Quinn would commute death penalty cases
Monday, Mar 28, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
Posted by Barton Lorimor
Following up an article from last week regarding LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne’s promise to pursue the death penalty…
State’s Attorney Brian Towne says he has no plans to decertify the case of Keith Mackowiak.
Quinn this month signed a law abolishing capital punishment in Illinois, but the law does not take effect until July 1. However, Quinn says if this defendant is convicted and sentenced to death, he will commute the sentence to life in prison. “I signed a law that abolishes the death penalty in Illinois, and that’s the end of it,” Quinn said.
At the same time…
Imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan is known around the world for clearing Illinois’ Death Row in 2003 and imposing a moratorium on the death penalty.
But the governor who pardoned more than 200 people admitted in a recently released court deposition that he “didn’t understand” the difference between two major types of pardons and that he was declaring a Chicago inmate innocent by the way he pardoned him.
That surprising admission came in a March 2010 deposition that Ryan, now 77, gave at the Terre Haute, Ind., prison where he’s serving a 6œ-year term on a federal corruption conviction.
Comments got really heated today. I’m willing to leave them open, but will be in no mood to moderate posts that are below what CapFax commenters usually provide if it continues.
- Fed up - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 3:07 pm:
I am in favor of the death penalty in certain cases but it is silly to go through the expense of a death penalty trial when the penalty can not and will not be enforced. The states attorney needs to do what is financially reasonable and move forward seeking the appropriate available penalty.
- Wensicia - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 3:10 pm:
I thought the Ryan pardons were not really pardons, but commutations for most of the prisoners on death row.
- girlawyer - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 3:22 pm:
So what are the “two kinds of pardons”? I thought a pardon “cleared” the defendant, nullifying his conviction. I think Ryan did issue some pardons for some who were cleared as a result of DNA evidence but as Wensicia says, clearing death row was the result of commutations of sentences, not pardons. Is there another kind of pardon?
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 3:28 pm:
Quinn’s announcement is a rare moment of consistency in his positions. While I support swift justice including the death penalty and disagree with the bill eliminating it as punishment, I applaud Quinn for at least having an intellectually honest approach to the current death penalty inmates.
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 3:45 pm:
The Sun-Times lede is needlessly confusing.
You have to read the whole article carefully to sort out the facts.
The issues in the Ryan deposition and his taped remarks have nothing to do with the commutations that cleared Death Row.
- Wensicia - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 4:12 pm:
Eric Zorn posted a good explanation of this on his blog:
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/03/head.html#comments
- amalia - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 4:51 pm:
what Ryan did was take one action for all, without regard to facts. all the sentences were commuted. this makes people regard all the cases in the same way. the tape shows he is short on brains so it calls into question his actions. blanket treatment of individuals in the criminal justice system is not justice.
- Katiedid - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 4:52 pm:
girlawyer - there are two types of pardons. One basically just says (not in so many words!) “we know you’re sorry for what you’ve done and we forgive you.” The conviction stays on the person’s record, however. The other type clears the person’s record and expunges the conviction from the person’s record. And then, there’s the commutations (as you already know), which is what happened with most of the people on death row.
- x ace - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 4:52 pm:
Money may be the key. So long as death penalty eligible case , the State pays most of the cost. Otherwise , the County pays. State’s Atty appears to be protecting his county best way he can. Looks like smart strategy in a highly unusual situation.
- MikeO'Malley - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 4:54 pm:
Anybody who has ever delved into this pardon world realizes it is convoluted. There is pardon and expunge, pardon, pardon due to innonence, and commutations, which all fall under the title “Pardons” in the Illinois Constitution.
- vote quimby! - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 5:38 pm:
Guessing Ryan has learned more about pardons now that he is on the asking end.
- PPHS - Monday, Mar 28, 11 @ 11:01 pm:
Members of Ryan’s former staff are telling me that his comments are not what he knew at the time. Plus, he had 3 attorney’s (who I don’t want to name) with him - and it just isn’t correct that he didn’t know the difference between the 2 pardons. They don’t know why he would say that.