The focus right now is on Ill and Gov. Ryan, but we all have to realize that this will set a standard for the rest of the States that still have the DP. It is a giant step in one day having DP stopped. It is a step in a long stairway.

softie


Excerpts From Governor Ryan's Speech


3 years ago, I was faced with startling information.

We had exonerated not one, not two, but 13 men from death row.

They were found innocent. Innocent of the charges for which they were
sentenced to die.

Can you imagine? We nearly killed innocent people. We nearly injected
them with a cocktail of deadly poisons so that they could die in front of
witnesses on a gurney in the state's death chamber. That's a pretty
gruesome picture. ...

The category of horrors was hard to believe. If I hadn't reviewed the
cases myself, I wouldn't believe it.

I've repeated many times the findings of reporters Steve Mills and Ken
Armstrong of the Chicago Tribune who conducted an exhaustive
investigation in the flaws of the system in November of 1999. Half of the
nearly 300 capital cases in Illinois had been reversed for a new trial or
resentencing. Nearly half!

33 of the death row inmates were represented at trial by an attorney who
had later been disbarred or at some point suspended from practicing law.

Of the more than 160 death row inmates, 35 were African-American
defendants who had been convicted or condemned to die by all-white
juries. More than 2/3 of the inmates on death row are African-American.

46 inmates were convicted on the basis of testimony from jailhouse
informants.

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think you need to be one to be appalled by
those statistics.

I have one question. How does that happen?

We had executed 12 people since capital punishment was reinstated here in
Illinois in 1977. With the 13th exonerated inmate in January of 2000, we
had released more innocent men from death row than those hopefully guilty
people we had executed.

3 years ago, I described it as a shameful scorecard. Truly shameful. So I
did the only thing I could. I called for what is in effect a moratorium.

A lot of people called that courageous. . . . It wasn't. It was just the
right thing to do. . . .

How do you let innocent people march to death row without somebody saying
"stop the show!"

There are more innocent people on death row. . . .

In some way, I can see how rogue cops, 20 years ago, can run wild. I can
see how, in a different time, they perhaps were able to manipulate the
system.

What I can't understand is why the courts can't find a way to act in the
interest of justice. . . . They (the 4 men pardoned Friday) are perfect
examples of what is so terribly broken about our system.

These cases call out for someone to act. They call out for justice, they
cry out for reform. They cry out to be fixed. Their cries have fallen on
deaf ears.

It reminds me of a story I heard about President Lincoln, in Sen. Robert
Dole's recent book. As President Lincoln shouldered the burden of trying
to fight the bloody Civil War and saving our young republic, he often had
to review individual cases of men who were to face the firing squad....

President Lincoln reviewed one such case with a senior Army officer and
noticed that there were no letters or pleas for mercy or pardon from
anyone on behalf of the accused soldier. "It's true," the officer said.
"He has no friends."

To that, President Lincoln replied, "Then I shall be his friend" and
signed the pardon request.

Today, I shall be a friend to Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Aaron
Patterson and Leroy Orange. Today I am pardoning them of the crimes for
which they were wrongfully prosecuted and sentenced to die . . .

A few weeks after I announced the moratorium I appointed a special
commission . . . to study the system from top to bottom . . . . . . They
worked for 3 years. They studied nearly every aspect of the system. . . .
After all that, they developed 85 recommendations. 85 ways to improve our
badly broken system. . . . We took the commission's recommendations and
drafted legislation. . . . We introduced that bill 3 times last spring
and this fall. 3 times. And each time, the legislature punted.

I don't understand that. Thirteen innocent men were nearly executed.
Countless flaws are highlighted. The system has proved itself to be
wildly inaccurate, unjust and unable to separate the innocent from the
guilty and, at times, a very racist system. And yet we couldn't pass a
reform package in Springfield.

What does it take? Now we can say the number of wrongfully convicted men
is not 13 but 17. And I ask, will that be enough? . . .

I have acted today in what I believe is in the interest of justice. It is
not only the right thing to do, I believe it is the only thing to do.

If you learn nothing else . . . realize the tremendous opportunity it is
to be allowed to practice law. Realize the tremendous power that you have
to do good. Remember, whether you are prosecutor, a defender, that when
you step into a courtroom, you should be engaged in a passionate search
for the truth, rather than a zealous pursuit of a victory for victory's sake.

Lives hang in balance.