Gov. George Ryan of Illinois commuted all of the death sentences of inmates in the state currently serving death sentences on Saturday. As one report termed it, his act “…spared the lives of 163 men and four women who have served a collective 2,000 years for the murders of more than 250 people.”

I understand that the Governor is concerned about the flaws in his state’s criminal justice system and the possibility of error leading to the death of an innocent person, or at least the death of someone who should not be judged guilty of crimes meriting that level of punishment.

I have no problem with people who oppose the death penalty. I certainly do not want the criminal justice system to put anyone to death who is not guilty of the crime that they stand convicted of.

Our system provides for the right of appeal, especially in capital cases. However, the people of Illinois established a set of laws that provide for the death penalty if the system—the jury, the judge, the appellate courts—agree on the application of that penalty for the crime. Dismissal of those judgments should not be left solely to one man, no matter how well intended--or how guilty--his actions may be.

If Governor Ryan felt that the death penalty was wrong, he should have found a way for Illinois’ voters to affirm or reject his argument. He did not run for reelection as Governor. Apparently, his conduct while serving as Secretary of State might not sit right with the voters. He may be found guilty and serve time in prision himself.

Governor Ryan could have taken one or more of the following actions:
- approve a sum of money to review the DNA and other available evidence for each death row inmate to ensure that no effort to exonerate wrongly convicted individuals was spared. The vote of the legislature, or a vote of the people on an initiative, would have supported his position.
- propose a law or an initiative to ban the death penalty, and to make it retroactive to all those serving on death row at the time the initiative or law came up for a vote.
- sue the state government to declare the state’s death penalty law unconstitutional.
- he could have run for a second term on a “no death penalty” platform to allow the voters to express their will.

Governor Ryan may feel that his conscience is clean. The family and friends of the victims of the murderers whose sentences were commuted must feel rage beyond words. The voters must feel cheated of their chance to express their opinions on one of the most important issues of the day.