Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious - and therefore immoral - I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the unfairness and immorality of the death penalty system, leading the speaker to abandon involvement with it.
George Ryan's quote highlights the inherent flaws of the Illinois death penalty system, which he describes as arbitrary and capricious. By labeling the system as immoral, he emphasizes his decision to withdraw from any role that contributes to the executions, advocating for a reevaluation of capital punishment based on fairness and ethical considerations.
In practice
During a debate on capital punishment at a law school, this quote can highlight the ethical implications of the death penalty.
In the US the overwhelming majority of those executed are psychotic, alcoholic, drug addicted or mentally unstable. They frequently are raised in an impoverished and abusive environment. Seldom are people with money or prestige convicted of capital offenses, even more seldom are they executed.
Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having?
That's what justice represents to me - it's about empowerment of the people.
Mass incarceration and its never-ending human toll will be with us until we come to see that no crime justifies permanent civic death.
I can't identify a race of people in this country who are more committed to the health of this country, who believe more in the Constitution, who believe more in equality and liberation and fairness to everyone else than black people.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.
People are tried and convicted in the newspapers and on television before they ever see a courtroom.
The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.
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