Guest Blog: Questions Raised by Release of Jerry Hobbs

Among the haunting questions raised by the release of Jerry Hobbs is this: Why does Illinois still have the death penalty on its books? And how close did we come – this time – to sending another innocent man to Death Row?

Some will say that Hobbs was saved by DNA evidence, and our ability to read such evidence will insure that the system works. Others will give thanks that the confession police coerced from Hobbs was finally proven false, and that the law now mandates the taping of the whole interrogation in homicide cases. However, neither circumstance should reassure us that what happened to Jerry Hobbs can’t happen again.

Evidence that the DNA found on Laura Hobbs’ body did not match her father had been known to prosecutors since 2008. They chose to ignore it, claiming that the little girl could have picked up random traces of semen simply by playing in the woods. It wasn’t until the DNA was linked to a former neighbor recently arrested for rape in Virginia that they took the DNA evidence seriously. And as the Tribune has pointed out in an editorial, if that suspect had been arrested in Illinois, his sample would not have entered the database until after his conviction. By that time, Jerry Hobbs could have been on Death Row, while the state scoffed at his pleas for further DNA testing. The match might never have been found. If this case had been one of the majority of murders where no DNA evidence is found, of course, Hobbs’ chances of release would have been less than zero.

Taping all homicide interrogations is an important safeguard against false confessions obtained by brutality or threats, but it is not a guarantee. Judges are still allowed to admit an untaped statement if they believe the evidence shows it was voluntary, and suspects are often in police custody for hours as witnesses or “persons of interest” before the Miranda rights are read and the tape is switched on.

Perhaps the greatest danger, however, is the certainty of police and prosecutors that they have the guilty party – and the difficulty of backing down after years of branding the suspect a “monster” in the media. To admit the weakness of the case against Jerry Hobbs would have taken considerable political backbone. That commodity is often in short supply in Illinois.

Politics, prejudice and plain old human error will continue to haunt our criminal justice system for a long time. As a first step towards fixing the mess, we should simply repeal the death penalty. As one former Death Row prisoner has warned us, we can always let an innocent man out of prison – but we can’t let him out of the graveyard.

Written by Johanna Ryan, ICADP board member and co-author of the ICADP 2010 Annual Report: 20 Exonerations, 10 Years of Moratorium. She has been a prison visitor at all three condemned units in Illinois. Johanna has done extensive anti-death penalty organizing work in many communities throughout the state and continues to research the use of the death penalty in Illinois.