their faces could blend in at most Illinois diners — or my high school yearbook.

RESPOND: That two sentences written by Scott Reeder does reminds us of Helen Prejean’s infamous quote:

People are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives. – Helen Prejean

Explaining her opposition to the death penalty. As quoted in: N.Y. Times Magazine, May 9, 1993

She was quoted in N.Y. Times Magazine, May 9, 1993, where she explained her opposition to the death penalty. This infamous quote was used by her to give an excuse why guilty murderers should not be put to death. Sadly, this quote has been used by people who want to end mass incarceration as an excuse on why criminals cannot be locked up forever.

We, the members of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, who stand up for the rights of crime victims can prove Prejean how wrong she is. If you notice that not one Prisoner Rights activist ever dare to mention about recidivist murderers because it is too embarrassing for them to talk about it.

Albert Flick was convicted of killing Kimberly Dobbie, 48, years after he murdered his wife

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/19/man-judged-too-frail-to-kill-again-murdered-mum-in-front-of-twins-after-release-10424836/]

Take the case of Albert Flick. On this date, August 9, 2019, Albert Flick, a 77-year-old man previously deemed "too old to be a threat" was sentenced to life in prison on for fatally stabbing a woman in front of her children, four decades after he was convicted of a nearly identical crime.

A judge who sentenced him for assaulting another woman said in 2010 that Flick would no longer represent a threat because of age by the time of his release in 2014. The judge disregarded the recommendation of the prosecutor and probation officer for a longer sentence.

"At some point, Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, and incarcerating him beyond the time that he ages out doesn't seem to me to make good sense," Crowley said.

Keith Burley Jr., the man Charged With Kidnapping, Fatally Stabbing 8-Year-Old Boy Has Criminal History

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/07/09/keith-burley-the-man-who-killed-mark-mason-has-length-criminal-history/]

Another similar case that occurred in Pennsylvania in 2019, was the case of Keith Burnley, He had spent 20 years in prison after he was convicted of killing a man during a robbery in New Castle.

The board decided to release Keith Burley, Jr. from SCI — Fayette in March following an interview with him and a review of his file. The parole board said its decision was based on the following factors:

Burley’s participation in and completion of prescribed institutional programs
Positive institutional behavior
A positive recommendation made by the Department of Corrections
Burley’s demonstrated motivation for success
His acceptance of responsibility for the offense(s) committed
Stated remorse for the offense(s) committed
Development of a parole release plan
A positive recommendation made by the trial judge

WKBN also requested records that were given to the parole board before it made its decision, but that information was not provided. According to the board, that information is confidential.

Burley is accused of killing 8-year-old Mark Edward Mason, Jr. after a fight with the boy’s mother in New Castle just months after his release from prison.

Ted Nugent was quoted in his article, ‘McNugent rule: Automatic death penalty Justice requires satisfaction for murders’

But the do-gooders among us say we shouldn't do that, that the state shouldn't sanction "murder," especially of those who are deemed to be mentally incompetent. Do-gooders are more dangerous than a sow grizzly with cubs or a coiled rattlesnake, as do-gooders champion and sanction legalized barbarism.

The late Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship who was a death penalty opponent but became a supporter said:

While the thief on the cross found pardon in the sight of God - ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise’ - that pardon did not extend to eliminating the consequences of his crime - ‘We are being justly punished, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.’ (Luke 23:39-43)". Neither God nor Jesus nor the Holy Spirit nor the prophets nor the apostles ever spoke out against the civil authorities’ use of executions in deserving cases - not even at the very time of Jesus’ own execution when He pardoned the sins of the thief, who was being crucified alongside Him. Indeed, quite the opposite. Their biblical support for capital punishment is consistent and overwhelming. Furthermore, Jesus never confuses the requirements of civil justice with those of either eternal justice or personal relations.

- Chuck Colson

I shared this observation with actor Mike Farrell, who played Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt on the old MASH series. Farrell, an opponent of the death penalty, has spent a lot of time visiting those sentenced to death.

“You know, Scott, these guys don’t have horns growing out of their heads,” he told me during a phone interview.

RESPOND: Mike Farrell Jr. was quoted saying:

I believe that no one should be executed, guilty or innocent. There are appropriate sanctions that protect society and punish wrongdoers without forcing us to stoop to the level of the least among us at his or her worst moment. – Mike Farrell

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/603182]

He proves that the death penalty opponents are against capital punishment not because they fear putting the innocent to death, but they oppose punishing the guilty. Innocence Issue are irrelevant to the truth intention: they are against punishing the guilty, innocence issue is just a propaganda.

We stand with Thomas Aquinas in supporting only putting the guilty to death.

"If a man is a danger to the community, threatening it with disintegration by some wrongdoing of his, then his execution for the healing and preservation of the common good is to be commended. Only the public authority, not private persons, may licitly execute malefactors by public judgment. Men shall be sentenced to death for crimes of irreparable harm or which are particularly perverted."

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 11; 65-2; 66-6.

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/01/saint-thomas-aquinas-on-death-penalty.html

My view on the death penalty has evolved. When I was younger, my trite philosophy on capital punishment was: “Some people just don’t deserve to live.”

But then I met a man named Gary Gauger. He was wrongly convicted of murdering his parents in rural McHenry County. He served two years on Illinois’ death row before his conviction was thrown out.

I met Gauger in 2000 when he dropped by my office, which was then in the Illinois statehouse. He told a tale of wrongful conviction and left me speechless. He wasn’t released on a technicality. He was freed because someone else did the crime.

RESPOND: Well, we are happy that he was not executed and we know the facts of the case. We make it clear here, we are also against wrongful conviction and we are NEVER WANT ANYONE – NOT ONE to be wrongfully executed.

Gary Gauger -- Gauger confessed to the murder of his parents. That confession was thrown out based upon the lack of probable cause to arrest him. Gauger's ex-wife and children filed a wrongful death suit against Gauger in the murder of his parents. Gary's brother remains so convinced of Gary's guilt in the murders of their parents, that he has prepared a review of the case which claims to support Gary's guilt, even though there are now two other people jailed for the murders and who, confessed, in detail (Gang Member Details Slaying Of Couple, Carolyn Starks, Chicago Tribune, 3/9/1999, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-03-09/news/9903090198_1_james-schneider-motorcycle-shop-outlaws)

The trial court erroneously imposed a death sentence. The court granted a motion for reconsideration and vacated the sentence less than ten months later in September 1994. The trial court found that it had not considered all the mitigating evidence and concluded that Gauger should not be sentenced to death. People v. Bull, 705 N.E.2d 824, 843 (Ill. 1999); Chicago Tribune (9/23/94). Gauger served a brief time on death row. He was not properly sentenced to death by the trial court. He should never have been sent to death row because the trial court did not finally sentence him to be executed. Gauger’s case is an example of how consideration of mitigating evidence under current law results in a sentence less than death.

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-play-exonerated-are-any-actually.html

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.sg/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html

https://prodeathpenalty.com/info/dpic-list

If you see what Mike Farrell Jr said above, Prisoner Rights Activists are not against any judicial punishment for fear of convicting or punishing the innocent, they are just against punishing the guilty. Period!

There are some death penalty opponents who changed their position on capital punishment after someone they loved were murdered. John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, a former Met Police Chief, changed his mind on the death penalty after the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky.

He was quoted as saying:

Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death. All my life I've been against the death penalty. I genuinely never thought I'd say this, but I am now convinced that the monster who executed this young woman in cold blood should, in turn, be killed as punishment for his crime. - John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/qzr7p7f333ks/1229/such-an-extreme-act-of-pure-evil-can-only-be-met-by-the]

If the death penalty was not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser."

- John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

The Great Reformer, Martin Luther was quoted from his article, Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants:

For in this case a prince and lord must remember that according to Romans 13 [:4] he is God’s minister and the servant of his wrath and that the sword has been given him to use against such people. If he does not fulfil the duties of his office by punishing some and protecting others, he commits as great a sin before God as when someone who has not been given the sword commits murder. If he is able to punish and does not do it—even though he would have had to kill someone or shed blood—he becomes guilty of all the murder and evil that these people commit. For by deliberately disregarding God’s command he permits such rascals to go about their wicked business, even though he was able to prevent it and it was his duty to do so. This is not a time to sleep. And there is no place for patience or mercy. This is the time of the sword, not the day of grace.

In recent decades, Illinois sentenced 13 men to die who were factually innocent. And those are just the mistakes we know about. Wrongful convictions are a persistent problem in our justice system.

In the past two decades, I’ve personally met more than 100 people convicted of murders they did not commit. Most had spent decades behind bars before a judge determined a mistake had been made. Courts and police departments are like any human institution: They’re prone to making mistakes.

RESPOND: Yes, we agree that courts and police departments do make mistakes but there is a difference between being released on technicality and factually innocent. We also do not want the truly guilty murderers to keep their lives. Truth is there are judicial safeguards.

"In murder cases, prosecutors sign arrest warrants, not the cops. When cops bring their evidence to the prosecutors to get the warrant, there is often great tension because the detectives believe they have sufficient evidence to proceed, but the prosecutors want more. This is a built-in safeguard in the criminal justice system, providing an instant independent review of the case before charges are made. This was true in the Porter case."

- WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE WRONGFUL CONVICTION MOVEMENT BY MARTIN PREIB

On this date, October 30, 2014, Alstory Simon was freed from Prison after spending nearly 15 years behind bar after being framed by the Innocence Project. There is a book explaining the case and there is a documentary on it.

In a case fraught with irony, Simon's bitterness is directed at the Medill Innocence Project, an advocacy group dedicated to freeing innocent people. It was that group that he, and now prosecutors, accused of using threats, trickery and false promises to get a crack-addled Simon to say he killed two teens in a Chicago park in 1982. The confession of Simon led to his conviction and death sentence, but it also freed another man from death row and prompted Illinois to end capital punishment -- ultimately sparing Simon himself from execution.
“It was very hard to get along with knowing that fact: that I was locked up in prison for something I knew I didn’t do,” said Simon, now 64, who walked out of prison last month after the Cook County State's Attorney vacated murder charges and blasted the tactics of the Medill Innocence Project. “It can make you kind of mean, but as time went by I overcame it.

“I was praying every day, asking God to shine down upon me,” he added.

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-murder-in-park-2014.html

After learning about the Anthony Porter Case, We, the members of Unit 1012, NEVER and DO NOT support any wrongful conviction, we want the guilty to be punished. However, we know that the ACLU, uses the word, ‘innocent convicted’ not because they fear convicting the innocent, but they just oppose convicting the guilty.

Whether you agree with the death penalty or not, it is a misnomer that many innocent people have been executed in America in modern society. Instead, some people were executed where it was discovered later that the prosecution made mistakes, someone else came forward to dispute some of the evidence or similar. This resulted in a “wrongful conviction,” which is not the same thing as being found innocent. – Rachel Alexander, quoted from her article, Innocent People Are Rarely Executed

Whereas the shedding of innocent blood that proponents of capital punishment are responsible for is thus far, thankfully, only theoretical, the shedding of innocent blood for which opponents of capital punishment are responsible is not theoretical at all. Thanks to their opposition to the death penalty, innocent men and women have been murdered by killers who would otherwise have been put to death. – Dennis Prager

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/kxqkxkhbgf8c/1133/whereas-the-shedding-of-innocent-blood-that-proponents-of]

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/opponents-in-capital-punishment-have.html

Dennis Prager is also spot on here. Here are examples of two recidivist killers in Illinois:

Steven Mark Pryer, left, and Ralph Davidson were convicted of the 1982 of killings of Davidson's parents. They were sentenced to 40 years in prison but served less than 20. Pryer (inset) is now charged with the murder of Diann Hoagland of rural Alexander. File/The State Journal-Register

Steven Mark Pryer murdered David and Mary Davidson in Sangamon County in 1982. He was released from prison Aug. 22, 2002, after serving nearly 20 of the 40 years imposed, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. On August 18, 2010, he shot and killed Diann Hoagland.

Recidivist Murderer, Scottie Thompson

Dakota C. Jones

(March 17, 1993 to August 11, 2013)

Scottie Thompson, 42, is already a convicted murderer. But he was let out of prison 20 years early, and just months after his release, he’s accused in another brutal murder of Dakota Jones on August 11, 2013. But because Thompson was convicted of murder in 1989, he and other murderers are exempt from those laws. The Illinois Parole Board allowed him to get out after serving just 24 of his 45-year sentence.

That is why guilty murderers should not keep their lives but must die. The late Lou Lowery, a former corrections officer at the Pontiac Correction Center, warned that letting killers keep their lives will give them a chance to kill again.

CONCLUSION:

And Jesus said this to Peter. Matthew 26:52, "Put your sword back in its place. For all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword". What was Jesus saying? If you take that mans' life, you have to give your life. You can't use that sword to kill somebody with impunity. You take his life, they have a right to take your life. Jesus said all those who take up the sword are gonna die by the sword. All who kill will themselves die. And thus did Jesus uphold the law of capital punishment.

- John F. MacArthur

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/xthdn2rmx7ks/1004/and-jesus-said-this-to-peter-matthew-2652-put-your-sword]

These are the words of Pastor John F. MacArthur quoted in his sermon, Life and Death in the New world. Jesus Christ supports capital punishment and he has no problem killing guilty murderers.

This 2018 booking photo from the Chicago Police Department shows Jason Nightengale. Nightengale was killed Saturday night Jan. 9, 2021, in a shootout with police after killing multiple people in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago's South Side.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/police-chicago-shooter-who-killed-three-posted-social-media-rants-1.658044]

On January 9, 2021, Jason Nightengale was shot and killed by Evanston Police after killing five and injuring two in a mass shooting in Chicago and Evanston.

We personally are very extremely satisfied that Jason Nightengale was shot dead by the police for several reasons:

Assuming if he was captured alive, the most he will get is more than 20 years in prison. As LWOP will soon be abolished after the death penalty has ended, he might get released. There is no doubt about his guilt, not even the Innocence Project can call him innocent at all.

Even if he was never to be released. He was a very dangerous person; he might murder an inmate or a prison guard or even escape. And since there is no death penalty in that state, he has nothing more to lose.

It was good that he was taken out from the face of this earth, as Ivan Ilyin said:

“In order to prevent the irremediable consequences of a blunder or of an evil passion a man who strives after the good must in the first instance seek mental and spiritual means to overcome evil by good. But if he has no such means at his disposal, he is bound to use mental or physical compulsion and prevention. ‘It is right to push away from the brink of a precipice an absent-minded wayfarer; to snatch the bottle of poison from an embittered suicide; to strike at the right moment the hand of a political assassin aiming at his victim; to knock down an incendiary in the nick of time; to drive out of a church shameless desecrators; to make an armed attack against a crowd of soldiers raping a child’ (54).

'Resistance to evil by force and by the sword is permissible not when it is possible, but when it is necessary because there are no other means available’; in that case it is not only a man’s right but his duty to enter that path even though it may lead to the malefactor’s death. – Ivan Ilyin

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/6sxb834whz9p/1197/resistance-to-evil-by-force-and-by-the-sword-is-permissible]

‘Resistance to evil by force and by the sword is permissible not when it is possible, but when it is necessary because there are no other means available’; in that case it is not only a man’s right but his duty to enter that path (195 f.) even though it may lead to the malefactor’s death.” https://www.filosofiaesoterica.com/ilin-and-tolstoy-on-the-use-of-force/

Five people had already lost their lives and if Nightengale was allowed to live, it will be a mockery of justice to those victims and their families.

Left to right: Aisha Johnson, Yiran Fan, Anthony Faulkner Jr., Marta Torres and Damia Smith

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/02/02/damia-smith-15-becomes-fifth-victim-to-die-after-jason-nightengales-shooting-spree-last-month-authorities-say/]

The active resistance against the villain’s evil designs on others, and against the villain himself is not evil, but good. And therefore it can and must be the work of a pious love. – Ivan Ilyin

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/hhrgdp3rdpdr/1236/the-active-resistance-against-the-villains-evil-designs-on]

Evanston police share video of shooting spree that left 4 dead

•Jan 29, 2021

Chicago Sun-Times

63.7K subscribers

Police video shows Evanston officers fatally shooting a man suspected of killing four people and wounding three others during a shooting spree in Chicago and the north suburb in January. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3ouP10N

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/1/28/22254772/chicago-evanston-shooting-spree-video-jason-nightengale

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6or4ZS22L7U&t=8s