prosecutors, to attempt to bring more uniformity to death penalty elections, so that Illinois law would be interpreted similarly in all localities, and so that decisions of individual Stateâs Attorneys to seek execution would be subjected to limited peer review.
Finally, to ensure that the capital system is something other than an endless maze for survivors, we recommended guaranteed sentences of natural life when death is not imposed in eligible cases. In addition, we outlined reforms aimed at expediting the post-conviction and clemency processes.
Our recommendations were greeted respectfully, although hardly with universal acclaim. The major newspapers endorsed most of what we had proposed, as did the state bar association. The state prosecutorsâ organization, on the other hand, embraced many less far-reaching items, but dug in its heels on more fundamental reforms such as videotaping interrogations or creating a statewide review commission. Nonetheless, by appearances, there seemed to be substantial momentum for reform. All the major playersâthe prosecutors, the papers, even the two candidates vying to succeed Governor Ryanâsupported significant changes in the capital system.
By the end of the year, none had been enacted. This was owing in part to political wrangling, but much more to the chronic timidity of politicians in taking positions that can later be labeled soft on crime. The Chair of the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, Kirk Dillard, eventually sponsored a legislative package produced by the Governorâs staff. But the day our recommendations were issued, Dillard predicted a quick death for one of our central proposalsâto reduce the number of factors for death eligibilityâsaying it might be âheaded straight for the trash binâ because it ran contrary to the preferred political posture of legislators of both parties to expand, rather than reduce, the scope of criminal laws.
Dillardâs crystal ball proved accurate. In June, I testified before a subcommittee of the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee that was considering that proposal. Looking at his colleagues, Senator John Cullerton of Chicago pointed out to me that each of them had already run for higher office. Curbing the death penalty, he said, would give potent ammunition to future political opponents. I tried to invoke the example of Governor Ryanâs courage, but the fact that the Governor didnât have enough support to run for reelection hardly helped my case. Cullerton, like Dillard, was merely brave enough to state the truth. In December, despite the Commissionâs recommendation to reduce the number of death eligibility factors, the Illinois General Assembly overrode Governor Ryanâs veto and added a twenty-first factor for murder in the course of terrorism.
Nonetheless, the legislatureâs failure to act on reform only deepened Governor Ryanâs predicament. In March, at a conference on the death penalty in Oregon, Ryan had remarked that he might consider commuting all death sentences in Illinois. In the wake of the Commissionâs report, lawyers for all but a few of the inmates on death row used our recommendations as the basis to petition the Governor to exercise his constitutional clemency powers to reduce their sentences. Throughout the fall, victims and prosecutors appeared in public hearings before the Prisoner Review Board, which considers clemency requests in the first instance. The survivors relived the gruesome facts of many of these crimes and the anguish theyâd experienced, gaining widespread and sympathetic coverage. Death penalty opponents responded with a number of mediagenic events of their own, including importing stars like Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Glover for a performance of The Exonerated , a play telling the true stories of a number of the wrongfully convicted, before an audience that included Governor Ryan.
In dealing with the clemency issue, the
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