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| Illinois to Review Nearly All Death Row Cases |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/16/2002 |
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On Tuesday morning, members of Illinois' Prisoner Review Board will begin revisiting a quarter-century's worth of the state's most brutal crimes. For nine days, they will call the names of almost every inmate on death row for clemency hearings ordered by Gov. George Ryan. They will listen as a parade of defense lawyers, prosecutors, expert witnesses and victims' relatives argue for or against execution. In all, at least 140 of Illinois' 160 death row inmates will get a hearing, either in Chicago or in Springfield. It is the largest number the board has considered at one time, and probably the most sweeping review in U.S. history. 'This is remarkably historic and without precedent,' said David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. 'All eyes in the death penalty movement are on Illinois.' The board will make confidential recommendations, but any decision to commute sentences will be up to Ryan, a Republican who has been at the center of the debate on capital punishment since he ordered a moratorium on executions in January 2000. Since the state resumed capital punishment in 1977, 13 inmates have seen their death sentences overturned, including some found innocent; 12 inmates were executed during the same period. There has been speculation that if the hearings turn up a hint of just one more innocent person, Ryan will grant clemency to all. 'He fears there is another Anthony Porter case or another Rolando Cruz case out there,' Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said, referring to two death row inmates who were exonerated in new trials. Some say the effects of a blanket clemency, which Ryan has hinted at in recent months, would ripple beyond Illinois. 'One thing it would definitely say to governors and legislatures around the country is if you don't address the flaws in the system, this is an option,' said Peter Loge of The Justice Project in Washington, D.C. The most recent blanket clemency came 16 years ago when New Mexico's governor commuted the death sentences of the state's five death row inmates. |
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