Gov. Ryan's panel says abolishing death penalty not the answer

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Two years after Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted executions, saying he couldn't trust the state's criminal justice system, a panel he named to examine the process is ready to recommend changes aimed at keeping innocent people off death row.

Abolishing capital punishment isn't among the proposals to be announced Monday, but the commission's report will include about 70 other recommendations for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police, co-chairman Frank McGarr said.

"Many states and national leaders will look to see the recommendations that Illinois comes up with as a model for what else needs to be done in other states," said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., which researches capital punishment but takes no position on it.

Ryan imposed the moratorium on capital punishment in January 2000 after several cases in which men were freed from death row because new evidence exonerated them or there were flaws in the way they were convicted. Since the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty in Illinois, 13 men have been freed while 12 have been executed.

"This is an issue that's larger than Illinois. Illinois has had 13 cases, but most of these cases are outside of Illinois and there are problems in those places as well," McGarr said.

McGarr, a retired federal judge, is not raising expectations about what will come of the commission's recommendations.

Up to the legislature

"The legislature will have to decide whether they're going to adopt our improvements," he said.

Details of the report weren't released before Monday's announcement, but proposals that were recommended by reform advocates and were likely to be mentioned include:

Standards of experience for lawyers who represent defendants in capital cases. Research on Illinois cases has turned up embarrassing examples of incompetent lawyers bungling cases.

Requiring videotaping of police interrogations. One man, Ronald Jones, confessed to murder but later said he made up the story to get police to stop beating him. He was exonerated by crime-scene DNA.

Limiting testimony from "jailhouse snitches" and single eyewitnesses. Cellmates have sent men to death row by testifying they heard the men confess to crimes. But these witnesses often get leniency in their own cases and some have proved unreliable. Cases that rest on single or questionable eyewitnesses also have fallen apart because of the unreliability of memories that fade.

Ryan's panel might get a cooler reception in the Illinois General Assembly than it would elsewhere in the nation. Ryan is a lame-duck governor weakened by a four-year federal corruption probe that brought indictments earlier this month against his campaign committee and two former top aides. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but decided not to seek a second term.

Some believe the General Assembly already has done enough. Lawmakers have set up a trust fund to finance both prosecution and defense in capital cases and the Supreme Court adopted training and experience standards for lawyers and judges.

State Rep. Art Turner, sponsor of a bill that would substitute life in prison without parole for the death penalty, said neither legislative reticence nor Ryan's January departure will stand in the way of reform.

"Issues don't die or swing based upon who's in office," Turner said.

"The momentum for your issue should continue. The death penalty issue, the momentum has been moving, and it's starting to pick up."

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On the Net:

Death Penalty Info Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/