Chicago Tribune - 25.02.01

IMPATIENT FOR DEATH PENALTY REFORMS

It's been almost a year since Gov. George Ryan created a distinguished panel to study how to fix Illinois' system of capital punishment.Nobody disputes that flaws run deep and wide. Understandably, coming up with a set of recommendations to fix them presents a monumental responsibility.Former federal judge Frank McGarr, who chairs the 14-member panel, said last fall it would be at least another six months before commissioners would issue any recommendations. Then this past week, one panel member said no report would be released until this coming fall at the earliest.That's too bad, because if meaningful reforms are ever to pass the state legislature, now is the time to do it. We urge the committee to at least provide interim recommendations so legislators will have a chance to act on them during the upcoming spring session.There is, right now, public focus and concern over flaws in capital punishment. But if the committee waits until that attention has passed on to other issues and other concerns, the opportunity will have been lost.On Ryan's 14-member panel are high-profile attorneys, prosecutors, judges and a former U.S. senator. Whatever they recommend will carry a punch.For sure, these are busy people. And with only two staffers to help commission members with research, the process will be prolonged. But that doesn't preclude the panel from issuing a set of initial recommendations that are obvious and already agreed upon.Their counterpart, a special committee to the Illinois Supreme Court, did that in October 1999. A year later, that panel released revised and added suggestions about judicial reforms. The high court has acted on those proposals and momentum is growing in the legislature and among law enforcement groups in support of a legislative committee's proposed trial reforms.It seems clear Ryan is in no hurry to get the state's death chamber in Downstate Tamms mopped and ready for the next lethal injection. He agonized about the one execution over which he presided, that of convicted killer Andrew Kokoraleis, right up until the governor finally allowed the lethal injection to proceed.Ryan may well wish to avoid carrying out another execution during his term as governor. That would be understandable, given how deep the problems have been shown to be. But at the same time, there are dozens of obvious reforms--from videotaping custodial interrogations to narrowing the kinds of crimes that qualify defendants for the death penalty--that need legislative momentum, and need it now.