Life in prison a fate worse than death?

[NNN0LHI]

http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=436940

March 13, 2009

By Kevin Lee
The Daily Journal Springfield Bureau
217-525-5797

SPRINGFIELD -- Gordon "Randy" Steidl was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for murdering a newlywed couple in Paris, Ill.

To this day, he remembers the amount of time he spent in prison: 17 years, three months and three weeks. He was released on May 28, 2004, after it was determined he had been wrongfully convicted.

If the state of Illinois wants to punish violent criminals, life imprisonment is a much greater punishment than the death penalty, said Steidl, who had his death sentence commuted to life in prison after 12 years on death row.

"I felt it was far harsher because you didn't have the privacy of your own cell. You're in there with twenty times the convicted killers. As an innocent man, the idea of never ever being free again -- I felt like five minutes on that gurney would have been a lot less painful," he said.

[flvegan]

1. Agreed. That's why I'm against the death penalty.

[Merlot]

4. I second that.

[Double T]

2. The STATE should not be allowed to commit murder, specially when the STATE.........

gets it ALL WRONG!!! Once is too much.

[crimsonblue]

3. life in prison is worse, IMO.

Prison destroys a person's soul.

[anonymous171]

5. It's not about "punishment" it's about judgement.

The state has no right to decide whether someone should live or die.