|
Ryan will be counted a hero
By Rich Lewis January 16,
2003
Bill Clinton infuriated the nation as he
left office in January 2001 by pardoning 140 people, some of whom,
such as financier Marc Rich, obviously were rewarded for making fat
political contributions or paying the right people to lobby on their
behalf.
Clinton had, indeed, brought disgrace
upon a power that should be reserved for making important statements
about justice and healing — and not to pay off privileged
cronies.
In other words, the power and its variants should be
used in exactly the way that outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan used
it last week.
Just two days before his term expired, Ryan
announced he was granting clemency to 167 inmates who were facing
execution. They would, instead, serve life sentences without the
possibility of parole.
In a lengthy and emotional speech,
Ryan correctly called the death penalty issue "one of the great
civil rights struggles of our time."
His own change of heart
was dramatic. When sworn into office four years earlier, he had been
"a firm believer in the... death penalty" because he believed it was
administered "in a just and fair manner."
But it had become
clear to him that the system of capital punishment "is haunted by
the demon of error."
He recounted the story of Anthony
Porter, freed from jail just 48 hours before he was to be ritually
killed by the state for a crime he did not commit. A team of
students, teachers and lawyers from Northwestern University had
proven Porter's innocence — one of 17 such cases nationally in
recent years.
In the end, Ryan said, the system is "immoral"
and he would no longer be content to "tinker with the machinery of
death."
Instead, he would simply stop the 167 killings over
which he had power.
Ryan acknowledged that his decision would
draw "ridicule, scorn and anger from many who oppose this decision."
And it has. But it was a public act of moral courage rarely seen
these days.
The truth is, as the Washington Post recently
reported, the death penalty is in decline. Thirty-eight states —
including Pennsylvania — have it on the books, but only 13 used it
in 2002, fewer than in any year since 1993.
Of the 71
convicts killed last year, 33 died in Texas alone. Only three
executions took place outside the South — in California, Ohio and
Missouri.
As the Post wrote, capital punishment "should have
been banned long ago," but its "continued marginalization" to just a
few states suggests it gradually may disappear. Ryan's defiance will
be assailed as an outrageous act of ego — how dare one man put his
convictions ahead of the will of the people? — but in the long run
it will be regarded as a watershed moment in the struggle to end
this barbaric practice.
Ryan eventually will be deemed a
hero, as will all who stand against the death penalty while it is
still "unpopular" to do so.
As for Pennsylvania, I am ashamed
that my home state is among the death penalty states. Three convicts
have been executed here since 1995, and 244 are now on death
row.
On Tuesday Gov.-elect Ed Rendell said he has no plans to
review the death-penalty system here. He said he has seen "no
evidence" it is flawed.
That conclusion is wrong both
philosophically and in fact.
Philosophically, it reminds me
of a visit I made to the doctor many years ago. He asked whether I
had any illnesses or chronic conditions. I said no.
Then he
asked, "Do you smoke?" and when I answered yes, he said, "Then you
are sick."
What he meant, of course, was that smoking in
itself is a sickness, whether or not I chose to call it
such.
The death penalty is just like that — it is flawed in
its very nature, evil because of what it is — not because of how
it's used.
But Rendell is wrong to believe it is even being
used here without problems.
On Tuesday a federal appeals
court ruled that George Banks should be removed from Pennsylvania's
death row because he had received an unfair sentencing
hearing.
The problem was with the jury instructions given in
the 1980s, when Banks, who murdered 13 people, was
sentenced.
The flawed instructions were used in about 30
cases and may have led to the imposition of the death penalty in
some cases where jury members did not unanimously agree, which is
required by law.
It's a small mistake — if anything that
could result in unjustified state-sanctioned murder can be called
"small" — but it's just another example of how the system is
"haunted by the demon of error."
|
