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| Emptied Ill. Death Row Could Get Inmate Soo |
| By USA Today |
| Published: 02/14/2003 |
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Repopulating death row in Illinois could begin as early as next week. Anthony Mertz, 26, a former Eastern Illinois University student, went on trial Monday for the 2001 rape and strangulation of classmate Shannon McNamara, 21. If convicted, the jury could sentence him to death by lethal injection. The trial in downstate Charleston, Ill., comes less than a month after outgoing Gov. George Ryan, in his final days in office, granted clemency to all 167 people who faced the death penalty. The state last week began moving those inmates off death row and into the general prison population to serve their life sentences. At least 60 more defendants in Illinois like Mertz are awaiting trial or sentencing on capital crimes. The state Supreme Court still has 54 death penalty appeals on its docket. The state attorney general on February 4 filed suit asking the state Supreme Court to review 34 of the clemency cases. And county prosecutors have filed challenges to at least 30 of Ryan's commutations. It's possible that in a year or two, Illinois' death row population could return to its previous level. ''The beat goes on,'' says Joe Birkett, DuPage County state's attorney. For all the thunder about Ryan's action in the 38 states with a death penalty, there hasn't been much of a groundswell to follow him. Proposals to enact death penalty moratoriums in North Carolina, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico appear doomed to a gubernatorial veto even before they've been introduced in the current legislative sessions. Ryan has been criticized by other Republicans, notably South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who said Ryan's actions ''make a mockery of our judicial system.'' Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns called it a ''shocking abuse'' of powers. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who took office last month, has said Ryan was wrong to grant clemency, but he also won't carry out the death penalty until the state's capital punishment laws are overhauled. At least 10 states have commissions looking into death penalty laws, which is one of the moves Ryan made as a prelude to granting clemency. |
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