If ever there was an organization fighting upstream, it’s the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Abolishing capital punishment was hardly a popular idea with the general public in 1975, when the coalition was formed, and it’s even less so today. The approaching execution of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy, scheduled for May 10, doesn’t help matters.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“Even people who are personally opposed to capital punishment are reluctant to speak out or support a group like ours,” says Patricia Vader, president of the coalition’s board of directors. She allows that some rethinking is in process. “We’re often seen as callous, one-sided, indifferent to the pain of the survivors. We need to broaden our perspective.”
Vader said Prejean’s approach is causing death penalty abolitionists to reevaluate their methods. The Illinois Coalition now has one board member whose sister and brother-in-law were murder victims and it hopes to recruit others who have lost a close relative or friend but still oppose eye-for-an-eye retribution.
