And just when it seems the whole issue of the death penalty in Illinois seems to have backed off to a quiet simmer, a slow bubble, the Illinois Supreme Court wakes up in a bitchslappin' mood.
CNN.com - Prosecutors slammed in case involving Chicago officer's slaying - Oct. 17, 2003: In a sharp rebuke of prosecutorial misconduct, the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday ordered new trials for two men convicted in the 1995 slaying of a Chicago police officer. The high court threatened to overturn more cases to stem what it called the "alarming frequency" of misconduct by Illinois prosecutors. "We mean it as no hollow warning when we say that prosecutors risk reversal of otherwise proper convictions when they engage in conduct of this kind," Justice Philip Rarick wrote in the court's opinion. During the trial, the court said, prosecutors wrongly riled up jurors' emotions by showing them a headless mannequin wearing the bloodstained uniform of Daniel Doffyn, the slain officer. Jurors were also allowed to view the uniform while they deliberated.
To be sure, prosecutorial misconduct, especially in death penalty cases, has been one of the Illinois Court's particular betes noires for some time now. The court has advocated making public the names of prosecutors accused of misconduct. For example, the court hasn't been terribly kind to the Cook County prosecutors, either, although somehow, being spanked by the Illinois Supreme Court results in promotions in this county. Apparently, the Cook County states' attorney's office may regard this as a mere rite of passage. But I digress. The legislature has, to date, declined to act on the court's recommendation. Given that a rather surprising number of legislators and other officials are current and former states' attorney prosecutors, this is hardly surprising.
Aside from today's bitchslapping, another interesting death penalty case is lurking at the court.
Brown's lawyer challenges death penalty (Daily Herald, October 17, 2003): State defense attorneys have chosen the case of a Brown's Chicken suspect as the battlefield for a renewed assault on the state's death penalty system. In their first salvo, lawyers for suspect Juan Luna have subpoenaed all 102 state's attorneys in Illinois - as well as nearly every piece of information they possess on every first-degree murder charge brought since 1998. In short, Luna's lawyers, who like prosecutors are paid by taxpayers, are hoping to undertake what might be the most comprehensive review yet of thousands of recent murder cases. [...] Luna and James Degorski are charged with murdering seven people in the Brown's Chicken and Pasta restaurant in Palatine in 1993. Prosecutors want both men executed. According to a flurry of court records filed this week, Richards is looking to challenge the state's capital punishment system on the grounds that state laws allow too many ways for convicted murders to be targeted for death. Reform advocates have argued for years that the state casts too wide a net in its 20 factors making a suspect eligible. The factors include murder by shooting out of a car, murdering a community police volunteer or paramedic, murdering someone over 60 in a cruel manner, murdering someone while committing any of 15 other felonies such as armed violence, and committing premeditated murder, which the state Supreme Court has ruled can include planning for as little as three hours to kill someone. Richards needs such a massive number of records, he argues in court papers, because that's the only way to figure out how wide the net truly is.
The Illinois Supreme Court has been so disturbed by the administration of the death penalty in this case that they may very well try to find some way to let this study go forward. If this review finds evidence of localization and capriciousness of the death penalty -- if, say, the same crimes with the same approximate aggravating conditions consistently produce death sentences in Springfield courts, but rarely do so in Chicago -- then there might be grounds for permanently suspending enforcement of the penalty and declaring the state's current death penalty to be unconstitutional. To be sure, although people are receiving death sentences again after Ryan's moratorium, to date, Blagojevich has yet to lift the moratorium, so nobody's being executed. (It would take a while, in any event. The first new death sentence was issued late last year or early this year, and with appeals of right still to come, it has to get through the state appeals court, then the state supreme court, then maybe shift over into the federal courts should there be any federal grounds for appeal. It'll be a time yet.)
Posted by iain at October 17, 2003 04:18 PM
