Attorneys scurry to file clemency requests in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Defense lawyers and death penalty opponents scurried to file clemency requests for about 160 inmates on death row in time for Gov. George Ryan, who has imposed a moratorium on executions, to consider the cases before leaving office.

More than 130 requests were filed late Monday afternoon with the state Prisoner Review Board, with more expected. The board will consider them as part of its October docket before making confidential recommendations on all requests to Ryan, who retires in January.

Prosecutors were making plans to build opposition to the requests.

Ryan halted executions in January 2000 after 13 Illinois death row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. A blue-ribbon panel appointed by Ryan has recommended 85 changes to the state's capital punishment system.

In March, Ryan said he would review each death penalty case and consider whether to commute the sentences to life in prison.

He can do that with or without recommendations from the Prisoner Review Board, but spokesman Dennis Culloton said Ryan wants their input before making any decisions.

Death penalty opponents say this is the perfect opportunity for Ryan to spare inmates convicted under a flawed system.

The review board says it is being swamped with appeals from death row inmates, in addition to its usual workload. Barring extra help, it may not be able to adequately consider all of them this fall, said legal counsel Ken Tupy.

"We don't have the manpower," Tupy said.

But activists say that's not a legitimate excuse when innocent inmates could be put to death.

"That's ludicrous," said Bill Ryan, president of the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project. "That almost makes me speechless. We're talking about people's lives."

Prosecutors have their own strategy. They're contacting victim's families to testify in front of the Prisoner Review Board against commuting the sentences, and they plan to make their opposition clear to the board and Ryan.

They say it's unfair for Ryan to consider hurriedly erasing death sentences that have spent years in the legal system.

"What's going on right now is unprecedented," said Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller, past president of the Illinois State's Attorneys Association. "It's not something that should be happening."

Attorney General Jim Ryan said it would be a "mistake" for the governor to commute all of the sentences, and he should review them individually.

Not all death row inmates have agreed to ask for clemency, so activists plan to file a "friendly" brief with the board on their behalf. They think Ryan ultimately will side with them.

"I think that George Ryan knows how screwed up and how unjust the death penalty system is," Bill Ryan said. "I'm confident he's going to do the right thing."