In a letter, they cite precedents
By Deanna Bellandi
The Associated Press
CHICAGO - As Gov.
George Ryan decides whether to
commute the sentences of some death row inmates, hundreds of
the nation's law professors want him to know he would be
justified in granting clemency to them all.
The legal
scholars plan to deliver that opinion today in an open letter
to Ryan signed by more than
400 professors - the latest front in a hard-fought public
relations battle over the fate of Illinois' death row inmates.
In the letter, the legal scholars take exception to
some death penalty supporters' view that the governor should
consider clemency only on a case-by-case basis for the more
than 140 inmates who have sought it. About 160 inmates are on
death row.
"We feel compelled to share with you our
considered judgment that, in our country, the power of
executive clemency is not so limited," the letter said. "To
the contrary, where circumstances warrant, executive clemency
should be and has in fact been used as a means to correct
systemic injustice."
But Cook County State's Attorney
Richard Devine, one of those most publicly opposed to a
blanket clemency, contends that the professors have missed the
point.
"We have never disputed that the governor has
unlimited powers to grant clemency, but we believe that
granting blanket clemency would be an abuse of that power,"
said Devine's spokeswoman, Marcy Jensen.
Earlier this
month, a group of retired state and federal judges urged Ryan to commute the death sentences
for any inmate whose conviction was tainted by flaws in the
state's capital punishment system.
The professors'
letter doesn't take a position on whether the governor should
commute all death row inmates' sentences to life in prison
without parole. But it gives examples of other governors who
have used the power of clemency.
Ryan is reviewing inmates' clemency
requests and has said he will rule before he leaves office
Jan. 13.
The governor has described the prospect of
blanket commutation as being "on the back burner" but will
consider the professors' letter, Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said.
New York University law professor Anthony Amsterdam,
who organized the letter-signing campaign, said the power of
clemency was broad enough "to allow the governor to use his
own sense of justice and right in issuing commutations."
Other governors have done it. They include New Mexico
Gov. Toney Anaya, who commuted the sentences of all his
state's death row inmates in 1986; Arkansas Gov. Winthrop
Rockefeller, who did the same thing in 1970; and Lee Cruce
who, as Oklahoma governor from 1911 to 1915, commuted 22 death
sentences to life in prison because of his opposition to the
death penalty.
Amsterdam said the professors were
sending the letter to Ryan "to
make him feel that he can consult his own conscience and
decide what he thinks is right."
"If he believes that
the imperfections in the Illinois system of capital trial and
conviction and sentence are so dangerous that they simply
cannot be trusted as the basis for killing anybody, then it
would be appropriate for him to commute all death sentences"
to life in prison, Amsterdam said.
Ryan gained national prominence
nearly three years ago when he halted executions after courts
found that 13 death row inmates in Illinois had been wrongly
convicted since the state resumed capital punishment in 1977.
Since Ryan first
announced in March that he would review the files of all death
row inmates, activists on both sides of the issue have held a
range of public events to draw attention to their views and
try to influence the governor.
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