 Gov. George Ryan of
Illinois won praise locally and worldwide when he announced earlier this year that he
would impose a state moratorium on executions, pending a study of why the state’s
death penalty system has gone so horribly wrong.
He acted after the balance had swung to judicial findings of
innocence for 13 Illinois death-sentenced inmates, one more than the number of people
actually executed in the state since capital punishment resumed.
Illinois has garnered nearly universal support for this pause in
executions. In advance of this decision were legislative proposals, judicial analysis and
media exposure of a system riddled with flaws.
 Confronted
with a string of convictions and death sentences for factually innocent defendants, the
public appears ready for review, for an assurance of accuracy, before any one else is
executed.
In short, the public is ready for reform.
Public support for the death penalty rests on the conditions that it
is reserved for the guilty, that it is imposed only where appropriate, and that it is
imposed fairly.
Growing awareness that those conditions are often violated provides
an opportunity for true leadership in governors’ mansions across the land.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a recent survey in Missouri said
the most important goal of justice should be to ensure the accused is actually guilty of
the crime. Illinois’ experience shows that this “most important goal” is
seriously shortchanged.
A new report from the American Bar Association’s Section of
Individual Rights and Responsibilities, A Gather-ing Momentum: Continuing Impacts of the
American Bar Association Call for a Moratorium on Executions, makes a strong case that
growing public awareness of the risk of error in sentencing is leading to increased
tolerance for delay in executions.
The report notes more than 650 organizations nationwide support an
initiative to implement an immediate moratorium on executions.
Proponents include a wide range of civic, religious, legal and
non-governmental organizations.
More recently, the publication of James S. Liebman’s report, A
Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases 1973-1995, has added to the momentum for a
moratorium.
Liebman, a professor at Columbia University law school, and his
principal academic collaborators, Jeffrey Fagan of Columbia and Valerie West of New York
University, tracked every death sentence case that went through the legal system in the 23
years following the 1972 Supreme Court decision that re-established the death penalty in
this country.
Their findings: Of the 4,578 death sentences adjudicated completely
during these 20-odd years, in 68 percent serious errors were found.
Implement-ing a national moratorium on death penalty cases is an
issue crying for leadership in the seats where power can implement change.
The Amer-ican Bar Assoc-iation urges the governors in each of the 37
other states which now have a death penalty to put the death penalty on hold until they
too can be sure their systems are not flawed.
While we take no position on the death penalty itself, we urge them
to test their assumptions and reliance on the fairness of their systems for imposing it by
taking a hard and critical look.
This is not a call to abolish capital punishment.
It is a call for delay — delay to ensure justice.
 William G. Paul is president
of the American Bar Association and a frequent contributor to the California Bar Journal.
|
