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EXCERPTS FROM GOV. RYAN'S
SPEECH
Published January 11, 2003
Three years ago, I was faced with
startling information.
We had exonerated not one, not two,
but 13 men from Death Row.
They were found
innocent. Innocent of the charges for which they were sentenced to
die.
Can you imagine? We nearly killed innocent people. We
nearly injected them with a cocktail of deadly poisons so that they
could die in front of witnesses on a gurney in the state's death
chamber. That's a pretty gruesome picture. ...
The category
of horrors was hard to believe. If I hadn't reviewed the cases
myself, I wouldn't believe it.
I've repeated many times the
findings of reporters Steve Mills and Ken Armstrong of the Chicago
Tribune who conducted an exhaustive investigation in the flaws of
the system in November of 1999. Half of the nearly 300 capital cases
in Illinois had been reversed for a new trial or resentencing.
Nearly half!
Thirty-three of the Death Row inmates were
represented at trial by an attorney who had later been disbarred or
at some point suspended from practicing law.
Of the more than
160 Death Row inmates, 35 were African-American defendants who had
been convicted or condemned to die by all-white juries. More than
two-thirds of the inmates on Death Row are
African-American.
Forty-six inmates were convicted on the
basis of testimony from jailhouse informants.
I'm not a
lawyer, but I don't think you need to be one to be appalled by those
statistics.
I have one question. How does that
happen?
We had executed 12 people since capital punishment
was reinstated here in Illinois in 1977. With the 13th exonerated
inmate in January of 2000, we had released more innocent men from
Death Row than those hopefully guilty people we had
executed.
Three years ago, I described it as a shameful
scorecard. Truly shameful. So I did the only thing I could. I called
for what is in effect a moratorium.
A lot of people called
that courageous. . . . It wasn't. It was just the right thing to do.
. . .
How do you let innocent people march to Death Row
without somebody saying "stop the show!"
There are more
innocent people on Death Row. . . .
In some way, I can see
how rogue cops, 20 years ago, can run wild. I can see how, in a
different time, they perhaps were able to manipulate the
system.
What I can't understand is why the courts can't find
a way to act in the interest of justice. . . . They (the four men
pardoned Friday) are perfect examples of what is so terribly broken
about our system.
These cases call out for someone to act.
They call out for justice, they cry out for reform. They cry out to
be fixed. Their cries have fallen on deaf ears.
It reminds me
of a story I heard about President Lincoln, in Sen. Robert Dole's
recent book. As President Lincoln shouldered the burden of trying to
fight the bloody Civil War and saving our young republic, he often
had to review individual cases of men who were to face the firing
squad. . . .
President Lincoln reviewed one such case with a
senior Army officer and noticed that there were no letters or pleas
for mercy or pardon from anyone on behalf of the accused soldier.
"It's true," the officer said. "He has no friends."
To that,
President Lincoln replied, "Then I shall be his friend" and signed
the pardon request.
Today, I shall be a friend to Madison
Hobley, Stanley Howard, Aaron Patterson and Leroy Orange. Today I am
pardoning them of the crimes for which they were wrongfully
prosecuted and sentenced to die . . .
A few weeks after I
announced the moratorium I appointed a special commission . . . to
study the system from top to bottom . . . . . . They worked for
three years. They studied nearly every aspect of the system. . . .
After all that, they developed 85 recommendations. 85 ways to
improve our badly broken system. . . . We took the commission's
recommendations and drafted legislation. . . . We introduced that
bill three times last spring and this fall. Three times. And each
time, the legislature punted.
I don't understand that.
Thirteen innocent men were nearly executed. Countless flaws are
highlighted. The system has proved itself to be wildly inaccurate,
unjust and unable to separate the innocent from the guilty and, at
times, a very racist system. And yet we couldn't pass a reform
package in Springfield.
What does it take? Now we can say the
number of wrongfully convicted men is not 13 but 17. And I ask, will
that be enough? . . .
I have acted today in what I believe is
in the interest of justice. It is not only the right thing to do, I
believe it is the only thing to do.
If you learn nothing else
. . . realize the tremendous opportunity it is to be allowed to
practice law. Realize the tremendous power that you have to do good.
Remember, whether you are prosecutor, a defender, that when you step
into a courtroom, you should be engaged in a passionate search for
the truth, rather than a zealous pursuit of a victory for victory's
sake.
Lives hang in balance.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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