Panel recommends sweeping changes to death penalty

CHICAGO -- A state panel that studied Illinois' death penalty system for two years proposed dozens of reforms at every level of the criminal justice system on Monday and said capital punishment should be abolished if the reforms can't be enacted.

"The message from this commission and of this report is clear: repair or repeal," said Thomas Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney and co-chairman of the panel. "Fix the capital punishment system or abolish it. There is no other principled course."

The 14-member panel, commissioned by Gov. George Ryan after he imposed a moratorium on executions two years ago, came up with more than 80 recommendations on how to improve a system that has seen more people removed from death row than executed since the penalty was reinstated in Illinois in 1977.

"Thirteen times innocent men were exonerated after rotting on death row for years," Ryan said. "For that to happen even once is unjust, and for that to happen 13 times is shameful and really beyond comprehension."

Proposed changes in the 200-page report include: banning the death penalty for mentally retarded defendants and those convicted solely on the evidence of a single eyewitness, informer or accomplice; establishing a statewide commission to review local prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty; and creating an independent forensic lab and a comprehensive DNA database.

One of the more significant recommendations was a proposed reduction in the circumstances that make a defendant eligible for execution from 20 to five. The remaining five would be murdering multiple victims, killing a police officer or firefighter, killing an officer or inmate in a correctional institution, murdering to obstruct justice or torturing the victim.

'Real injustices'

While a narrow majority of the panel favored ending the death penalty in Illinois, members stopped short of recommending that, saying it was asked to recommend only fixes to the current system.

"I sensed as people studied the issues they became more and more aware that there are real injustices," said commission member and former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, an Illinois Democrat. "As long as you have capital punishment, there is no guarantee you are not going to have innocent people executed."

Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons said the recommendations, if implemented, would have a chilling effect on law enforcement. He said he stands with "heartbroken families and victims of killers and rapists and savage beasts."

The panel said it would be up to lawmakers to implement its recommendations and acknowledged that they would be costly. The governor said he would study the report and discuss it with panel members for weeks -- or even months -- before taking any action.

"I'm not going to act in haste; I'm going to deliberate," Ryan said.

Nationwide, about 3,700 people await death for crimes committed in the 38 states that allow the death penalty, about 160 of them in Illinois.