It seems very likely that the Supreme Court decision on the Lisa Madigan lawsuit to get 32 inmates back on to Death Row will be released tomorrow (Friday). These are the ones she insists Ryan had no right giving clemency to.

I don't know how many of you this will affect but, if Madigan gets her way, Tony will be back on Death Row and I'm having trouble handling that right now. Some positive thoughts going towards Menard may ease this wait for Tony.

Rose

My Prayers Will Be With You Both!

Also With The Families Of The Others Whose Lives This Will Change!

Awww, Rose, that's awful! I'm praying for both you and Tony. ((((hugs))))

Kelly

Rose, you know that my thoughts and prayers are with you!

my prayers are with you!
mande

Rose, I'll pray also. I can't imagine this would happen?

Rose, I'm without words to express my feelings about these news. How ironical that this comes nearly exactly one year after the original commutations. Be sure I'm with you both with my heart and thoughts.
Brena

Thanks everyone, as you'll expect, I'll be glued to the computer later today until I hear the decision. It's unlikely Madigan will get her way but it's still a possibility, you can never tell how the judges will act.

Rose

Rose,

I am praying for and thinking of you and Tony.

Best wishes,
Patty

MADIGAN LOST - NOBODY GOES BACK TO THE ROW

I can now stop all this comfort eating I was doing and relax. Thanks again everyone.

Rose

Rose Did You Check The News?

Courts Backed Ryan - Ruled He Had The Power To Commute The Sentences Of Every Death Row Inmate Before He Left. I Didn't Go Into The Article Though. Thought I'd See If You Read Anything On It Yet.

Guess You Did...hahaha Just Went Up And Saw That You Had Posted It One Minute Before I Did Hahaha I Am So Happy For You Guys!

Yes, it's in AOL News and the Chicago Tribune, the Supreme Court ruled that Ryan had the right to commute all sentences even though several of the guys didn't ask for clemency.

Rosed

Thanks, Clee, I just wish I could talk to Tony now but that's not possible. If he speaks to one of his attorneys I'll get an email so that's better than nothing.

Rose

I Am So Happy For You! I Hope Tony Gets The News Quickly So He Can Be At Ease.

There are a couple of COs who get on really well with him so I'm sure one of them will let him know, that's if he hasn't already seen it on the news. He does have a television so I imagine he'll have been glued to one of the news channels today. And of course, word about that sort of thing soon gets round all the galleries, especially when it affects more than one person. But, regardless of all that I'm sending him a printout of the Tribune article so that he can actually see it in black and white.

Rose

Rose - just heard the news.... I'm so happy for all the guys and their families ! Guess there will be quite some celebration throughout the max joints. Congrats!!!

Brena

Rose,

Just wanted to offer my congratulations on the good news! Tell Tony the same from all of us at PTO! :)

Kelly

I'll do just that, Kelly, thanks, and he'll be thrilled to bits.

Rose

Congratulations Rose

Yay now you can eat for joy!!!

Patty

Thank God!

<Chicago Tribune>

Ryan clemencies upheld
State Supreme Court settles dispute over Death Row commutations

A unanimous Illinois Supreme Court on Friday upheld the mass commutations granted by former Gov. George Ryan, settling the last questions about the controversial clemencies for Death Row inmates.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and prosecutors from across the state, the court said Ryan had an "essentially unreviewable power" to grant clemency to inmates--even to prisoners who had not signed commutation petitions.

The state's highest court said the former governor also could grant clemency to prisoners whose death sentences had been reversed by an appeals court and were awaiting new sentencing hearings.

The state constitution, the court said in its 10-page opinion written by Justice Bob Thomas, "allows the legislature to regulate the application process but does not in any way restrict the governor's power to act."

Altogether, 32 inmates faced a return to the state's nearly empty Death Row had the court sided with Madigan.

Ryan's decision last January to pardon four Death Row inmates and commute the sentences of 167 others followed years of deliberations over the issue that began in January 2000, when Ryan declared a moratorium on executions.

Former Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan filed a handful of lawsuits that failed to block the commutations before they were announced. Madigan went to the Supreme Court after the commutations.

The lawsuits raised issues about the separation of powers, what "conviction" and "sentenced" mean, and the powers of a sitting governor.

George Ryan said in an interview Friday that he was not surprised by the ruling.

"I was more than confident that, when I did what I did, I had the constitutional authority to do it," Ryan said.

The former governor is now under federal indictment for a wide range of corruption allegedly committed while he was secretary of state and later governor.

Madigan said in a statement that she filed the lawsuit because the commutations raised "significant constitutional questions" and she sought to "provide an orderly and expeditious resolution."

She said she was pleased the court had answered those questions.

The court ruled the governor has broad powers to grant clemency, including to inmates who did not seek it. Petitions were filed for them by attorneys at the University of Chicago's MacArthur Justice Center and Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions.

Ryan also had authority to grant clemency to the inmates who had not been resentenced, the court said, because the constitution lets the governor mitigate a sentence or remove potential consequences of a crime.

The court said the second issue was more difficult, "with little to guide us" in the law. In the end, it ruled a governor's power is "sufficiently broad" that he can cut the maximum sentence a convicted defendant faces.

Lawrence Marshall, of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, said it was significant that the court spoke in a "strong and unanimous way" and that the opinion was written by Thomas, considered perhaps the court's most conservative voice.

That, Marshall said, made the ruling a "resounding statement."

Prosecutors had fought the clemency effort during weeks of emotional hearings before the Prisoner Review Board.

"We are disappointed by this decision but accept the Supreme Court's ruling," said John Gorman, a spokesman for Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine. "Our thoughts today are with the victims' families who have endured so much pain through the years."

Kevin Lyons, the state's attorney in Peoria County and one of the leading critics of the blanket clemency, said the court's review of the case was "thoughtful and careful." He lashed out at Ryan, though, saying, "This gutless action, sometimes whooped up as courageous, is nothing like the courage shown by the victims left behind by these Death Row murderers."

State Sen. Ed Petka (R-Plainfield) said he would draft a constitutional amendment to curtail a governor's power to grant pardons and commutations, saying that right now there is "accountability to no one."

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett, whose own lawsuit challenging the blanket clemency appears dead, said it would be a mistake to tamper with the constitution. Like Madigan, he said it was time to move ahead.

"This is another tough day for those of us who hoped for another outcome," he said. "This is the highest court in the land. This is the last court. ... We have to live with this decision. Let's move on."

If the court had broader concerns about the blanket clemency outside of the legal issues, it saved them for the opinion's final paragraph.

There, Thomas writes that clemency is a "historic remedy" meant to prevent miscarriages after appeals to the courts have been exhausted.

"Our hope," the court concludes, "is that governors will use the clemency power in its intended manner--to prevent miscarriages of justice in individual cases."

Locke Bowman, of the MacArthur Justice Center, said the sentence can be read two ways.

"You can read it as saying that this is an unusual circumstance hopefully never to be repeated inasmuch as it was driven by the fact that the death penalty system was broken," he said. "Or you can read it as expressing disapproval of what the governor did. But I really don't think that's in there."

Birkett said he believed it backed what prosecutors had argued. "They say it was intended to prevent miscarriages in individual cases," he said. "And that's what we said from the beginning."

Birkett said he believed it backed what prosecutors had argued. "They say it was intended to prevent miscarriages in individual cases," he said. "And that's what we said from the beginning."

What a crock of CHIT.. So why has it's taken nearly 20 years in some cases for innocent men to gain their freedom, and in many other cases of innocent men still behind bars or that have been executed?

Rose I as so happy that Tony has finally been spared the threat of being returned to the row..

Thanks, Eboniizs, and I have to agree with what you say. Tony was wrongly convicted in 1983, 21 years ago, and is STILL fighting for his freedom. Yes, he no longer faces Death, but he's still locked up for a crime he didn't commit. Hopefully it won't be for much longer. The only thing is, now he's not on Death Row he's not entitled to the same level of legal help. Catch 22, we've given you your life back so be thankful for that, now you can just rot where you are. And that goes for ALL the inmates who were on the Row, Tony's not alone in this. Remember, Ryan emptied the Row bnecause he couldn't work out who was innocent and who guilty.

Rose

Rose,

Just got back from Menard. Great news! Is that the absolute end of it, or can she file an appeal or come at it from a different angle?

jims..

jims.

There's always the possibility that she can file an appeal but, on reading the whole of the ruling (Docket No. 95663), it seems unlikely she'll get anywhere. So, it looks as if this is the end of it. I think it was all sour grapes in the first place and very few people expected Madigan and her cronies to win but, as in all things, you never can tell.

Rose

I hope the legislators will just leave this alone now and won't go and monkey with the governor's right to commute sentences. I've said it before and I'll say it again: vote, vote, vote, and get Democrats in office wherever they're running and for whatever office. If Bush gets re-elected and one or more of the Supreme Court justices dies, he'll appoint an ultra-conservative, and a young one who will be there for years to come. Irreparable damage will be done to all the cases that will come before the Supreme Court for decades. So PTO people, get the word out and VOTE.