SIU students seek death sentence reduction

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University law students will pay attention Thursday when the case of Pontiac death-row inmate Evan Griffith goes before a Livingston County judge.

Griffith's lawyer will urge Judge Harold Frobish to grant the Belize native a new trial because, among other things, jurors who heard his case received paperwork to complete during deliberations that was appropriate only for guilty verdicts.

The law students have written letters to Gov. George Ryan urging that Griffith's sentence be commuted to life in prison. They say the mild-mannered inmate does not deserve to be executed for killing a gang leader in prison.

"There's this long history of this guy seeing no justice time and time again, and he needs a break," said Ellen Scott, a third-year law student who signed the letter.

Griffith, who was serving a life sentence for another murder at the time, was convicted of the 1990 stabbing death of James Jones, a prison leader of the Black Gangster Disciples, in the yard of the Pontiac Correctional Center.

Griffith was convicted of the killing and sentenced to death. In 1994, the Illinois Supreme Court narrowly upheld his conviction and sentence, in a 4-3 vote.

Griffith's attorney, Robert Burke, will argue that his client should now get a new trial because several inmates who testified against Griffith later recanted their testimony. He'll also argue that Griffith didn't get a fair trial because of the paperwork the jury was given to complete during deliberations.

Usually, juries are given separate forms for guilty and not-guilty verdicts, but in this case, the panel was handed forms only for guilty verdicts, Burke said. The word "not" had been added to one of the forms in case the panel found for the defense, he said.

Assistant Illinois Attorney General Lisa Hoffman said Griffith's lawyers could have mentioned the forms in earlier appeals. The post-conviction hearing Thursday is reserved only for issues that could not have been brought to light in an initial appeal, she said.

She said some witnesses have not recanted their testimony, and there is still convincing evidence that Griffith is guilty.