Life in prison without parole is the harshest sentence Wisconsin courts can hand to a convicted rapist or murderer in Madison, but travel an hour down Interstate 39 to commit your crime, and you may face death by execution. That is, unless you have already been convicted of your crime and sat on death row last week when Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison.
His unprecedented action came three years after he declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death row inmates were exonerated, and two days before he stepped down as Governor. After he declared the moratorium, a commission he created found that death sentences were unfairly applied to minority criminals and rural crimes, and many defendants had incompetent representation. After failing to get judicial reforms passed through the legislature, Ryan decided he could not let a broken system risk the execution of an innocent person. In his mind, commuting every death sentence was the only way to be sure.
For those with a desire to dismantle the death penalty in the United States, Ryan’s action presents a real opportunity for the movement’s advancement. The apparent death penalty conversion (or at least aversion) that came over Ryan is important not because of its sweeping nature, but rather because Ryan was elected as a conservative Republican who supported the death penalty.
Putting criminals to death does not save the government money, and there is no evidence that fear of the death penalty deters any of the crimes to which it is applied. Still, a great majority of Americans are in favor of the death penalty. The federal government and 36 states have death-penalty laws on the books, and an October 2002 Gallup poll indicates that 70 percent of Americans are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers.
The “Free Mumia” crowd may argue that the “vast right-wing conspiracy that controls the U.S. media” has simply manipulated the facts so that public sentiment keeps the death penalty alive. But in reality, Americans by-and-large believe in a victim’s right to revenge. There is something that seems inherently just about killing violent killers. This is not to say Americans believe in a simplistic “an eye for an eye” version of justice. They simply feel that some people commit crimes so heinous that they no longer deserve to live. This desire for justice trumps any concerns over the death penalty’s cost or its deterrent value.
The families of rape and murder victims have little interest in the moral pontification of elected leaders and activists who would tell them the government cannot stomach putting their loved one’s killer to death. No doubt many of the criminals whose sentences Ryan commuted were indeed guilty, and many of their crimes were certainly horrific. Families, prosecutors and victims’ rights groups are understandably upset.
But the course of events in Illinois is a cause for concern for death-penalty defenders. Governor Ryan became convinced that the system in place to convict and execute violent criminals was fundamentally flawed. Once he made that determination, the justice victims’ families sought could not be guaranteed either, and a pro-death-penalty conservative converted. Death penalty proponents have every reason to worry if the minds of average Americans follow Ryan’s lead and convert as well.
Many death-penalty supporters point out that Ryan’s legacy as governor of Illinois is far from stellar. He faces a potential indictment on bribery charges, and there is always the possibility that clearing death row was simply a political ploy to grab headlines, distract critics and go down in Illinois history as pioneering do-gooder.
But these critics lose sight of what’s really important, perhaps intentionally. Regardless of his motivations or character flaws, Ryan’s action has put the death-penalty debate back in the spotlight. The momentum seems to be with abolitionists as investigations and DNA evidence started the ball rolling and have created the first real progress for the movement in decades.
The activists need to put down the megaphones and stop painting Mumia murals. There are a lot of hearts and minds in America that must change if there is any possibility of eliminating the death penalty, and many of these minds are conservative. Bible pounding, protesting and postering have not achieved such conversions, but perhaps the further exposure of innocents on death rows around the country will. It convinced Governor Ryan that injustice is unavoidable in the current system. Perhaps he is a harbinger of things to come.
A.J. Hughes ([email protected]) is a software developer and UW graduate.