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Illinois governor urges law students to study death penalty
MALIBU — The Illinois governor who ordered a moratorium on executions told California law students Thursday that his state isn’t the only one that should re-examine the way it uses the death penalty.
Gov. George H. Ryan, who placed a moratorium on executions after finding out that 13 death row inmates were wrongly convicted, stopped short of calling unfair use of capital punishment a national problem, but said other states probably have situations similar to Illinois.
He urged law students at Pepperdine University to examine more closely a judicial system that, in his words, has “too many questions that need answers.”
While visiting the Malibu campus, the Republican governor explained how he ordered the moratorium in January 2000 and appointed a commission
to review his state’s death
penalty system.
“How can Illinois come so close 13 times to killing an innocent person?” he asked rhetorically.
Ryan, who said he supports capital punishment in certain cases, said death penalty candidates often are minorities who have been represented by unqualified defense attorneys who either have been disbarred or suspended from practicing law at some point in their careers.
“I don’t know how that happens,” he said. “It would be like a pharmacist operating in a drugstore without a license.”
Ryan also said the system often relies on jailhouse informants for convictions and noted that even reliable witnesses sometimes make mistakes.
The Illinois governor called for the allocation of government funds to give state-appointed public defenders access to the same state-of-the art technology used by the private sector in defending death penalty cases.
“Technology, like DNA testing, can protect the innocent as well as the guilty,” he said.
Ryan said many police department forensic science teams still operate with outdated equipment and procedures, but should have the best and most technologically advanced labs possible.
The commission Ryan appointed to review the death penalty system in Illinois has yet to return with a report.
