State's attorneys angry but helpless

  SPRINGFIELD — Illinois prosecutors denounced Gov. George Ryan's blanket clemency for death row inmates Saturday, but acknowledged there was little they could do about it.

  Some officials even suggested an amendment to the state Constitution to limit the clemency powers of future governors. A group opposed to the death penalty said it fears other states might adopt new clemency restrictions.

  The Illinois State's Attorneys Association will investigate ways to challenge Ryan's actions, said the group's president, Champaign County State's Attorney John Piland.

  Ryan, saying the state's capital punishment system is fundamentally flawed, commuted the death sentences of 167 people, generally to life in prison without parole. He cited the many problems identified by a special commission that recommended a major overhaul of the way Illinois handles the death penalty.

  But even a member of that commission said Ryan has gone too far.

  "I think it's a travesty of justice," said Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller. "I regret few things as much as I regret that I voted for him."

  Waller criticized Ryan's decision, but not the governor's almost unlimited power to grant clemency.

  But the Peoria County state's attorney, Kevin Lyons, said it may be time to amend the state Constitution to include some limits.

  "I think when the Constitution was crafted, it had faith in the governors that the people will elect," Lyons said. "But now we realize we can get a governor who doesn't have faith in the people ... who listen to cases and sentence people to death row."

  "If the governor can't contain himself, the people of Illinois should contain him, and you do that with the Constitution," Lyons said.

  The top Republican in the Illinois Senate, Minority Leader Frank Watson of Greenville, also has endorsed the idea of restrictions.

  Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat taking office Monday, called Ryan's blanket commutation a mistake, but said he did not know whether clemency powers should be changed somehow.

  Dianna Wentz, executive director of the New Orleans-based Moratorium Campaign, said Ryan's action could lead some officials to say, "That's not going to happen in my state" and pass restrictions on a governor's power to act independently.

  Wentz called that a "quick and easy" political reaction and said that she hopes more states will see Ryan's action as a call to review their own death penalty systems.

  The Illinois Prisoner Review Board studies requests for clemency and then gives the governor confidential recommendations on whether to grant the requests. But the governor can ignore the recommendation and do whatever he wants. He can even grant clemency to someone who doesn't ask for it.

  The Death Penalty Information Project says most governors have similar powers.

  Three states leave clemency decisions to an independent board, and three states place the governor on the board that decides clemency, according to the group. Nine states let the governor act only if a review board recommends clemency.

01/12/03