George Ryan completed his term as Illinois governor Monday, riding off into the sunset as a hero to anti-death penalty activists and a villain to those who opposed a blanket commutation for the state’s death row inmates.
But even though Ryan has left the debate, national discourse on the death penalty is just beginning, thanks largely to the outgoing governor’s decision Saturday to lessen the sentences of 163 death row inmates after a thorough examination of the irregularities in the state’s criminal justice system.
Even before Ryan announced his decision, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a longtime opponent of capital punishment, released a statement saying he would push Congress to enact a National Death Penalty Moratorium Act in response to “serious flaws” in the administration of the death penalty across the country.
“(The experience of Illinois) … provides convincing evidence of the urgent need for a national review of the administration of the death penalty and a moratorium on executions while that review takes place,” Feingold’s statement read. “It is past time for Congress to meet its responsibility of ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system.”
Experts say while the majority of people in the United States still favor the death penalty, serious concerns have arisen about the way capital punishment is administered.
According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, the number of people on death row nationwide decreased in 2001 for the first time since 1976.
In 2001, 90 death row inmates had their sentences overturned or commuted nationwide, while only 66 people were executed. Those figures mirror the situation in Illinois that led to Ryan’s decision, in which 17 inmates were exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977 compared with 12 executions.
In his Saturday speech, Ryan called Illinois’ statistics an “absolute embarrassment.”
“We had the dubious distinction of exonerating more men than we had executed,” he said. “Seventeen exonerated death row inmates is nothing short of a catastrophic failure. How many more cases of wrongful conviction have to occur before we can all agree that this system in Illinois is broken?”
The death penalty has been abolished in 11 states, excluding Illinois and Maryland, which currently have moratoriums on executions. But according to The Washington Post, Maryland governor-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said he will end his state’s moratorium after he takes office Wednesday. New Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich said Saturday he disagreed with Ryan’s blanket commutation decision but has not divulged any plans to end the moratorium.
Audience members at the Law School Saturday said they support Feingold’s bill for a national death penalty moratorium and hope Ryan’s announcement could serve as a stepping stone for a nationwide debate.
Aaron Patterson, one of four men Ryan pardoned Friday at DePaul University’s law school, told The Daily he planned to contact Feingold about his bill. Before coming to the Law School, Patterson spent his first day as a free man at an anti-war rally in Chicago — the first step in his new career fighting for the rights of the wrongfully accused.
“We have our own battle going on right here,” said Patterson, referring to the movement to abolish the death penalty across the country.
Medill School of Journalism Prof. David Protess, whose students were instrumental in investigating Patterson’s case and eventually securing his release, said he thinks it will take time to convince the country to eliminate the death penalty.
But Ryan’s careful examination of the flaws in Illinois’ system could serve as the impetus for change, Protess said.
“The conscience of America has been awakened by what happened in Illinois,” he said.
