Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's phony portrayal of himself as an undecided leader desperately seeking wise counsel on the death penalty issue has grown tiresome.

Sometime between today and the March 18 deadline, the governor must take action on death penalty repeal legislation passed during the post-election lame-duck session of the General Assembly. He has disingenuously cast himself as torn on the issue and has met with a variety of individuals and groups on both sides. That's just window-dressing designed to mitigate political blow-back.

Quinn's political orientation is no secret; indeed, it could not be more clear.

It would be stunning, bordering on incredible, if he does not sign the repeal. His posturing as a government official searching desperately for advice should not fool anyone. Despite his words to the contrary, it's fair to conclude that, based on his lifetime in politics, he's has been privately opposed to the death penalty for all his years in public life and has been predisposed from the beginning to sign this legislation.

There's a reason why a longtime friend of Quinn's recently was quoted as saying that he would be "very startled" if the governor does not sign the repeal into law.

Unfortunately, Quinn has not been the only one posturing on this highly emotional issue. It's been fraught with hypocrisy throughout the legislative process.

Just as Quinn is playing politics with his celebrated deliberations on the issue, Illinois legislators were despicably dishonest in how they passed the measure through the General Assembly.

If ever an issue that came before the General Assembly was a matter of conscience and principle, the death penalty is it. It's among a handful of subjects that most people can look at and say, politics aside, that they believe it either right or wrong.

But to pass the repeal, as legislators did during the lame-duck session on the strength of votes provided by retiring or defeated politicians, was the coward's way out. Of course, by Illinois' impoverished standards, it's business as usual – politicians voting for bills on the way out the door that they would never support if still accountable to the public.

But if the legislative process has been unprincipled, the repeal proposal itself has considerable merit. Illinois' history involving the death penalty has been – there's no other way to describe it – awful. Innocent defendants have been convicted and sentenced to death.

That's why the Illinois Supreme Court and the Legislature implemented voluminous reforms to safeguard the process. But, still, there can be no guarantees against failures in the judicial process, whether caused by police corruption or incompetence, sloppy or ignorant defense lawyers and judges or deceitful prosecutors.

The real question is not whether some people deserve to pay for their crimes with their lives. It's whether it's best to set aside a penalty clearly appropriate under some circumstances to avoid committing the unforgiveable sin of a wrongful execution.

Death penalty abolitionists, of course, maintain there are no circumstances warranting execution. They are nobly, but naively, wrong. There is only one punishment appropriate for scum like mass murderer John Wayne Gacy, and there were a lot of people as depraved as he who were sentenced to death in Illinois.

But the question remains: is it so important to execute Gacy that Illinois runs the risk of executing someone against whom horrific charges are filed but considerably less evidence exists?

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has urged Quinn to veto the repeal legislation, contending that sufficient safeguards exist in current law to retain the ultimate penalty in special cases. Her point is a good one.

Given the safeguards introduced into the law, it's hard to imagine death penalty cases slipping through the cracks. But it should have been equally hard to imagine cases slipping through the cracks under the old laws, and they did so with disturbing frequency.

So, much as some criminals deserve it, it's time to do away with the death penalty as well as the phony death penalty moratorium the last three Illinois governors have embraced.

But don't kid yourself about one thing. Even after Quinn signs the repeal, the death penalty issue will not be dead.

It's only a matter of time before another sociopath engages in a mind-boggling act of violence and the public is again inflamed. Then the political posturing will start anew.