I think I’m going to be sick.

Last Monday, the body of 2-year-old Unique Thomas was found in the garbage bin of a Rolling Meadows apartment complex she was staying at while her mother, Rena Burnett, was in the hospital preparing to have a baby.

An autopsy revealed Unique had been raped and beaten to death before being wrapped in a plastic bag tossed into the bin. A joint effort between the Rolling Meadows and Chicago police departments paid off when police brought in 19 year-old Keon Lipscomb, Burnett’s boyfriend and Unique’s babysitter at the time of her death. Tracking him down was easy enough. Lipscomb, on house arrest for drug charges made against him last year, “wore an electronic ankle-bracelet that sends signals to jail officials … if a suspect wanders too far,” according to an article in last Thursday’s Daily Herald. According to that article, Lipscomb confessed in a videotaped statement, admitting that “sometime in the evening hours Friday, [he] took the girl into his room and sexually assaulted her.” Later, around 4 a.m. Sunday, Lipscomb said Unique was crying despite his repeated attempts to quiet her.

“So he punched her repeatedly,” said Ellen Mandeltort, assistant Cook County state’s attorney, during Lipscomb’s bond hearing. “He punched her on the head, then lifted her up by an arm and punched her — fist closed — several times in the abdomen.”

Last Jan. 31, Gov. Ryan placed all state executions on hold indefinitely. That day, in an interview with CNN, Ryan said, “I still believe the death penalty is a proper response to heinous crimes … but I want to make sure … that the person who is put to death is absolutely guilty.”

At the time Ryan made that statement, state officials were coming to the conclusion that capital punishment in Illinois was … well… messed up. And they were right. Since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977, “13 people have been exonerated while 12 have been put to death,” said Ryan in his interview. “There is a flaw in the system … and it needs to be studied.”

To accomplish this, Ryan put together a commission to investigate why so many have been wrongfully placed on Death Row, giving no deadline for answers. Until that commission comes up with some answers, Keon Lipscomb will not pay for crimes.

Opponents of the death penalty aren’t complaining. People like Jennifer Bishop, the national chairwoman of the Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, hope to use Illinois’ confusion as the prime example of why the death penalty should be abandoned. At a recent vigil held to celebrate the anniversary of the moratorium, Bishop said, “We came together to honor the memories of our murdered loved ones and to … end the cycle of violence by opposing state killing.”

Organizations like the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty feel that, because you and I “lack confidence” in our criminal justice system, we should abandon the death penalty and find some way to take these assorted criminals and mold them into productive members of society. They believe that to deny criminals their rights and kill them without giving them a second chance makes us hypocrites.

I won’t argue the fact that we’re all guaranteed certain rights in this country, and I think it’s our duty to raise some hell when those rights are being violated. But, when you rape a 2-year-old girl, beat her to death and throw her in the garbage like a used Kleenex, you’ve not only given up those rights, you’ve willingly agreed to be dragged out into the street and put out of your misery.

We can’t afford to go sending innocent people to their deaths, but getting rid of the system altogether robs us of the only small sense of security we have from violent criminals. We need to give offenders like Keon Lipscomb something to fear. We need to drive nails through our Louisville Sluggers, hunt them down and show them that their actions will not be tolerated.

For now, though, we have no other choice but to wait. And while Ryan’s commission continues to analyze our death penalty, Rena Burnett is left wondering what has happened to justice when the killer of her daughter is guaranteed to live another day.