It has been said that justice is blind.

And in our legal system where it seems that almost nothing is fair, it sometimes appears as though justice must not have any senses at all.

However, there are times when the justice system is able to have moments of clarity.

One of those moments of clarity is now, when Gov. George Ryan has ordered the Prisoner Review Board to hold clemency hearings for at least 140 death row inmates, so he can decide whether or not to change

their sentences to life without parole.

In the two years since Ryan has declared a moratorium on the death penalty, this is the first time he has actually made a step toward seeing that the prisoners will not be executed after his term as governor is over.

Ryan’s decision to put a moratorium on the death penalty was the result of 13 inmates who had been sentenced to the death penalty who were later found not guilty. Their lives would have been senselessly lost had they not been tried again.

Many families of those who were victimized are opposed by this course of action because they feel that justice is not being done.

However, justice is exactly what it is.

I do not see how the state can sentence a person to death for committing as heinous a crime as murder. It is the same crime, just executed differently.

A life for a life is not justice, it is only two senseless acts of killing.

Prisoners may not be upright citizens or people who deserve the respect of the community, but they are still human beings with the right to common decency.

There has been an ongoing debate of whether or not the death penalty should be included in the category of cruel and unusual punishment, and the courts have decided the death penalty does not fit into this category.

After all, what is cruel about simply putting someone to death for what they have done?

Never mind the fact that there have been times when a person on the electric chair will have flames shoot five feet off their head.

While prisoners are often mistreated in the state penitentiaries, I do not believe they would suffer such cruelty as they would suffer on the electric chair.

Another problem that plagues the death penalty is the fact that death sentences are not distributed equally between races and genders.

More men and minorities are sentenced to death than caucasians and women, which is something the government has not been able to regulate to ensure fairness in who has

to die and who gets to go to prison.

In a legal system that has obvious flaws, sentencing people to death is not an easy answer to fixing the crime problem.

Sentencing people to death does not deter criminals from committing crime, it only bogs down a system that is already overwrought with too many cases and not enough money.

If there is truly liberty and justice for all, then justice must be given to even those who are incarcerated, because they do not cease to be a person as soon as they are declared guilty.

Amber Williams is the Associate news editor and semi-monthly columnist for The Daily Eastern News. Williams also is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]