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| Ill. Death Row Inmates Seek Clemency |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/09/2002 |
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Defense lawyers scurried recently to file clemency requests for about 160 death row inmates before the departure of Gov. George Ryan, who has imposed a moratorium on executions. Lawyers and death penalty opponents had to file their requests with the Prisoner Review Board by August 26 for the board to give its confidential recommendations to Ryan before he retires in January. In March, Ryan said he would review each death penalty case and consider commuting the sentences to life in prison. But his spokesman, Dennis Culloton, said the governor wants the board to review the cases first. On August 26, the number of requests filed with the state board more than doubled from about 60 to more than 130. The board, which will consider the requests in October, did not expect to have a final count until a day or so later. Ryan halted executions in January 2000 after 13 Illinois death row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. A blue-ribbon panel appointed by Ryan has recommended 85 changes to the state's capital punishment system. The impending reviews angered prosecutors, who were contacting victims' families to have them testify against the clemency requests. Prosecutors say it's unfair for Ryan to consider hurriedly erasing death sentences that have spent years in the legal system. 'What's going on right now is unprecedented,' said Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller, past president of the Illinois State's Attorneys Association. 'It's not something that should be happening.' Death penalty opponents were hopeful Ryan would agree to commute sentences. 'This is really an historic occasion for Gov. Ryan to make a lasting impact on the reform of the death penalty system in Illinois,' said Locke Bowman, an attorney at the University of Chicago's MacArthur Justice Center and a clemency effort coordinator. |
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