US: A US governor, Mr George Ryan, has commuted all capital punishment cases on Illinois state's death row, in a historic blanket move likely to have far-reaching implications across America, observers said yesterday.
Mr Ryan lifted 167 death sentences on Saturday, saying the practice of capital punishment in his state was "arbitrary", "capricious" and "immoral". This is the largest such emptying of death row in US history.
He said he felt he had no option but to commute all the sentences to life without the possibility of parole, after he learned of various cases in which innocent people were sentenced to die.
"Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error - error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. Because of all of these reasons today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates," the governor, who leaves office today, said.
Illinois had exonerated 17 people since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977, more than any other US state with the exception of Florida. Half of the 300 capital cases in the state have been reversed for a new trial or resentencing.
Four inmates who were exonerated earlier this week claimed independently of each other that they had been framed by police, who tortured them into making false confessions.
An independent prosecutor is investigating whether the police commander, who oversaw the group of policemen who allegedly tortured the four black men and dozens of others between 1972 and 1986, should face criminal charges.
The commutations came almost at the last possible moment, just two days before Mr Ryan was to hand over the governor's office to his Democratic successor.
But it was the staggeringly inconsistent application of the death penalty throughout the state, and the failure of Illinois lawmakers to act on proposed reforms, which ultimately persuaded him that he must act, Mr Ryan told an audience at Chicago's Northwestern University School of Law.
"The facts I have seen in reviewing each and every one of these cases raised questions not only about the innocence of people on death row, but about the fairness of the death penalty system as a whole."
Reaction has been mixed, ranging from outrage by advocates for crime victims and their families to jubilation on the part of civil rights groups.
The Washington Post yesterday praised the outgoing governor. Mr Ryan's "willingness to confront the magnitude of the failure of his state's criminal justice system commands respect", said its editorial page. "On this issue, he leaves Illinois a better place - and a model for the nation as to how a state can begin facing the problem of the death penalty."
Mr Ryan has become something of an accidental death penalty activist during his one term in office. As a lawmaker he voted to bring back the death penalty, and during his time as chief executive of Illinois, family members of murder victims pleaded for the state to give them the "closure" of an execution.
But in his speech to law students on Saturday Mr Ryan said his conscience would not let him duck what he felt to be his responsibility.
"If I did not take this action, I feared that there would be no comprehensive and thorough inquiry into the guilt of the individuals on death row or of the fairness of the sentences applied."
He noted that the US was unique in the Western world in its use of capital punishment.
"We are partners in death with several Third World countries. Even Russia has called a mortarium," he said.
Some family members and friends of murder victims said they believe that in granting the commutations, Mr Ryan was merely trying to shift attention from a corruption scandal that has plagued his administration and led to criminal charges against top aides.
Whatever the motivation, the extraordinary move has provoked outrage and anguish among prosecutors and some murder victims' families.
Mr Richard Devine, the state attorney for Cook County, where Chicago is located, called the decision "stunningly disrespectful to the hundreds of families who lost their loved ones to these Death Row murderers". - (AFP)