Final appeal for clemency
made
Death penalty opponents
rally
By John Chase
Tribune staff
reporter
Published January 10,
2003
On the eve of
two long-awaited speeches by Gov. George Ryan on the state's capital
punishment system, death penalty opponents rallied downtown Thursday
in a last-ditch effort to persuade the governor to commute the
sentences of every condemned prisoner.
Activists, inmates'
family members and former Death Row prisoners themselves endured a
cold January wind outside the Thompson Center, hoping to persuade
Ryan he needs to grant clemency to each of the 160 inmates on Death
Row because they were sentenced under a "faulty judicial
system."
"The governor
has said that the system is flawed and he's right," said Julien
Ball, one of the rally organizers. "It's not a fair system and
everyone who was sentenced under a flawed system should not be
subject to execution."
Darby Tillis spent nine years on Death
Row after being convicted of murdering two men during an armed
robbery of a North Side hot-dog stand in 1977. He was tried five
times and acquitted in 1987. He said he believes Ryan will "do the
right thing" and commute the sentences.
"I think he's a man
of God and I think God has touched his heart," Tillis said.
"Everybody, regardless of whether they are guilty or not, was tried
under a faulty system. Some of these people may be guilty, but all
these sentences should be commuted."
Family members of murder
victims have pressed the governor not to grant a blanket clemency,
arguing there are no questions that some of those on Death Row
committed the murders that put them there. At one time Ryan said he
was leaning against blanket clemency, but he recently said all
options are on the table.
The governor has scheduled an
address on the death penalty at noon Friday at DePaul University
College of Law and at 1 p.m. Saturday at Northwestern University
School of Law, where lawyers have been among the strongest
supporters of commutations for all Death Row inmates.
"It's
really in his hands now," said Jane Bohman, executive director of
the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. "This is our final
public statement that there are people telling the governor that
they support blanket commutation. He shouldn't be scared to make
this one simple step to justice."
The governor's press office
said Ryan will make all of his decisions regarding the death penalty
"by the end of the day Saturday."
For Edna Johnson of
Chicago, mother of Death Row inmate Walter Thomas, it's a decision
she's been waiting to hear. Thomas was condemned for the stabbing
death of an Aurora woman during a 1986 robbery, but he said he did
commit the crime, Johnson said.
"My heart is just going up
and down, up and down all the time," Johnson said. "We're just
waiting for the word from the
governor."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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