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Haine enraged by governor’s move
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| STEVE WHITWORTH, The
Telegraph |
January
12, 2003 |
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ALTON -- State Sen. William Haine, who helped put two of
those inmates on death row during his tenure as Madison County
state’s attorney, blasted Gov. George Ryan’s decision Saturday to
grant blanket clemency to all condemned killers in
Illinois.
Haine, D-Alton, used scathing language to describe
his feelings about the governor’s action.
"It’s a great
wrong," he said. "It’s an extraordinary and a breathtaking act of
arrogance.
"George Ryan has severed the bond of trust between
those who hold great power on behalf of the people and the people
themselves.
"The last six months of hearings, which were
instigated by his trial balloon and these prisoners filing petitions
for clemency, showed the people of Illinois that these murderers
were clearly guilty of the worst crimes, imagined only by Hell
itself, and here we have a governor turning these murderers into
potential victims because of his reckless talk and his
speculation.
"By doing so, he may have irreparably injured
the law itself," Haine said. "He has certainly committed a great
wrong against the victims, and he has profoundly insulted his
subordinates in the system -- the state’s attorneys, the police
officers, the jurors and judges -- with his pen and his reckless
language."
Haine said he particularly was angered that Ryan
had used his own powers as governor to circumvent the state’s legal
system.
"Even those who are opposed to the death penalty as
an option must stand shocked at the use of raw power to cut down the
law itself, the Constitution, to get at the end they desire -- a
state without a death penalty," he said.
"Those who have
encouraged him in this -- and that includes law professors, of all
people -- bear a responsibility for this. If they cheer him at
Northwestern Law School (where Ryan made Saturday’s announcement),
they are cheering the raw exercise of power against the law
itself.
"It is a spectacle that I would never have dreamed I
would see in Illinois."
Haine said the powers of granting
clemency that are given to the governor by the Illinois Constitution
were meant to be used "sparingly to prevent clear miscarriages of
justice" and "for an occasional act of mercy."
Instead, he
charged, Ryan was using his powers to attack the credibility of the
state’s legal system and the death penalty process, which the
governor called "arbitrary and capricious."
"In that
language, (Ryan) has further breached the bond which connects him to
those men and women who go into the well of the court every day in
the cause of truth to bring evildoers to justice," Haine said.
"George Ryan has heaped calumny and slander upon these men and women
and upon the police officers of this state."
Haine said the
governor’s actions were inconsistent with the history of how justice
is administered in the United States.
"He’s done it to gain
the applause of those well-meaning citizens who desire to use
whatever power is at their disposal to overturn capital punishment,"
Haine said. "That is simply not America, it’s not Illinois, and it’s
not the Land of Lincoln. It’s not in the tradition of Abraham
Lincoln, who believed in a government of law, not of men. It’s the
act of an irresponsible political officeholder."
Haine, who
was elected to the Senate in November, said he doubted there is
anything the General Assembly can do to reverse Ryan’s
decision.
"The governor has unfettered discretion," Haine
said. "The bond between the governor and the citizens is that these
great powers are to be used with constraint consistent with the law.
George Ryan has, by his conduct, breached that ethic, which is as
old as the Republic itself. I would love to see a test of this, but
I’m not hopeful."
Haine said he especially was disturbed that
Ryan would take such an action because the governor’s administration
has been "marked by scandal and corruption and arrogance, and this
is the result."
The Alton Democrat also rejected Ryan’s
contention that the state’s "capital system is haunted by the demon
of error."
"Under his standard, we are unable to bring a
charge against anyone for any crime," Haine said. "If that’s the
test, he’s raising the bar to perfection. It’s
ridiculous."
The governor’s action means that two men who
were sentenced to death in Madison County Circuit Court during
Haine’s tenure as state’s attorney have had their punishments
commuted to life in prison. Sherrell Towns was convicted with two
others in 1993 of killing five people in the Eagle Park area near
Madison. Felipe Hall was convicted in the 1994 slaying of two women
outside Granite City.
"I think the citizens are going to be
very angry about this," Haine said. "I truly believe it damages law
enforcement generally. Every citizen should see this as an abuse of
power. This was not intended by the framers of our
Constitution.
"I’m disheartened terribly by it myself as an
officer of the court and a member of the Senate, that we’ve come to
this. I can’t think of any analogy to compare it to other than the
Civil War, when senators and military officers abandoned their oaths
and took up arms against the United States. In the history of the
Republic, I can’t compare it to anything else, an act of this
nature, where you simply take the position that the law doesn’t mean
anything."
swhit6@hotmail.com
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| ©The
Telegraph 2003 |
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Reader
Opinions |
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Name: R
S | |
Date: Jan, 14 2003 |
As someone
who has known Bill Haine for many years and generally
has great respect for him and his dedication to the
people of Alton and Madison County, I too am shocked at
his response to Governor Ryan's recent actions. I don't
disagree with Mr. Haine much, but I think this is a
situation where he has totally missed the point and
responded, well....recklessly. I would have been more
impressed if he would have actually responded by talking
about what is wrong with the system...and he knows there
is plenty wrong with it....and pledging to help reform
it. Go spend a couple days at the Court House in
Edwardsville and watch a couple trials....you'll see how
truly arbitrary our system really is. The lawyers and
law enforcement people who work in it overwhelmingly
will tell you it's very inefficient and needs reform.
Unfortunately, only a few of the people who have
responded to this article have actually focused on the
real issue here, which Mr. Haine refused to do. Which is
this...all of us must ask ourselves one question with
respect to the death penalty debate, "Can we ever be
sure,without any hesitation or doubt whatsoever, that
the people we sentence to death are in fact...in every
single case...EVERY SINGLE CASE...guilty?" The answer is
no. I believe Mr. Haine and the prosecutors he worked
with in Madison County are well qualified and would
never intentionally try to convict someone who was
innocent. Fact is though, people make mistakes. As long
as people make honest mistakes, there's no room for the
death penalty in our form of government. Even one person
convicted to die unfairly is one too many. So many of
you have chosen to focus on the emotional thread to all
of this, how the victims and their family's would feel.
I do feel for them. But, harsh as it sounds, this isn't
about them. They are, through no fault of their own,
caught up in an imperfect system, which needs to be
corrected. Imagine how you would feel if your father,
your mother, sister, uncle....anyone you know....was
wrongly convicted of a crime for which they had nothing
to do, sentenced to die, and actually died at the hand
of our government? This is the exact injustice our
system is supposed to make sure doesn't happen. Can we
have a death penalty where we know without a doubt every
person sentenced to die is in fact guilty? Obviously, we
can't. The research done at Northwestern over the past
several years has shown our death penalty system to be
tremendously flawed. Innocent people have lost several
years of their life sitting in prison---waiting to be
killed on death row---who were in fact innocent. Because
of this, Governor Ryan sought reforms of the system. As
Mr. Hopkins pointed out, the legislature refused to
enact even ONE---ONE---reform. I am truly disappointed
in Mr. Haine's response because with his stature in the
community, he has the opportunity to educate people as
to how messed up our Death Penalty system is, and
regardless of the remarks he made he knows exactly how
screwed up that system is. He had the opportunity to
educate people and invite them to a productive debate
about the dealth penalty. If Mr. Haine had doen the
reverse and acknowledged the system is screwed up and
needs reform....many of the voters locally would of
started to think a little harder about the real issue.
But, he chose to play it safe....by responding in a way
that most people would support, since the polls say most
people are in favor of the death penalty. His remarks
only set the debate back locally. The problem with our
politicians, generally, is that they usually will not go
against the grain of the public opinion polls. The
majority of people support the death
penalty.....generally....but that's only when asked
questions like "do you believe someone who has committed
murder should receive the death penalty?" Approximatly
70% say "yes". But, when asked in a recent national poll
by a leading magazine, "If you knew in advance that 1
out of every 100 people killed on death row was actually
innocent...would you support efforts in your state to
repeal the death penalty" more than 3/4 of the
respondents said "yes." I think Mr. Haine and other
elected officials should focus on the real issue, fixing
a system that is broken, instead of responding with
absolutely unproductive statements that only inflame the
uneducated public. Governor Ryan did one thing....which
is exactly what he set out to do....get the debate
started on a national level about how messed up the
death penalty system is. Mr. Haine and the public should
not be so outraged with what he did, but with why their
local representatives did nothing to change a system
that's broke. The debate is on, sit back and watch, in
time....the majority of people will see...regardless of
whether or not you like Ryan...and I don't.... this was
the right thing to do. Be ready for your mind to be
changed in time.
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Name: S
B | |
Date: Jan, 14 2003 |
BILL HAINE
FOR GOVERNOR! BILL HAINE FOR GOVERNOR!
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