|
At Death's Door
By
Salim Muwakkil
When Illinois Republican Gov. George Ryan announced in late January that he was imposing a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, he was hailed as a courageous politician for facing down his party to take a moral stand. And while we don't want to rain on his parade, we'd like at least to suggest we hold off on the canonization ceremonies. Does it take an act of courage to insist that the judicial system be fair? Is it heroic to ensure that the state not commit premeditated murder? Isn't that the very least of what we expect of public officials? To characterize Ryan's commendable but modest efforts as courageous is to drastically lower our expectations of government. Ryan made his announcement two weeks after the release of Steven Manning, the 13th inmate freed from Illinois' Death Row since 1987. Since reinstating capital punishment in 1977, Illinois has put 12 men to death. Although the ratio of exonerations to executions in Illinois is unusually high, the conditions that account for it are found across the country. Florida, for example, has freed 18 inmates from Death Row and executed 44. Since 1976, 85 people have been freed from Death Row nationally; 610 have been executed. Ryan, who says he still supports the death penalty (and indeed oversaw an execution last May), declared he would place all state executions on hold until a committee completes a study of a system fraught with error. Illinois is the first of the 38 states with the death penalty to call a halt to all executions. "Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty," Ryan said, "until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate." What does "moral certainty" mean? Was the governor referring to some future time when human beings will no longer be influenced by social attitudes and political passions? So far there's no word on who Ryan will appoint to his committee, but if their study finds a way to determine "moral certainty," it will make human history. The dubious milestone marked by Manning's release helped spur Ryan's actions. But the governor said a five-part series published last year in the Chicago Tribune also played a role in his decision. The paper investigated the nearly 300 death penalty cases in Illinois since 1977 and found the system plagued by incompetence, racial bias and flagrant misconduct by prosecutors and judges. Without the work of people outside the criminal justice system (journalists, students, pro bono lawyers), who mounted their own efforts on the inmates' behalf, many of those freed would be dead. Faced with such overwhelming evidence, Ryan could no longer claim that the 13 exonerations were evidence that "the system works." There's little doubt that Ryan's startling announcement also was timed to divert attention from a growing investigation of a bribery scandal at drivers' license bureaus, which occurred during the governor's tenure as Illinois secretary of state. One of his top aides was indicted the day after the moratorium announcement. Whatever his motivation, Ryan at least has finally broken the deadly status quo. Since he heads the presidential campaign of Texas Gov. George W. Bush in Illinois, maybe Ryan can slip the candidate a copy of the Tribune series and quiz him about "moral certainty." Texas executes far more people than any other state. In 1999 alone, Bush signed 35 death warrants, almost three-times the number of his nearest rival, Gov. Jim Gilmore of Virginia. Maybe Ryan can convince his fellow "compassionate conservative" how courageous it would be to halt the slaughter. Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor of In These Times.
|