Illinois Governor Commutes All Death Sentences

Why were all the men released from death row?

Well, since I believe the death penalty to be abhorrent, I think it was a great idea to commute the death penalties. I cannot comment on the releases, since I do not know anything about the quality of the evidence that called the convictions into account.

He left it all rather late, though, did he not? Scared of losing office if he did it earlier?

dlowan: acutally not, he had been reviewing and commuting death sentences for quite some time following a study documenting numerous errors in trials leading to the death penality.

The governor determined that the "system was flawed".

Here are a couple links:

USA Today

NYT

Illinois prosecutors have pointed out that Gov. Ryan is a pharmacist and not a lawyer. Thus, he can not possibly know what he's doing, according to the prosecutors ( all of whom are lawyers ).

Thank you Dyslexia. Well, my respect for the man goes up and up. Imagine actually executing people who are innocent. I have heard that there is doubt about evidence of a lot of people on death row.

Well, where humans are involved there is always doubt, I guess...

They've had the death penalty in Illinois for a very long time. I remember when they used the electric chair.

Why did it take every one so long to find the system flawed?

By the way, when's the backlash onto the Chicago police going to take place? Some of the prisoners have said they were tortured into confessing, even though they were innocent.

The move comes as part of a months-long review process of death-row cases begun after it was revealed that thirteen prisoners sentenced to death in the state since 1977 had, in fact, been proven innocent: Illinois Death Penalty Exonerations

One should add that Ryan isn't running for re-elelction.

Scott Turow has an article in the New Yorker about being on Gov. Ryan's commission re: the death penalty -- I got as far as his statement that he was in favor of the death penalty, decided I wasn't in the mood to read it just then, and haven't finished it yet. When I do, I'll come back to this. It's an interesting question.

Basically, I am deeply concerned at all the DNA-based overturnings (or whatever the word is) of convicted death-row felons. Killing innocent people is unacceptable "collateral damage", in my view, especially when aspects like their socioeconomic status and what kind of lawyers they were able to afford is factored in.

I'm waiting for the day, that a scientist demonstrates that DNA analysis is not foolproof when applied to criminal cases. I think there are loopholes, but we'll all have to just wait and see.

And Yahoo!, as always, has compiled about a thousand links related to the news, here:

Yahoo! /Ill. Gov. Commutes Hundreds of Death Row Inmates

Hmmmm - 'tis not generally lawyers who weigh up evidence in a courtroom and decide to acquit or convict, though, is it?

No, but it is too often lawyers who sleep through the trial, or wear noose ties, or fail to collect adequate evidence, or...

Also remember that most of the those convicted were defended by Public Defenders. I think it makes a really big difference if you have $$ or not. Those with $$ can get the high priced lawyers, who know the "tricks". The poor guy gets the Public Defender, who might not be the best.

dlowan: i really hate to say this but there is some not so comforting evidence in many of those trials that the prosecution/police "concocted" evidence.

I think it's admirable and courageous of Gov. Ryan to put the issue into question. Part of his consideration was those put to death tend to be the poorest and not white. In my opinion, he is a hero to challenge the system in this climate of conservatism.

Opponents of capital punishment praise it as a bold move, and they are holding up the blanket clemency order as an example for the rest of the country to follow.

"It is inevitable that momentum will follow this announcement," said David Elliot, spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's going to reinforce the emerging impression in the minds of the American public that the death penalty system is fundamentally flawed."

Death penalty supporters, however, say the order was just a smoke screen to deflect attention from a political scandal that was threatening to become the governor's legacy.

Ryan leaves office Monday, one day before opening statements are expected in the racketeering trial of his former chief of staff Scott Fawell and Ryan's campaign committee.

Since Ryan took office in 1999, he has been dogged by a federal investigation into the trading of drivers licenses for bribes during the period when he oversaw drivers bureaus as secretary of state.

Death Penalty Opponents Eye More Change

I could have sworn Ryan was in office at least as early as 1998, but I could be fuzzing things here.

Sozobe should have a very good perspective on this, living as she does in Chicago, where this has been big news for some time. In the nine-month span I lived there, I believe three death-row prisoners were released (perhaps two -- the memory again), one on evidence brought to light by students at Northwestern University. I'd say that alone should give one pause in supporting capital punishment in Illinois.

Ryan, so far as I know, has made no claims to oppose the death penalty in principle, simply its application in his state. An ideological opposition certainly wouldn't fit with the rest of his political philosophy.

Anyway, the vast majority of the sentences were simply commuted to life without chance of parole. It's not as though he turned loose a hundred convicted murderes on the state.

And as to distrust of the police -- I can tell you that not many people I met in Chicago had any respect for the police whatsoever. The city is relentlessly corrupt, the police force at least appears to the casual observer to be racially stratified (or at least organized according to body fat index), and millions of people, I am sure, expect injustices to be carried out at every level of city, county, and state government.