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Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine on Tuesday asked the Illinois Supreme Court to void the commutations for 10 former Death Row inmates, saying George Ryan overstepped his power as governor.

The cases involve inmates who had been on Death Row but who had their sentences vacated and were awaiting a new sentencing hearings. Devine argued in those cases the defendant was not sentenced under the law and, consequently, unable to be granted clemency.

"While we know that the governor has broad clemency powers under the [Illinois] Constitution," Devine said in a statement, "we believe he overstepped that power when he granted relief to prisoners whose cases had been sent back for resentencing."

Attorney Kimball Anderson said then-Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan made the same argument before the commutations were granted Saturday. Anderson, who represented the governor in those cases, said the Illinois Supreme Court rejected that interpretation.

"My personal view is that the argument is not well founded legally," Anderson said.

Anderson said he believes the constitution says a conviction triggers the governor's ability to grant clemency. Previous attorneys general had made the same determination, he said.

The constitution used the words "conviction" and "sentence" in the same clause, suggesting they had separate meanings and that it was upon a conviction that the governor's power to grant commutations is attached, Anderson said.

"If you parse through the constitution, you'll see the drafters were careful to use the words conviction separately from the word sentence. That's because it's after the conviction when the governor can act," Anderson said.

But Devine said the commutations in cases where an inmate is waiting for a new sentence violate the constitutional separation of powers because Ryan, and not the courts, had sentenced those inmates.

The lawsuit names Donald Snyder, the director of the Department of Corrections, the wardens of Menard and Pontiac prisons and Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan. It seeks specifically to bar them from recording the commutations in prison records.

The inmates named in Devine's lawsuit are Willie Thompkins, Samuel Morgan, Julius Kuntu, Tyrone Fuller, Roger Collins, William Bracey, Robert St. Pierre, Cortez Brown, Paul Erickson and Gregory Madej.

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