Emptying of death row in Illinois stirs outrage

The Knox News Sentinel ^ | 1/12/03 | Don Babwin/AP

[GailA]

Emptying of death row in Illinois stirs outrage Action by governor inflames prosecutors, survivors of victims

By DON BABWIN, Associated Press January 12, 2003

CHICAGO - Calling the death penalty process "as capricious and arbitrary as who gets hit by a bolt of lightning," Republican Gov. George Ryan announced Saturday he was clearing Illinois' death row by commuting the death sentences of 156 condemned inmates, a move on a scale unprecedented in U.S. history.

Ryan's action, just two days before he leaves office, drew immediate angry reaction from prosecutors, the incoming governor and relatives of some of the victims.

Ryan said he sympathizes with the families of the men, women and children who were murdered, but he felt he had to act.

"I am not prepared to take the risk that we may execute an innocent person," he wrote in an overnight letter to the victims' families warning them of what he planned.

"Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error - error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die," Ryan said Saturday. "What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having?

"Because of all these reasons, today I am commuting the sentences of all death-row inmates."

All but three of the 156 inmates will now serve life in prison without possibility of parole. The three will get shorter sentences and could eventually be released from prison, though none will get out immediately.

Ryan had halted all executions in the state nearly three years earlier after courts found that 13 Illinois death-row inmates had been wrongly convicted since capital punishment resumed in 1977 - a period when 12 other inmates were executed.

He said studies conducted since that moratorium was issued had only raised more questions about the how the death penalty is imposed. He cited problems with trials, sentencing, the appeals process and the state's "spectacular failure" to reform the system.

"Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious - and therefore immoral - I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death," he said.

Other governors have issued similar moratoriums and commutations but nothing on the scale of what Ryan announced.

"The only other thing that would match what he's done is in 1972 (when) the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty and 600 death sentences were reduced to life with that decision," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

The most recent blanket clemency came in 1986 when the governor of New Mexico commuted the death sentences of the state's five death-row inmates.

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, who last year issued the country's only other moratorium on state executions, has no plans to pardon or commute the sentences of any death-row inmate before leaving office Wednesday, spokesman Chuck Porcari said.

Ryan chose Northwestern University - where journalism students investigating Illinois death-row cases helped exonerate some inmates - to publicly announce that he was commuting the 156 death sentences.

Corrections Department spokesman Sergio Molina said Ryan had signed commutation orders for 167 people - 156 on death row and the others in jails awaiting hearings or sentencings for other crimes.

Within a week the department will start moving prisoners out of the state's two condemned units" and into the general population of maximum-security prisons, Molina said.

Vern Fueling, whose son William was shot and killed in 1985 by a man now on death row, was outraged that the killer will be allowed to live.

"My son is in the ground for 17 years, and justice is not done," Fueling said. "This is like a mockery."

Incoming Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, also criticized Ryan's action, calling blanket clemency "a big mistake." Each case should be reviewed individually, Blagojevich said. "You're talking about people who've committed murder."

Ryan on Friday went a step farther in four other death-row cases, issuing pardons for four men he said had been tortured by police into making false confessions.

A few hours later, Aaron Patterson, 38, walked out of prison a free man and ate his first steak dinner in 17 years, while Madison Hobley and Leroy Orange spent time with their families.

Stanley Howard, 40, the fourth man pardoned Friday, remained in prison. He had also been convicted of a separate crime for which he is still serving time. All four had been convicted in murders.

"It's a dream come true, finally. Thank God that this day has finally come," said Hobley, 42, as he left the Pontiac Correctional Center Friday.

Looking a bit dazed, Orange, 52, walked out of Cook County Jail with his two daughters by his side.

"Thank you with all my heart and please do something for the remaining group on death row," he said, addressing Ryan.

Ryan announced the pardons Friday at DePaul University in the first of two speeches capping his three-year campaign to reform the state's capital-punishment system.

Patterson's mother, Jo Ann, said she was overwhelmed when she heard the news.

"I don't believe in miracles, but this is a miracle," she said.

Reaction to the pardons from death-penalty supporters was swift.

Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine said the future of the four men should have been decided by the courts. His office is trying determine if the pardons could be challenged, but Devine said the clemency powers for an Illinois governor are among the broadest in the country.

"Instead, they were ripped away from (the courts) by a man who is a pharmacist by training and a politician by trade," he said. "Yes, the system is broken, and the governor broke it today."

Ollie Dodds, whose 34-year-old daughter, Johnnie Dodds, died in an apartment fire that Hobley was convicted of setting, said she was saddened by Ryan's decision.

"I don't know how he could do it. It's a hurting thing to hear him say something like that," she said, adding that she still believes Hobley is responsible.

"He doesn't deserve to be out there."

[mvpel]

Two words: BABY BOOM

It began with a sudden surge of births in 1946 and ended with a long decline in births in the 1960's.

There is a certain age range when young men are statistically prone to committing crimes than other ages, usually from around 16 through their mid 20's.

Take a look at that chart again with that in mind - the first wave of 1946 Baby Boomers would have turned 16 in 1962, right where the murder rate begins to rise. The last of them, born in the early to mid 1960's, would have turned 25 in the late '80s and early 90's, when the murder rate began to fall.

Correlation does not imply causation in either case, of course, but there's more to this issue than the simplistic picture that this chart paints. Some people are claiming the murder surge occurred because of leaded gasoline.

[mvpel]

As to your point; an hour ago on TV, there was an interview with the Prison Chaplain of Sing Sing. He said the toughest prison thugs always fall to pieces on their final march to the death chamber.

And the claim of the death penalty advocate is that the toughest prison thugs, when they committed their capital crimes 10 or 20 years prior, took a few moments of quiet reflection prior to setting upon and taking the life of their victims -- thinking forward to just that moment at Sing-Sing, weighing their options -- and decided that committing the crime was worth the risk of ending up being dragged down the long hallway to the chair.

Yeah right.

[jackbill]

First, look where Ryan made his announcement. He did it before an anti-death penalty group. He didn't have the guts to make this announcement in front of a group of victims' families.

Second, I would love to see the good people of Illinois make it so uncomfortable for him to live one more day in that state. Picket the hell out of him, every day, everywhere. Show him that he is a pariah.

[Barnacle]

Interesting theory. But, I’ll stay with mine.

[optimistically_conservative]

Notorious killers get huge break

When Gov. Ryan issued a blanket commutation to every man and woman on Death Row in Illinois, he knowingly spared the lives of some of the most vicious killers in the state's 185-year history. The governor acknowledged as much Saturday but said that fundamental flaws in the system necessitated his actions. Here are some of the most infamous killers saved by Ryan:

Fedell Caffey & Jacqueline Williams

Caffey and Williams decided they wanted a baby. So they stabbed to death a pregnant woman, Debra Evans, in her Addison apartment and cut her nearly full-term fetus from her body, according to prosecutors. To eliminate witnesses, they also murdered Evans' 10-year-old daughter, Samantha, and 8-year-old son, Joshua. Another child, Jordan, was spared in the 1995 murder--children under the age of 2 aren't likely to be good witnesses. And the newborn boy also survived. Fortunately, Jordan's grandfather, Sam Evans, says Jordan has no recollection today of the horrors he witnessed.

Latasha Pulliam

In 1991, 6-year-old Shenosha Richard was playing in her South Side Chicago neighborhood when she was approached by Pulliam and Pulliam's boyfriend, Dwight Jordan. She went with them after they purchased her a bag of chips and promised to take her to a movie. At Pulliam's apartment, over several hours, Pulliam and Jordan sexually assaulted the girl with a shoe polish applicator and a hammer, and then used the hammer to pulverize her skull, according to prosecutors. Pulliam also beat and strangled the girl. Attorneys for Pulliam said she was drug-crazed at the time, but a court psychologist described her as "a female John Gacy" who got sexual satisfaction from hurting someone weaker than she.

Gabriel Solache

In an eerily similar case, little 2-month-old Guadalupe Soto and her toddler brother Santiago had both parents ripped away by vicious killers who wanted to steal a baby in 1998. One of them was Solache, who agreed to help kill Jacinta and Mariano Soto and snatch the baby so Adriana Mejia could pretend it was hers. Mejia targeted the Bucktown family after seeing Jacinta with the children at a local health clinic. She followed them home on a bus to see where they lived. Early the next morning, Solache, Mejia and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes surprised the family, stabbing the parents more than 60 times as the sleepy toddler looked on. Mejia and DeLeon-Reyes got life in prison.

Henry Brisbon

Brisbon and three other men decided to rob somebody. When they couldn't find the right pedestrian to rob in Kankakee, they drove toward Chicago on Interstate 57. While riding along, they came up with the idea of robbing motorists by staging phony accidents. One of the killers tricked motorists out of their cars by asking them to inspect minor collision damage, then led them to Brisbon, who brandished the shotgun and robbed and shot them. Betty Lou Harmon, 29, of suburban Darien, was forced to undress at gunpoint. She ran away, but was caught by Sanders, who led her to Brisbon, who fatally shot her in a field. An engaged North Side couple, Dorothy Cerny and James Schmidt, both 25, who were returning from a family gathering in Matteson, also were shot to death by Brisbon after being stripped of their valuables. Brisbon told the couple to "kiss your last kiss" before firing shotgun blasts into their backs as they lay on the side of the highway. But Brisbon was not on Death Row for the I-57 murders. He was put there because he used a sharpened spoon to kill another inmate while in prison.

http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/

[mvpel]

Time will tell, won't it? I just hope that we don't wind up a police state before we find out one way or the other.

[Barnacle]

I’m not sure what your point is. But, it is probably that the murderer is not thinking about the consequences of his actions when he committed murder ten or 20 years earlier.

My point was in response to those who say that life in prison was just as bad a punishment as death. None of them want to die. And that’s clear when they fall to pieces on that final march to the death chamber.

Letting murderers strut around the prisons for ten or 20 years like the biggest bad a$$es around is sending the wrong message to the other inmates. Justice must be swift.

As a side note, my brother’s neighbor is a reporter for UPI. His duties witnessing all executions of a particular state (I won’t name the state here for reasons of confidentiality). He said he never saw an execution that wasn’t justified. The families of the murder victims feel the same way here in Illinois. They are devastated at Ryan’s travesty of justice.

[Barnacle]

I just hope that we don't wind up a police state before we find out one way or the other.

The quickest way to bring about a police state is to treat criminals like citizens and citizens like criminals. Here in Illinois, the government is ever blurring the distinction between the two.

[mvpel]

Letting murderers strut around the prisons for ten or 20 years like the biggest bad a$$es around is sending the wrong message to the other inmates. Justice must be swift.

So now state-sponsored killings are about "sending messages" to other inmates? If life in prison is just as bad, or worse, a punishment than death, then why bother putting them to death?

The fact that "justice" was too swift was precisely the problem in Illinois. There were as many proven-innocent individuals released from Death Row in Illinois over the past decade or so as they put to death.

As for your brother's neighbor, did he have DNA comparison reports for all the exeuctions he witnessed? How did he know what was justified and what was a result of trumped-up or sloppy evidence dressed up in the pretty facade of official-looking court publications?

It's about vengeance, I suspect, more than about "justice."

[Barnacle]

Before I take time to discuss things with you further, please tell me, are you a Libertarian?

[dfwgator]

Fine. Get rid of the death penalty. Let's just build a giant camp in the middle of Alaska and send every murderer there to spend the rest of their days in solitary confinement with no TVs or rec rooms or chances to "mate" with fellow inmates. Works for me.

[Revelation 911]

I am not prepared to take the risk that we may execute an innocent person,"

Sounds like the pangs of a conscience speaking

Steve - I agree with your sentiments too- Its bad enough weve locked up a percentage of innocent men thier entire lives, but to compound that with thier execution would be extremely reckless.

[pepsionice]

George Ryan handed the Democrats Illinois on a golden platter. George Bush can forget about any major support in this state. You can X out those electoral votes.

[mvpel]

Generally speaking, yes. I donate to the party, though I'm not a member (I feel I can do slightly more good in California as a Republican, though not much), and for the most part agree with their stance on less government intrusion into the lives of its citizens and the basic premise of the non-initiation of force principle.

I'm in favor of the right to carry defensive firearms, and the right to use deadly force to stop an attacker who is threatening your life or the life of another, and am working on a project in California to guarantee that right in the state Constitution.

Now, I'm sure you're going to point out that a state execution is not an initiation of force, and I didn't say that it was.

But the basic point is that I don't trust the government far enough to give it the power to kill its own citizens. And based on the 50% exoneration rate in Illinois, I have a sense that my lack of trust has a basis in reality.

[mvpel]

Fine. Get rid of the death penalty. Let's just build a giant camp in the middle of Alaska and send every murderer there to spend the rest of their days in solitary confinement with no TVs or rec rooms or chances to "mate" with fellow inmates. Works for me.

Sure, why not? I'm serious! And why bother preventing them from committing suicide, for that matter? Give them the tools they need. Certainly this scenario would have to be fleshed out a bit to handle the "cruel and unusual" and "torture" considerations, but it's perfectly practical and would probably wind up costing less than the death penalty.

[Barnacle]

Generally speaking, yes.

Why does it always take me so long before I realize I’m wasting my time?

I guess it’s because I logged onto Free Republic, the “online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web.”, I presume I’m having a discussion with a fellow Conservative. Just like I might presume I’m having a discussion with a Libertarian if I logged on the online gathering place for independent, grass-roots Libertarianism on the web.

My mistake.

P.S. – What is the online gathering place for independent, grass-roots Libertarianism on the web anyway?

[Wolfstar]

With respect, Xthe17th, you are mistaken as to the meaning of "penalty," and "punishment." When used in a judicial context, they are synonyms. Following are the Mirriam-Webster definitions:

PENALTY: the suffering in person, rights, or property that is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime or public offense.

PUNISHMENT: (a) suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution, (b) a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure.

Some forms of penalty/punishment are fines, incarceration, and execution.

Clarity of word meaning aside, I agree with you central premise that the length of time it takes to execute killers is too long, and that the lethal injection method is too sanitized.

[mvpel]

So you're going to ignore the PROVEN condemnation of innocent men and all the other problems with the death penalty just because of my political leanings?

If you're going to plug your ears and yell "na-na-na" that's fine, and if you're naive enough to trust the government with the power to put you and your fellow citizens to death, that's fine too, but my financial contributions to the Libertarian party have very little to do with the specifics of the points I'm raising.

[mvpel]

By the way, if every conservative had the same opinions on every controversial point, this would be a pretty boring website.

What do I have to think in order to qualify as a "conservative" in your mind?

[mvpel]

...that the lethal injection method is too sanitized.

So it's about vengence after all, rather than the State simply taking the life of a presumed criminal?