The Death Penalty Information Center has assem­bled the fol­low­ing press mate­ri­als and Web links to pro­vide easy access to infor­ma­tion regard­ing the work of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment, a blue-rib­bon pan­el that has recent­ly com­plet­ed the nation’s most com­pre­hen­sive state review of the death penal­ty. The Commission’s find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions will sure­ly cap­ture the atten­tion of law­mak­ers and legal experts through­out the nation who are watch­ing close­ly to track the impact of this review beyond Illinois. The Commission’s rec­om­men­da­tions aim to address prob­lems Illinois Governor George Ryan iden­ti­fied two years ago, includ­ing poten­tial safe­guards to pre­vent the pos­si­ble con­vic­tion and exe­cu­tion of innocent inmates.

Background Materials

Two years ago, Illinois Governor George Ryan appoint­ed a 14-mem­ber Commission on Capital Punishment to close­ly exam­ine Illinois’s death penal­ty, and he declared the nation’s first mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until the review was com­plet­ed. A mile­stone moment in America’s quest for a fair­er jus­tice sys­tem, Ryan’s step helped spark an unprece­dent­ed series of events through­out the coun­try. Prior to form­ing this com­mis­sion, the Governor declared that his state’s death penal­ty was fraught with error, not­ing: “[The Illinois cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is] so fraught with error and has come so close to the ulti­mate night­mare, the state’s tak­ing of innocent life.” 

Since Ryan’s call for a review of the death penal­ty in Illinois, many gov­er­nors from coast to coast have voiced con­cerns about the fair­ness of their states’ sys­tems, and nine states have launched com­pa­ra­ble stud­ies of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment poli­cies. In addi­tion, leg­is­la­tures in near­ly every state retain­ing the death penal­ty con­sid­ered reform leg­is­la­tion, and an esca­lat­ing num­ber of com­mu­ni­ties and orga­ni­za­tions are call­ing for a halt to exe­cu­tions until cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment con­cerns are addressed.

Further Developments

In April of 2003, Governor Rod Blagojevich announced that he would not recall the mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in Illinois, stat­ing that ​“I don’t feel any arti­fi­cial pres­sure to lift the mora­to­ri­um. I’d like to one day be in the posi­tion to do that, if I thought the posi­tion was fool­proof. But I don’t believe a series of reforms that the Legislature will pass, most of which I sup­port, will do enough to have me feel that the sys­tem won’t make those kinds of mis­takes.” While Blagojevich did sup­port many of the mea­sures approved by the Illinois leg­is­la­ture, he chose to par­tial­ly veto the bill, which includ­ed pro­vi­sions for the ban­ning of the exe­cu­tion of the men­tal­ly retard­ed. On November 19, 2003, the Illinois leg­is­la­ture unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to over­ride the par­tial veto, mak­ing the bill law.

Additional Links