Via Tapped, we find Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, who we agree is not particularly liberal on criminal justice issues, explaining why former Illinois Governor George Ryan granted blanket clemency to the state's death row inmates, in Machinery of Mercy. Alter jumped on the bandwagon of the innocence movement several years ago, providing it with additional welcome exposure.

Here's the point he makes we'd like to echo:

Is Illinois’ criminal justice system somehow worse than that of Texas or Virginia or the three dozen other states that impose capital punishment? Does Illinois rely more than other jurisdictions on questionable testimony, false confessions, withheld DNA testing and other abuses? No. Illinois simply has more aggressive journalists (at The Chicago Tribune) and activists (at Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions) than elsewhere. I’ve been watching this story unfold for a decade. Believe me, if reporters and law schools in other states got cracking, they would find their own capital punishment systems just as rotten.

This is why we need Innocence Projects at law schools in every state--along with journalism students. It's happening, and when the details emerge from other states, the system should grind to a halt. We need a moratorium on the death penalty--at least until it can be applied fairly, accurately and in a non-discriminatory manner. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a supporter of the death death penalty, has come out in favor of a moratorium because of problems with its fairness:

"I think Governor Ryan has set the stage for an honest debate about creating safeguards in the legal process," he said last week. "Because of inequity and injustices involved in the court system, we need to take a serious national look at death penalty reform, and until we can get that debate under way I support a moratorium."

Jeanne D'Arc over at Body and Soul quotes from a new Salon premium article on the myth that the death penalty heals the victims' families, and provides her own insightful comments. For more, check out Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation--a growing group of victims' family members opposed to the death penalty.

Mexico goes to the World Court tomorrow seeking an order preventing the United States from executing Mexicans. There are more than 50 Mexicans on death row in the U.S.

From our earlier post on Mexico's lawsuit:

Mexico filed suit against the US in the International Court of Justice in the Hague over the U.S.’s failure to comply with the Vienna Convention’s guarantee of allowing foreign nationals access to consular officials prior to interrogation. Mexico is also seeking provisional measures, essentially a temporary restraining order, against all capital prosecutions in the US against Mexican nationals until the case is resolved. A hearing is tentatively set for January 20.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Texas put two men to death last week and has 16 more scheduled for injection by the end of April, putting the state on a record-setting pace at a time when capital punishment has come under increased scrutiny elsewhere. Even as the decision to empty Illinois' death row continues to reverberate, and as the Texas Legislature prepares to deal with a new U.S. Supreme Court prohibition on executing the mentally retarded, the Lone Star state's death penalty system churns forward with machine-like efficiency.

Here are some stats on Texas:

"Of the 823 executions nationwide since [1976] Texas has carried out 291 -- or 35 percent. Nearly two-thirds of those executions have taken place in just the last six years. In 2002, Texas put 33 men to death, nearly half of the U.S. total and far more than Oklahoma, the second-busiest state, which killed seven people." "Since 1997, 186 have been executed. During that period, only eight months passed without an execution here. Another 442 men and eight women remain on death row."

16 more are scheduled for execution by May. We are going to tell the story of one of them later today, so please check back.

Jim Castle, President of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, had this to say in a letter to the editor in Friday's Denver Post on Colorado Governor Owen's criticism this week of former Illinois Governor George Ryan's granting of clemency to Illinois death row inmates:

Clouded by rhetoric

We should all be troubled, but not surprised, by Gov. Owens' Monday-morning quarterbacking of Illinois Gov. George Ryan's clemency decision for inmates on death row in Illinois prisons.

Gov. Owens correctly pointed out that we are a government of laws and not of men. Clemency was chosen for the very reason that men, and not laws, had manipulated the system in Illinois to bring about death verdicts. Nearly half of all inmates on death row in Illinois were represented by attorneys who were later disbarred or suspended. Seventeen men have now been released from Illinois prisons after having been exonerated after they spent 173 years in prison. A review of the Illinois cases also showed widespread use of torture to exact confessions and prosecutorial misconduct in a vast majority of cases.

Gov. Owens is wrong when he says that Gov. Ryan put his opinions above those of the jurors, citizens and legislators. The moratorium was supported by 70 percent of Illinois residents. percent of Illinois voters had grave concerns that there were innocent people on death row.

The jurors who voted for the death penalty never knew that evidence had been hidden, that a confession had been manufactured or that the defense attorney had failed to investigate when they issued many of the death verdicts. I am sure if one were to interview these jurors, they would be angry at the role they were forced to play in a system designed for injustice. Perhaps, however, Owens is right that politicians, who have rarely been linked with courage, may have opposed clemency.

That's why Gov. Ryan issued the clemency order. He couldn't trust the next politician to do the right thing. I guess it is not surprising that Gov. Owens was not a supporter of Gov. Ryan's decision.

The lesson for Colorado in the Illinois experience is that - unless police are closely monitored, procedures designed to increase death sentences are rejected and unless adequate funding for indigent defense is guaranteed - we, too can become the next Illinois. Hopefully this message will not be clouded in the web of rhetoric.

And from another Post reader,

[The] casual reader might believe Illinois' governor had seriously miscarried justice, when in fact the commutations resulted in penalties equal to the harshest imposed in most of western Europe and several states in the U.S. Our Gov. Owen's comments are also misleading in that he equates life without to the freeing from prison of felons. Righteous indignation aside, lifelong incarceration is far from a bleeding-heart alternative to murder by the state.

And in other news related to the Illiniois clemency decision, we recommend reading :

In Leaving Death Row Is Blessing and Curse, New York Times Reporter Jodi Willgren explains that "for some of the fomerly condemned prisoners in Illinois, a sentence of life in prison is an unappealing alternative to life on death row." They're leaving their family of firends, their guards who made sure they took their medicine and exercised, their own cells.

It is not that Danny Edwards wants to die, per se, it is just that he does not want to leave death row.

The guards here know about his heart condition and make sure Mr. Edwards exercises daily, regardless of weather. His 8-by-13-foot cell with the metal bed frame is not much, but at least it is his alone. The condemned share a bond, "like one big family," Mr. Edwards said — a family about to be broken up. And without a looming execution, he could lose his free appellate lawyer, who he still hopes will win him a new trial.

"I'm not thrilled about spending the rest of my life in prison — who would be?" Mr. Edwards, 46, said this morning in an interview at Pontiac Correctional Center, where officials have begun dismantling death row.

Mr. Edwards is one of about 20 condemned inmates who did not file petitions for clemency but nonetheless were included when Gov. George Ryan issued a blanket commutation of the state's death sentences. Mr. Edwards had even written to Mr. Ryan, urging him not to spare his life.

In other words, not all of the prisoners on death row want the life sentences handed them by Governor Ryan's clemency decision last week.

Reaction on the row here at Pontiac, 100 miles southwest of Chicago, was some clapping and a "Thank God" or two, Mr. Edwards said. In the days since, the formerly condemned have fretted over being split up and sent to Menard Correctional Center in the far south of the state, adjusting to bunk beds and to sharing a cell.

"I'm not looking forward to group showers," Mr. Edwards said. "The down side is I'm going to have a cellie. The good part is I'm going to have a little job."

Already, Mr. Edwards and the others are being treated differently, allowed to meet visitors without their hands cuffed to their waists. Mr. Edwards celebrated the new freedom throughout an hourlong conversation, waving his arms, slapping the table, pointing fingers.

"I can't wait until my mom comes and I can give her a big hug," he said. "I haven't hugged my mom in 15 years."

The Washington Post has a similar article, Off Illinois Death Row, To A Rougher Place, that explains:

The convicted murderers whose sentences were commuted last weekend are no longer facing death, but for many of them, day-to-day life will be much rougher, and possibly more violent, according to people familiar with conditions in the state's prisons.

Isolated from each other and from the general prison population, Illinois's death row inmates have led a life at once more restricted, but also more physically secure, settled and sedate than that of thousands of other maximum-security prisoners.

On death row they have been confined behind bars 23 hours a day, deprived of work and educational programs and shackled hand and foot when ushered to meet visitors.

But they also have their own cells, meals delivered by guards, and reasonably good access to art supplies, reading material and telephones. Many are ministered to regularly by an array of churches, religious groups and organizations opposed to the death penalty. And virtually all enjoy the comfort of knowing that prison enemies cannot easily knife, beat, rape or intimidate them. Much of that will now be lost as they face life terms without in overcrowded, hellishly hot prisons.

"There is a kind of security in death row which is uncommon," Nordgaard said. "I mean, they'll have their lives, but those new lives are in a maximum-security prison, which I wouldn't want to be in for 24 hours, to tell you the truth."

....In recent days, Fairchild said, prison authorities have doubled the number of psychiatrists and psychologists on duty in death row; they are on the alert for mood swings and to prevent suicides.

Fairchild said he expected some death row inmates, fearing for their lives once they are integrated into the general prison population, to seek protective custody. He also said all of them would undergo an orientation to prepare for life in the general prison population, much as brand-new prisoners do.

So its mixed emotions for some of the inmates. Still, we think Governor Ryan did the right thing by commuting all the sentences, including those of the inmates who would rather die now.

Either way, these inmates are coming out of prison in a box. Their's is still a death sentence, it's just a question of when.

Bush and Aschroft's ears should be burning with shame:

Powerful arguments in favour of abolishing the death penalty in China have been voiced at a recent conference which marks a significant step forward in one of the country's most sensitive human rights areas.

This was the first debate of its kind to be reported in the Chinese press and the abolitionist argument was put more strongly than before, reflecting a growing willingness on the part of the authorities to let the issues be aired.

Nearly all the Chinese academics taking part supported abolition, and called for a start to be made by strictly limiting its use.

What's wrong with America that they just don't grasp it?

Radley Balko of The Agitator bashes Jonah Goldberg and sticks up for Governor Ryan's decision:

Isn't the whole philosophy behind the power to pardon that the executive ought to be able to grant mercy/clemency/leniency when justice hasn't been served? If the system had failed one obviously innocent man, I'm sure few would argue with Gov. Ryan's decision to pardon him. Same with two, or three. But this is a system that has consistently failed, at least a dozen times, probably many more. Gov. Ryan came to the conclusion that the system was so flawed, in fact, that it couldn't be trusted to administer proper justice to anyone who'd been through it, provided the punishment the faced was death. He pardoned people he felt hadn't had a fair crack at due process. Why is that inconsistent with separation of powers?

The Washington Post today reports on the effects of the clemency decsion in Illinois.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers ( NACDL) says that Illinois commutations can benefit even victims and improve national relations.

We'll be discussing it live on CNN's TalkBack Live around 3:30 EST.

The debate has just begun. And we have just begun to fight. Activists around the world on Sunday applauded the move by the governor of Illinois to spare death row prisoners from execution and urged President Bush to follow his lead by abolishing the death penalty.

Death penalty foes view Governor Ryan's decision as a chance for more change.

Governor Ryan is the third Governor to clear death row during his term in office--New Mexico and Arkansas governors have done the same thing. We need a moratorium in every state, and on the imposition of the federal death penalty as well.

We need a national review commission to study the innocence cases and find ways to prevent the re-occurrance of these injustices.

We need funding and training for adequate capital defense lawyers.

We need the Innocence Protection Act to pass Congress and to be introduced in every state.

All police interrogations must be videotaped.

We must stop the execution of the mentally ill and of offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes.

"Among those executed in the U.S. last year were a mentally ill man, inmates who had been deprived of legal rights and three under 18 at the time of their crimes -- the only three child offenders known to have been judicially executed anywhere in 2002....The United States and Japan are the only industrialized democracies in which the death penalty is still used."

There are many more reforms needed. Until they are all implemented, we need to stop the executions. The chance is just too great that we are going to execute an innocent person, if we haven't already.

Vengeance is not justice.

Go read Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul on her thoughtful, heart-ful, and hopeful reaction to Governor Ryan's clemency speech yesterday. She begins,

I didn't see or hear Governor Ryan's speech yesterday, but reading the transcript, I'm sorry I missed it. It's an extraordinary speech, demonstrating that when you're doing the right thing, the simplest and most straightforward language carries enormous weight. Reading through, I wondered, how many politicians ever ask themselves Ryan's simple questions -- Is that fair? Is that right? Those questions would make a better plaque than "The buck stops here" to put on the desk in the Oval Office.

and she takes off from there.

Here is the text of Gov. George Ryan's clemency speech.

By the way, Ryan is not the first Governor to grant clemency to all on death row. The Governors of New Mexico and Arkansas did it years ago. (However, the number of people freed were very small in those states.)

As of now, and since 1973, 102 death row inmates have been found factually innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted and released from prison.

The Innocence Project has freed 123 inmates from prison by dna testing.

There have been 820 executions since 1976, when the death penalty was restored and 0 in 2003.

Here are some more Facts and Stats.

[Ed: text of speech link corrected]