After clemency in Illinois, will other states follow?

Social justice news
February 2003

After clemency in Illinois, will other states follow?
February 11 is World Day of the Sick
Pax Christi USA demands more time for UN weapons inspections
Protesting for your—and Iraq's—health
U.S. Catholic bishops still urge restraint on Iraq
U.S. religious ask to meet with Bush, slow war

After clemency in Illinois, will other states follow?
Since January 11 when Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of all Illinois' 164 death row inmates to life in prison, discussion is buzzing across the nation about state and federal moratoriums or abolitions. Illinois already had a moratorium in place since January 2000, but prisoners remained on death row awaiting further review of Illinois' laws and procedures on capital punishment. In Ryan's final days in office, he decided to commute the sentences because, he said, the state legislature failed to act on a set of 85 suggested reforms to the prosecution of capital cases deemed necessary by a review board established after the moratorium.

"Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious—and therefore immoral—I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death," Ryan said in a speech delivered at Northwestern University School of Law. Northwestern played a special role in this turn of events as Journalism professor David Protess and many of his students helped to prove the innocence of several men sentenced to death in the 1990s. Since 1976, 17 people have been freed from death row in Illinois because of actual innocence. In the same time period, the state has executed 12.

Wayne Smith, executive director of the Justice Project in Washington, D.C., said Ryan did the right thing. "As bad as Illinois' death penalty system is, it is better than most. National studies find that Illinois courts reverse flawed death sentences on average less often than most states. The 37 other states that have the death penalty should take a hard look at their own systems and follow Illinois' lead," Smith said, adding, "The United States Congress should immediately pass, and President Bush should sign into law, the federal Innocence Protection Act."

The Innocence Protection Act is a criminal justice reform bill that does not include a federal moratorium on the death penalty but provides access to DNA testing and competent counsel for defendants. It was originally introduced in 2000 with four Democrat sponsors, and was reintroduced in 2001. It is currently cosponsored by 32 Senators, both Democrat and Republican, and a bipartisan majority of the House.

Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), called Ryan's decision a "watershed moment, a turning point." He said, "In the coming legislative sessions, lawmakers have a responsibility to wake up to the reality of flawed death penalty statutes."

Controversy is brewing especially in Maryland, where last year's Governor Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions in the state. But since newly-elected Governor Robert Ehrlich took office he has made it clear that the moratorium is over, as a death warrant has already been signed and execution scheduled for March 17.

Despite a state-commissioned University of Maryland study released just days before that outlined biases in the capital punishment system, Ehrlich's spokesperson told the Baltimore Sun that the governor would veto any legislation regarding a moratorium or abolition of capital punishment. Maryland's Attorney General J. Joseph Curran called on Ehrlich to reconsider, as has the Maryland Catholic Conference. Curran said during a January 30 news conference: "Capital punishment comes only at the intolerable risk of killing an innocent person. This is unworthy of us."

NCADP released an academic study on January 7 that shows discrimination based on the race of the victim and the geographic location of the crime in meting out Maryland's death sentences. A state-sponsored study revealed similar patterns in Connecticut, where 86 percent of crimes resulting in a death sentence involved a white victim.

Florida is also an epicenter of the debate now, as it released an innocent man from death row on January 24. He was the 23rd person to be released from Florida's death row since 1976, and the fourth in the last 25 months.

The international community spoke on the subject as well, congratulating Ryan for his decision and encouraging the U.S. to abolish capital punishment. The New York Times quotes Walter Schwimmer, secretary general of the Council of Europe, saying, "On making this decision, [Ryan] proves a shared commitment and belief with the Council of Europe, that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society. I sincerely hope that this is a step forward in the abolition of the death penalty in the whole of the United States."

Kenyan justice minister Kiraitu Murungi said, "We think the fundamental human right to life should be respected, and no human being should have the authority to take the life of another." Ryan was also commended by Nelson Mandela and Mexican president Vicente Fox, among others.

Of course, there were many who were outraged at Ryan's decision to commute the sentences, particularly many prosecutors in the state who were very vocal about their discord. Also, newly-instated Governor Rod Blagojevich told the Chicago Tribune that Ryan's decision was a "big mistake."

The American Bar Association called for a federal moratorium on the death penalty in February 1997, due to study findings that indicated the application of the death penalty was subject to racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and other biases. Many other justice and peace organizations have renewed their calls for abolition or moratorium in light of current statistics that show that since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated, 821 people have been executed and 103 death row inmates have been exonerated, according to the Attorney General's Office of Maryland. These numbers amount to a national rate of at least 11 percent wrongful convictions in capital cases.—Tara Dix

For more information:
Changes in Death Penalty Legislation across the U.S.
Studies on the death penalty
Attorney General of Maryland's letter to Governor Robert Ehrlich

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