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Nation: Illinois review board to recommend clemency for few
death row inmates, sources say
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© 2003 AP Online |
  
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By DON BABWIN,
Associated Press
CHICAGO (December 31, 2002
9:51 p.m. EST) - A state panel recommended clemency for fewer than
10 of more than 140 death row inmates who sought commutation of
their sentences to life in prison, The Associated Press has learned.
Gov. George Ryan is not bound by the Prisoner Review Board's
recommendations on the inmates' cases. He is considering granting
clemency for each of the state's 160 condemned inmates before he
leaves office Jan. 13.
Two sources close to the board, who
spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, would not say exactly how
many prisoners were recommended for clemency nor identify the
inmates.
Ryan halted executions three years ago and called
the Illinois death penalty system "fraught with error" after courts
found 13 men on death row had been wrongly convicted since the state
resumed capital punishment in 1977.
In October, the board
held a series of emotional hearings on clemency petitions filed by
more than 140 death row inmates. Ever since, Ryan has been lobbied
intensely by both death penalty advocates and opponents.
Ryan's office could not be immediately reached for comment
Tuesday night. Craig Findley, a board member who participated in the
hearings and becomes board chairman Jan. 1, declined to discuss the
board's recommendation.
"What's important here is not what
the board recommends, but what the governor ultimately decides," he
said.
The clemency hearings stretched over several days.
Dozens of relatives of victims, some toting photographs of their
loved ones, pleaded with the board not to recommend clemency.
Defense attorneys and others speaking on behalf of inmates
countered that the capital punishment system in Illinois is so badly
flawed that it cannot be trusted.
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