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| Ill. to Release Death Penalty Plan |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/16/2002 |
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In early 2000, Gov. George Ryan announced a moratorium on executions in Illinois, appointing a panel to help revamp a system he called 'fraught with error.' Today, the 14-member commission was set to recommend dozens of changes to the state's capital punishment system aimed at keeping innocent people off death row. Although it is possible a majority of panelists would endorse complete abolishment of the death penalty, co-chairman Frank McGarr said such an idea isn't one of the proposals to be announced. Panelists were asked to recommend fixes to the current system, not to determine whether the punishment should continue. Illinois became the first state in the nation to stop executing its prisoners, prompting other states to review their procedures. Nationwide, about 3,700 people await death for crimes committed in the 38 states that allow the death penalty. 'Many states and national leaders will look to see the recommendations that Illinois comes up with as a model for what else needs to be done in other states,' said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., which researches capital punishment but takes no position on it. Ryan imposed the moratorium after several cases in which men were freed from death row because new evidence exonerated them or there were flaws in the way they were convicted. Since the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty in Illinois, 13 men have been freed while 12 have been executed. Details of the report weren't released before the official announcement, but proposals that were recommended by reform advocates and were likely to be mentioned include: _Standards of experience for lawyers who represent defendants in capital cases. Research on Illinois cases has turned up embarrassing examples of incompetent lawyers bungling cases. _Requiring videotaping of police interrogations. One man, Ronald Jones, confessed to murder but later said he made up the story to get police to stop beating him. He was exonerated by crime-scene DNA. _Limiting testimony from 'jailhouse snitches' and single eyewitnesses. Cellmates have sent men to death row by testifying they heard the men confess to crimes. But these witnesses often get leniency in their own cases and some have proved unreliable. Cases that rest on single or questionable eyewitnesses also have fallen apart because of the unreliability of memories that fade. |
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