The New York Times

Monday, January 31, 2000

Illinois Governor Plans to Halt Death Penalty, a Report Says

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO, Jan. 30 -- Gov. George Ryan plans to block executions pending a special investigation into why Illinois has seen more of its death sentences overturned than it has carried out, The Chicago Tribune reported today.

The decision, to be announced on Monday, would make Illinois the first state to stop executions while it reviews its death penalty procedures, the newspaper reported.

A spokesman for Governor Ryan, Dennis Culloton, told the Tribune that the criminal justice system is "fraught with error and has innumerable opportunities for innocent people to be executed." The governor "is determined not to make that mistake," Mr. Culloton said.

Governor Ryan still supports the death penalty, but Illinois has "a problem that's too big for case-by-case review," Mr. Culloton said.

The governor will create a special panel to study the state's capital punishment system in general and determine what happened in the 13 cases in which men were wrongly convicted since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977.

One of those inmates, Anthony Porter, spent 15 years on death row and once came within two days of being executed before a college journalism class found evidence of his innocence. Mr. Porter was released from prison last year.

The governor "still can't answer the question: How do you prevent another Anthony Porter?" Mr. Culloton said.

In the last month, Cook County prosecutors dropped charges against a former Chicago police officer who had been convicted and sentenced to die based on the word of a jailhouse informant.

Justice Moses Harrison II of the Illinois Supreme Court applauded Governor Ryan's decision.

"I'm very pleased to hear that the governor is doing this," said Justice Harrison, the sole member of the high court who has said the state's death penalty should be held unconstitutional.

Of the 38 death penalty states, only Nebraska has taken a similar step. But after the state legislature passed a moratorium last year, the governor vetoed it.

The Illinois House approved a bill to impose a moratorium last year, but it failed in the Republican-controlled Senate.