New Report Says Death Penalty Is Fundamentally Flawed
Feature Story by Teresa Kraly - 4/25/2002
24 years after the state of Illinois reinstated the death penalty, a commission appointed by Republican Governor George Ryan recommended sweeping reforms to the state’s criminal justice system that call into question the continued viability of the death penalty.
In March 2000, Governor Ryan ordered a moratorium on executions after 13 death row inmates were found to have been wrongfully convicted by the state’s justice system. These inmates were exonerated either by new scientific evidence (generally DNA evidence), or set free by the revelation of mistakes made during their trials proving their innocence. After imposing the moratorium, Ryan, a death penalty supporter, established a commission to examine the way that the death penalty is carried out in Illinois and to make recommendations for its improved administration.
The Ryan Commission’s final report, released on April 15, 2002, includes 85 recommendations for reform in the areas of investigations, eligibility for the death penalty, prosecutorial discretion and trial practice. Most significantly, the report calls for the videotaping of all interrogations of capital suspects, reducing the number of crimes that create death eligibility, and requiring that the trial judge concur in any death recommendation made by a sentencing jury.
The report also calls for significant reform in the use of police line-up identifications, recognizing the increasing body of scientific research that calls into question the reliability of line-up procedures currently widely used by prosecutors, and recommends that any prosecutorial decision to charge a death eligible offense be confirmed by an independent state panel. The commission also has proposed enhanced training of trial lawyers and judges, intensified scrutiny of the testimony of jail-house informants, and data collection that will allow the state to track whether the penalty is being imposed fairly.
As part of the national response to the grave concerns highlighted by the large numbers of death row inmates that have been exonerated in recent years, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) have introduced in Congress the Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (S.486/H.R.912). This bill provides access to DNA testing for certain state and federal prisoners to support a claim of innocence, establishes a National Commission on Capital Representation to set standards for indigent defense in capital cases, adds a certification requirement in federal death penalty prosecutions, and establishes a compensation fund for individuals unjustly sentenced to death.
Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-IL) have introduced the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 (S. 233/H.R.1038) which would establish a national commission on the death penalty and prohibit the federal government from carrying out the death penalty until Congress considers the final findings and recommendations of this commission. Both bills are currently pending in Congress.
The Ryan Commission’s recommendations are the first steps on a long road to improving the fairness and reliability of capital punishment in Illinois and across the country. However, as the report makes clear, "no system, given human nature and frailties, could ever be devised or constructed that would work perfectly and guarantee absolutely that no innocent person is ever again sentenced to death." It is that lack of a guarantee that poses the most difficult dilemma for supporters of the ultimate punishment.
