Judges Join Death-Row Debate

A group of retired state and federal judges is urging Gov. George Ryan to commute the death sentences of any inmate whose conviction was tainted by flaws in Illinois’ capital punishment system.

In a letter to Ryan released Sunday, Moses Harrison, a former chief justice of Illinois, and 20 other judges suggested clemency for scores of inmates, although they stopped short of asking the governor to make a blanket commutation.

Individually, however, some of the judges said the system is so riddled with problems that Ryan should grant blanket clemency. “The only way to be fair, the only way to be just, the only way to be equal is for the governor to change the death sentences ... to life without the possibility of parole,” said R. Eugene Pincham, a former state appellate judge.

Retired state appellate Judge Anthony Scariano said that although there must be changes in the law to protect defendants in the future, “clemency is the proper way to address the problems of the past.”

Ryan’s office did not immediately return phone calls Sunday.

The judges listed the same problems that were raised by defense attorneys during recently completed hearings. They included coerced confessions, inadequate defense attorneys and testimony from jailhouse informants and accomplices in exchange for such incentives as lenient sentences.

The letter was the latest volley in the public-relations battle being waged since Ryan issued a moratorium on executions nearly three years ago, saying he could no longer trust whether those on death row were guilty.

Since resuming capital punishment in 1977, Illinois courts have found that 13 condemned men were wrongly convicted, while 12 have been executed.