Mike Irwin
Member
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Saying the death penalty system was broken, the governor of Illinois granted clemency to more than 150 death row inmates on Saturday, a move unprecedented since capital punishment was reinstated and likely to inflame a national death penalty debate.
Gov. George Ryan -- a Republican who leaves office Monday after one term -- stopped short of pardoning the prisoners but reduced their sentences to a maximum of life in prison.
"How many more cases of wrongful convictions have to occur before we can all agree that this system in Illinois is broken?" Ryan told a cheering audience at Northwestern University Law School that included several wrongfully convicted former death row inmates.
The blanket commutation follows an examination of the state's capital punishment system ordered nearly three years ago after investigations found that 13 prisoners on death row were innocent.
Ryan said he was a staunch supporter of the death penalty when he took office four years ago, but began to change his mind after watching a wrongfully convicted man walk free -- only 48 hours before he was scheduled to be executed.
"I may never be comfortable with my final decision, but I'll know in my heart that I did my very best to do the right thing," he said.
Democrat Rod Blagojevich, who takes over as governor on Monday, criticized Ryan's decision.
"A blanket anything is usually wrong," he said. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach. We're talking about people who committed murder."
Charles Hoffman, a death penalty defense attorney in Chicago who works for the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said the Illinois constitution gives the governor the broadest kind of clemency powers.
"On legal grounds a pardon or clemency is final, final, final," he said.
FOUR PARDONED
On Friday Ryan pardoned four men convicted of murder, saying confessions were tortured out of them by police in Chicago. One of the four used a paper clip to scratch professions of innocence on a bench in a police interrogation room even as he was being forced to admit to a crime he didn't commit, Ryan said.
Leroy Orange, one of the four men pardoned, told CNN he was very grateful to Ryan, and looked forward to "having a positive influence" on his children and grandchildren after 19 years in prison. He was convicted of fatal stabbings in 1984.
Walking out of prison a free man was "a traumatic feeling," he said. "A sigh of relief, a lot of pressure was lifted from me that I didn't realize was on me," he said.
Ryan's review prompted new questions about capital punishment in other states, but none has gone as far as Illinois in reexamining the issue.
Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, called for a national review of the death penalty and a moratorium on executions.
Illinois is one of 38 states with death penalty laws. The federal government also has reinstated the death penalty and carried out its first two executions of the modern era last year.
A commission Ryan created to review the Illinois system found the poor were at a disadvantage, too many crimes drew the death penalty and police abuse and jailhouse informants too often resulted in capital convictions. The commission looked at 160 cases of people then on death row, but not all inmates asked for a clemency review.
While opinion polls indicate a majority of Americans still favors capital punishment, support has been eroding and the American Bar Association has called for a national moratorium on executions until questions can be addressed.
The United States is the only Western democracy in which the death penalty is still used. The punishment has been abolished by its closest neighbors and allies, who routinely denounce the practice in the United States.
From 1976 when capital punishment was reinstated through the end of 2002 there have been 820 U.S. executions, 71 of them last year. There are nearly 3,700 men and women under death sentence in the United States currently. (With additional reporting by Michael Conlon)
Gov. George Ryan -- a Republican who leaves office Monday after one term -- stopped short of pardoning the prisoners but reduced their sentences to a maximum of life in prison.
"How many more cases of wrongful convictions have to occur before we can all agree that this system in Illinois is broken?" Ryan told a cheering audience at Northwestern University Law School that included several wrongfully convicted former death row inmates.
The blanket commutation follows an examination of the state's capital punishment system ordered nearly three years ago after investigations found that 13 prisoners on death row were innocent.
Ryan said he was a staunch supporter of the death penalty when he took office four years ago, but began to change his mind after watching a wrongfully convicted man walk free -- only 48 hours before he was scheduled to be executed.
"I may never be comfortable with my final decision, but I'll know in my heart that I did my very best to do the right thing," he said.
Democrat Rod Blagojevich, who takes over as governor on Monday, criticized Ryan's decision.
"A blanket anything is usually wrong," he said. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach. We're talking about people who committed murder."
Charles Hoffman, a death penalty defense attorney in Chicago who works for the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said the Illinois constitution gives the governor the broadest kind of clemency powers.
"On legal grounds a pardon or clemency is final, final, final," he said.
FOUR PARDONED
On Friday Ryan pardoned four men convicted of murder, saying confessions were tortured out of them by police in Chicago. One of the four used a paper clip to scratch professions of innocence on a bench in a police interrogation room even as he was being forced to admit to a crime he didn't commit, Ryan said.
Leroy Orange, one of the four men pardoned, told CNN he was very grateful to Ryan, and looked forward to "having a positive influence" on his children and grandchildren after 19 years in prison. He was convicted of fatal stabbings in 1984.
Walking out of prison a free man was "a traumatic feeling," he said. "A sigh of relief, a lot of pressure was lifted from me that I didn't realize was on me," he said.
Ryan's review prompted new questions about capital punishment in other states, but none has gone as far as Illinois in reexamining the issue.
Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, called for a national review of the death penalty and a moratorium on executions.
Illinois is one of 38 states with death penalty laws. The federal government also has reinstated the death penalty and carried out its first two executions of the modern era last year.
A commission Ryan created to review the Illinois system found the poor were at a disadvantage, too many crimes drew the death penalty and police abuse and jailhouse informants too often resulted in capital convictions. The commission looked at 160 cases of people then on death row, but not all inmates asked for a clemency review.
While opinion polls indicate a majority of Americans still favors capital punishment, support has been eroding and the American Bar Association has called for a national moratorium on executions until questions can be addressed.
The United States is the only Western democracy in which the death penalty is still used. The punishment has been abolished by its closest neighbors and allies, who routinely denounce the practice in the United States.
From 1976 when capital punishment was reinstated through the end of 2002 there have been 820 U.S. executions, 71 of them last year. There are nearly 3,700 men and women under death sentence in the United States currently. (With additional reporting by Michael Conlon)
