Death penalty changes proposed

By Kim Barker - November 19

An Illinois death-penalty education group on Sunday proposed changes that would alter how the state handles confessions, eyewitness identification and testimony from accomplices.

The changes were among 12 proposed by the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, which is dedicated to reducing the risk of executing an innocent person.

"We need substantive reforms to ensure no innocent person is sentenced to death," said Edwin Colfax, executive director of the project.

Since 1997, Illinois has freed 13 innocent men from Death Row and executed 12. After a spate of wrongful convictions, Gov. George Ryan suspended executions and appointed a commission to examine convictions in death-penalty cases