ILLINOIS COALITION AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 849-2229; www.icadp.org

STATEMENT OF JANE BOHMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ILLINOIS Coalition to Abolish THE DEATH PENALTY

January 27, 2004

Since the flood of exonerations of death row inmates and the declaration of a
moratorium on executions in 2000, the state of Illinois has been engaged in an
historic reexamination of capital punishment. This past year was marked by
then-Governor George Ryan’s unprecedented actions to remedy the flaws and
injustices that have plagued the Illinois capital punishment system and legislative
efforts that attempt to reform the death penalty process.

Today, the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty issues its report on the course of capital punishment in 2003. What has this year brought?

Our study found that state’s attorneys continue to aggressively pursue the death penalty in dozens of cases around the state. In Cook County alone, 175 currently pending cases are considered capital, with another 25 in other parts of the state. Rather than learning from the mistakes of the past, they are being repeated in many cases. However, skepticism is growing over the use of capital punishment among the public and jurists hearing capital trials.

This ongoing change in public opinion was clearly reflected in the following:

--Two-thirds of the voting public would either be more likely to support or would not be opposed if their legislator voted to abolish the death penalty. Only 54% of Illinois voters now support the death penalty. Opposition to the death penalty has risen to 41%. National support for the death penalty is at a 25-year low.

--Local citizens publicly challenged their State’s Attorneys’ seeking of the death penalty during several downstate trials.

--Only two death sentences were handed down in 2003. Four out of the five
juries who considered the death penalty in 2003 rejected it.

Skepticism is justified when one considers that prosecutors continued to use questionable tactics and evidence during capital trials and sought the death penalty in cases so weak that at least half a dozen of them ended in acquittals or with the charges dismissed.

Specifically, prosecutors in capital trials continue to use testimony of jailhouse snitches and co-defendants who have made deals in exchange for their testimony. They also continue to use questionable confessions.

Our examination of capital trials has also shown that arbitrariness continues to plague the death penalty in Illinois. Both the 2003 death sentences involved the murders of white victims, and were tried in rural counties. Those two factors were cited by the Commission on Capital Punishment as arbitrary influences on who gets the death penalty in Illinois. Convictions for similar crimes in urban counties or where the victims were racial minorities did not result in the death penalty.

In our review of the workings of capital punishment, the Coalition found a pattern of capital prosecutions against defendants who suffered from serious mental illness. Both defendants who received the death penalty in 2003 suffered from mental illness. Others were convicted but spared the death penalty. There are many more mentally ill defendants awaiting trial. It is disturbing that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against defendants whose culpability level and also whose ability to properly defend themselves is impaired by illness.

2003 was also marked by efforts in the General Assembly to reform the capital punishment process. There is no doubt that these reforms will improve certain aspects of the process. However, many well-documented and pervasive problems were virtually ignored. Reforms passed by the legislature did not include proposals to correct the arbitrariness in the Illinois capital punishment system. Other problems, such as co-defendant and jailhouse snitch testimony, crime lab bias and flawed witness ID’s, were addressed only partially. Further, only very limited measures were enacted to increase the accountability of police and public officials for misconduct during capital trials.

This past year also saw the legislature grapple with the worst budget crisis in recent memory. Given the difficult funding choices faced by the General Assembly, the continued expenditure of enormous sums on maintaining the death penalty is even more sharply called into question. Just how much was spent?

* An estimated $32 million was spent to try capital cases in 2003, resulting in only two death sentences. The cases of the two men sentenced to death have cost $1.7 million so far, and appeals will raise that figure to an estimated $3 million. This is more than double the estimated cost for these cases if the death penalty were not involved – even if life without parole were sought in every case.

* These expenses came in a year marked by cutbacks for programs vital to crime prevention and control, including schools, mental health and drug treatment.
Fortunately, increased skepticism of the death penalty process led to a drastic drop in the number of death sentences handed out in 2003. However, this only highlights more sharply the expenditure of millions of dollars in scarce resources to maintain the machinery of execution in our state. When 37 of 39 capital cases are satisfactorily resolved short of the death penalty, we have to ask ourselves whether capital punishment is really necessary. Further, while reforms may improve the system, they can never eliminate all mistakes and misconduct. And the reforms will inevitably add to the cost of administering the death penalty.

Given these ongoing problems, it is clear that Illinois would be better served by the use of alternative sentences such as life in prison without the possibility of parole. Public safety will be maintained and scarce resources preserved for use in constructive crime prevention measures. And our state will no longer be haunted by the specter of the execution of an innocent person.