Ryan's execution halt won't deter prosecutors

Death penalty remains an option

By Evan Osnos and David Heinzmann

Chicago Tribune

Monday, January 31, 2000

Gov. George Ryan's plan to block executions of Death Row inmates until a state panel examines whether the capital punishment system in Illinois is working will not keep prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, several state's attorneys said Sunday.

Short of any change in the law, prosecutors said, they will continue to seek the death penalty when they decide it's appropriate.

"The death penalty is still the law in Illinois. It is the will of the people," said DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett. "And we will keep doing our jobs as prosecutors and obey that law."

Birkett's office had to deal with the fallout from two murder convictions being overturned. Both Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were sentenced to death in DuPage County courtrooms before their convictions were reversed in the slaying of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. In the Cruz case, three prosecutors and four sheriff's deputies were later acquitted of misconduct.

Bob Benjamin, a spokesman for Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine, said Ryan's plan seems to follow other efforts to review capital punishment, including Devine's pledge to take added steps to heighten scrutiny in Cook County death penalty cases.

And the Illinois Supreme Court and General Assembly have created committees to study the potential for reform in the capital punishment system. Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan has urged an increase in funding for the defense of Death Row inmates.

"We're glad to join the discussion," Benjamin said. "It sounds like this is within (Ryan's) powers, and if this is the will of the governor we'll certainly support it . . . (But) our responsibility is to obey the law."

The governor's decision reflects the state's record of exonerating more Death Row inmates than it has executed in recent years, as well as a recent Tribune investigation into flaws in the capital punishment system, said Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton. Illinois has cleared 13 Death Row inmates since reinstating the death penalty in 1977 and has executed 12.

In a plan expected to be announced Monday, Culloton said, Ryan intends to postpone any executions by granting reprieves to Death Row inmates until a special panel can be created, effectively imposing a moratorium on the death penalty.

At least one Downstate prosecutor believes Ryan's plan to block executions is unnecessary.

Wrongful convictions point to problems with some prosecutors and investigators, not with the death penalty, said Tazewell County State's Atty. Stewart Umholtz.

"I think there are adequate safeguards in the system now," said Umholtz, a Republican who has been state's attorney in Pekin since 1995. "The death penalty is not the problem. In all of those cases, it's been the unethical conduct of prosecutors and police officers. We shouldn't be throwing out the death penalty because of that conduct."

Birkett, who is aiding the General Assembly's efforts to examine capital punishment, said he believed those efforts would lead to substantive reform of the system.

State Senate President James "Pate" Philip (R-Wood Dale) would like to hear more information before passing judgment on Ryan's decision, said spokeswoman Patty Schuh.

"Sen. Philip is looking forward to talking to the governor to discuss this. He needs some more details," Schuh said. "At this point, there's (no executions) scheduled, so it's not really a delay or a moratorium. It doesn't have a direct impact yet."

Illinois would be the first state to halt executions while it reviews its death-penalty procedures. None of the 38 states with the death penalty has declared an official moratorium.