End Of Death Penalty In Illinois?

The decision to commute Illinois death sentences to life in prison should be "for everybody or for nobody," despite a review board's plan to hear almost 160 separate clemency cases next month, Gov. George Ryan said Friday.

"I don't know how I could pick and choose," Ryan said. "That's why I have to determine whether it's going to be for everybody or for nobody."

The governor, who put executions on hold in Illinois in January 2000 after a string of men were released from death row, said he is strongly considering a blanket commutation to life in prison for all death row inmates.

"I want to make sure we don't put innocent people to death, that's my concern," Ryan said. "The system right now is you can flip a coin to determine who's going to live and die."

Since Illinois resumed capital punishment in 1977, 12 people have been executed and 13 people have seen their sentences overturned. In some cases, evidence showed they were innocent; in others, courts ruled that they received unfair trials.

In anticipation of the governor's possible commutation of all death sentences to life in prison, 157 inmates filed petitions seeking clemency. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board announced this week that it would spend four days next month reviewing those requests.

The board makes recommendations to the governor, although he has the ultimate decision in each case.

Anne Taylor, the review board's chair, said the board holds hearings on all petitions and will do its best to give every case a fair treatment.

Prosecutors have criticized the board's plan to give each side just 15 minutes to make a case, claiming that the rights of victims' families are not being considered.

"If that's the case maybe ... we ought to have a blanket commutation," Ryan said Friday.

Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine lambasted the governor for even considering such a decision.

"His suggestion to treat all of these cases in one blanket move and to say he can't pick and choose among these is irresponsible and an insult to the hundreds of victims' families who have lost a loved one due to violent crime," Devine said in a statement.

The governor, though, insisted he had not decided whether to commute all death sentences before he leaves office in January. And he said he would read the review board's recommendations on the individual cases.

Ryan also said the Legislature could sway his decision by acting this fall on his recommended changes to death penalty laws — even though those changes would not apply to prisoners already on death row.

The governor has urged lawmakers to adopt 85 recommendations from a panel he appointed to study the death penalty.

He amended an anti-terrorism bill last month to include some of the panel's less controversial suggestions, such as barring death sentences based on the testimony of a single eyewitness or jailhouse snitch. The Legislature may accept or reject the changes in its fall veto session.

Jane Bohman, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said the governor is being realistic about the flaws in the system by considering a blanket commutation.

"Why risk executing someone when they can be given a prison term of life in prison?" Bohman said. "You can't give a second chance to someone who's already in the grave."