Tribune editorial
Obstruction of justice
Published January 15, 2003
The bitterness that has greeted former
Gov. George Ryan's historic Death Row commutation announcement was
expected. But the words and actions of some of the most prominent
prosecutors in Illinois have passed beyond criticism. They seem
intent on blocking the work that still needs to be done: reforming
the criminal justice system in Illinois.
Cook County State's
Atty. Richard Devine has suggested Ryan misused his gubernatorial
clemency power in part because he lacked serious legal credentials,
ridiculing him as "a pharmacist by training and a politician by
trade."
Devine--who might
recall he is a politician in his own right--seems to be suggesting
that the rest of us should leave the death penalty debate to the
pros, the prosecutors. As though pharmacists--or doctors or bus
drivers or accountants--can have no informed opinion on the gross
injustice of a broken legal system that has led at last count to 17
wrongful convictions in capital cases.
The prosecutors are
free to express their anger at Ryan's decision. We agree with
them--Ryan should have been selective in his commutations and he
should have explained the rationale behind each one.
But
Devine and DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett and others
can't be allowed to divert attention from the crying need to repair
the justice system here.
There are legitimate issues in the
wake of Ryan's decision. Devine and Birkett have called for a
discussion of whether the governor's clemency powers should be
curtailed. They want the confidential recommendations of the
Illinois Prisoner Review Board to be made public.
But they're
also unwisely veering into legal loopholes--arguing that because
about 20 of the inmates were in the middle of retrials, technically
they were not under a sentence of death and would be ineligible for
commutation.
And in some instances, they're just being
petulant. State Sen. Ed Petka (R-Plainfield), a former prosecutor,
has chimed in with the idea of requiring by law that, should Ryan
win a Nobel Peace Prize--come on, now--the proceeds must go to
victims' families or to maintaining the prison cells of those whose
sentences he commuted.
Enough, already.
Illinois faces
two crises: its financial deficit and its broken criminal justice
system.
By law, the legislature must fix the deficit in the
next several months and pass a balanced budget. By any sense of
morality, it must fix the justice system right now, too.
If
prosecutors' anger blinds them to the deep problems in capital
punishment and leads them to block the many needed reforms that have
yet to be passed by the General Assembly, they will not be serving
justice. They will be perpetuating injustice.
If Illinois is
to have capital punishment, it falls on every citizen in this
state--including the prosecutors--to see to it that sentencing and
executions are fairly administered. Judging by the broad support for
the moratorium on executions, a majority of Illinoisans understand
that that has not been accomplished.
If legislators fail once
again during their upcoming spring session to pass substantive
reforms to the capital punishment system, then it will be time to
rethink whether the state can responsibly have a death penalty at
all.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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