Landmark Illinois struggle with death-penalty system

When Illinois reenacted capital punishment in 1977, only seven types of murders qualified for the death penalty under state law – including multiple murders, the killing of a police officer or a prison guard, and contract killings. But since 1989, the number of eligible crimes has grown to 20. The commission unanimously agreed that the list should be cut to half a dozen or so.

What it couldn't agree on was whether to include murders that happen during another felony, such as an armed robbery. A majority of the commission claimed that as the list of felonies grows, almost any murder case would qualify for the death penalty. A minority wanted to keep it, noting that almost every death-penalty state includes it as a capital offense.

Dropping that factor would dramatically cut the number of capital cases in Illinois. By itself, murder in the course of a felony accounts for just more than 40 percent of death-penalty verdicts.

Illinois now has about 160 people on death row. Trimming thenumber of death-penalty cases could help the cash-strapped state, since many of the commission's other ideas involve large funding increases.

"There's a net cost associated with the death penalty," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, and critic of the capital-punishment process.

He cites a Duke University study, that shows a capital punishment case costs the system $2 million. Even factoring in prolonged incarceration, the dozen states without death penalties spend less on processing and jailing murderers, he says.

In one costly commission proposal: the state would compel police to videotape their interrogations of suspects involved in capital cases. Although some states, such as Alaska and Minnesota, already do this, some Illinois police balk at the added costs in equipment and manpower. It would burden small departments in particular. About half of the state's 1,100 police departments have 10 or fewer members.

Another costly proposal is to increase DNA testing – which has proven particularly telling in establishing guilt or innocence. The commission also calls for more training of officials involved in death-penalty cases, as well as measures that would get public defenders involved early.

Observers don't expect rapid action in the legislature. The governor has said he'll study the report carefully and probably won't lift the moratorium on executions. His term is ending, and a political scandal involving several of his campaign staff has eroded his political capital.

"There isn't going to be an instantaneous package of legislative reforms that will – bingo! – accomplish what it's supposed to accomplish," says Locke Bowman, of the University of Chicago law school.

Some death-penalty opponents hope the state will abolish capital punishment once the costs of reform become clear. Others worry Illinois will enact piecemeal reforms that satisfy the public but don't fix the system.

"What I'm afraid of is Illinois will lead the country in a 'new and improved' death penalty," says David Lane, a Denver defense attorney with two clients currently facing the death penalty. "Really, many of the flaws addressed by the panel have been superficially band-aided over."

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