Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 2-10

123456 10 CHICAGO TRIBUNESECTION2 COTT C.S MITH Publisher A NN ARIE IPINSKI Editor RUCE OLD Editorial Page Editor AMES HEA Managing Editor N.D ON YCLIFF Public Editor EORGEDE AMA Deputy Managing AMES ARREN Deputy Managing OUNDED UNE 10,1847 EDITORIALS A dvances in DNA technology in recent years have exposed astonishing failings in the Illinois criminal justice system. Wrongful convictions, mistaken eyewitness identifications, arbitrarily applied errors at every level of the deeply shaken many people, including some of the most ardent supporters of capital punishment. There are 13 people alive today who bear personal witness to that. Those are the people who have been freed from Death Row in recent years because evidence proved they had been wrongfully convicted. This is not a system of justice.

This is a system of rank injustice. It is deeply fractured, and it must be repaired if Illinois is ever again to carry out a sentence of execution. It has been more than two years since Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions and formed a commission of distinguished attorneys and other citizens to study the system and recommend reforms. Faced with one of the worst records of wrongful capital convictions in the country, his decision eventually garnered nearly unanimous support in the legislature and triggered nationwide soul-searching into death penalty can be carried out with any sense of confidence.

The Illinois Supreme Court has done its part. In 2001it established a Capital Litigation Trial Bar, which set minimum standards for attorneys representing capital defendants. It mandated that judges receive more training in how to handle death penalty cases, and that ethical rules for prosecutors include a pointed reminder that their job is about seeking justice, not just winning convictions. It required that indigent defendants be appointed two attorneys and that prosecutors give notification of their intent to seek the death penalty no later than 120 days after arraignment in order to give the defense more time to prepare. After putting the new rules into effect, the high court emphasized these were the beginnings of reform, not the conclusion.

The court urged the legislature to move on videotaping custodial police interrogations, which it said would constitute a to criminal procedure. The legislature has had no shortage of ideas to consider, videotaping among them, and it has had plenty of time to ponder them. A task force appointed by Senate Minority Leader Emil Jones in 1999 called for videotaping interrogations, setting minimum standards for defense attorneys handling capital cases, and allowing claims of innocence if new evidence is found after conviction. A special committee on prosecutorial misconduct headed by Republican Rep. Jim Durkin made several recommendations, including pretrial screening by a judge of jailhouse snitch testimony.

The legislature has approved increased funding for defense attorneys and prosecutors and automatic DNA testing for all convicted felons. When it comes to fundamental changes in the criminal justice system, however, the legislature has stalled, evaded, done as little as possible while begging for more time to study the issue. Study over. The Commission on Capital Punishment has finished its work. After two years of investigation, the commission in April issued 85 recommendations, the result of thorough research, sophisticated analysis and input from all sides of each issue.

Legislative hearings on many of those recommendations were held throughout the summer. When lawmakers return to the state capital for a post-election session in November, they will have no excuses left. They will fix humiliating system of broken justice, or they will prove they are too timid to take up the task. Over the next several days, the Tribune will look closely at the most significant of the proposals that require legislative action: How to improve eyewitness identifications, why the state should narrow eligibility for the death penalty, what a statewide review of capital prosecutions would mean for public confidence. They must be part of legislative reform, as should the required videotaping of all custodial police interrogations and confessions, a matter this page examined in April.

Illinois has issued more than 300 death sentences since the legislature reinstated capital punishment in 1977. We know at least 13 of those sentences were terrible mistakes. We know that in one of those cases, the people of Illinois came within hours of killing an innocent man. If the state is to impose irreversible punishment, if the state is to take a life in the pursuit of justice, it must do so with far greater confidence that no innocent man or woman will be executed. It must do so with the assurance that the legal journey to the execution chamber in Downstate Tamms has been accurate, even and fair.

Illinois has shown the nation that it is fully capable of meting out flawed justice. It has the opportunity in November to show the nation how to repair the damage. If insufficient political will exists to do that, then the moratorium must stay right where it is. State lawmakers, by their unwillingness to act, will have, in effect, repealed the death penalty. Fixing the death penalty RESTORING JUSTICE First of five parts This is not a system of justice.

This is a system of rank injustice. It is deeply fractured, and it must be repaired if Illinois is ever again to carry out a sentence of execution. I Boston, the Roman Catholic archdiocese secretly settled case after case of priests accused of child molestation and judges sealed many of the files. That freed some priests to move elsewhere and molest again. Until the Firestone tire scandal erupted in the summer of 2000, most Americans had never heard about certain potentially lethal problems with tread separation mainly because the company had quietly settled most and judges often sealed key documents.

Some 271 deaths and more than 800 accidents were linked to those tires, federal authorities said. The Johns-Manville company was sued in 1933 by 11employees who argued that asbestos made them sick. The ensuing settlement was kept secret for decades. By then, thousands more workers had been exposed. For decades, courts across the country have routinely sealed legal files, and ignored the potential public health perils that come from dangerous products, incompetent doctors, and others who have benefited from secret settlements.

Now South federal district court has voted to ban secret settlements filed with the court, sending a clear message to the legal community. is a rare opportunity for our court to do the right thing, and take the lead nationally in a time when the Arthur priest controversies are undermining public confidence in our institutions and causing a growing suspicion of things that are kept in secret by public Chief Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. of the United States District Court in South Carolina wrote to his colleagues before they voted in July. exactly right, Judge Anderson.

Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet was more blunt. He called secret settlements abomination really a means of depriving the public of that it should have. The South Carolina ban would be limited to that district, but proponents hope it may galvanize federal and state efforts to pass new anti-secrecy laws. Those laws need to be carefully crafted to demolish unwarranted secrecy but allow judges enough room to maneuver. Everyone acknowledges that some cases merit secrecy; for example, when a legitimate trade secrets are at stake.

Even in South Carolina, the federal judges would retain the discretion to seal cases. The laws also would need to deal with the reality that many secrecy agreements are struck outside the court, between, say, a patient and a doctor who is being sued for malpractice. In many of those cases, the settlement is kept secret by an agreement between the two, and the court is only tangentially involved. In Illinois, court files must remain open unless lawyers demonstrate a compelling reason to seal them. In practice, however, most judges rarely challenge secret settlement agreements, many of which are settled on the condition that the details not be disclosed.

Some lawyers argue that anti-secrecy measures would discourage settlements and clog the courts with more trials; they say future plaintiffs would take advantage of knowing how much the last claim was settled for. hard to dispute. More openness means more knowledge for lawyers to exploit. Still, a byproduct of openness, not a reason to thwart it. Several states have passed legislation clamping down to some extent on court secrecy.

In Illinois, an anti-secrecy bill has failed twice since 1999, opposed by some groups and insurance companies. That legislation would have barred any settlements, inside or outside court, that concealed a public hazard. Rep. James Brosnahan (D-Evergreen Park) says he will introduce the bill again next year. If it go too far, the bill may have merit.

In the meantime, the Illinois Supreme Court could also help send a message encouraging openness by issuing a rule to provide clear direction to state trial secrecy, with a few rare exceptions. The rule would help judges carve out what exceptions they could make, and force judges to ask some tough questions before sealing filed court documents, including settlements. The first question should be: If I seal this file, could others be harmed? Attacking legal secrecy VOICE OF THE PEOPLE Cruz response Neither Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan (Republican candidate for Illinois governor) nor Joe Birkett (Republican nominee for attorney general and the current attorney in DuPage County), nor any of their staff, have ever expressed any doubt to us about the guilt of the men whom they prosecuted for the murder of our daughter, Jeanine Nicarico.

We believe that as candidates for statewide office, they are not entitled to silently allow Rolando petition for a pardon to proceed without rebutting it. They owe the citizens of Illinois, and us, a detailed response to that petition. Tom and Pat Nicarico Naperville Spread democracy This is regarding hit Kiev streets to protest Ukrainian (News, Sept. 17), which asserts that the destiny of Ukrainians lies in their own hands. I agree but would point out the serious role the U.S.

and world opinion could play in Ukraine. transition to democracy needs President Bush to shun Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who has shown himself to be unable to effectively rule the country and who has resorted to the assassination of journalists and opposition politicians. The U.S. could show the world it is as serious about spreading democracy in Europe as elsewhere. Myroslav Shevshuk Chicago Bad teachers This letter is in response to may fail state teacher rule; State estimates 1of 5 (Metro, Sept.

19). Maybe teachers should be licensed and not certified, like doctors and hairdressers. I would prefer my geometry teacher to have majored in mathematics instead of home economics. Under the plan, unqualified teachers will be able to stay in the classroom until they become qualified. In the meantime, whom does this benefit? Not the students.

Erin Murphy High school student Orland Park War motives I am cynical about the timing of the war against Iraq. What happened to the war against corporate corruption? Are we being distracted, right before elections? Lenora Schur Chicago Starting war We have yet to settle Afghanistan, Colombia or the Mideast, and you want to start more? D.J. Johnson Evanston Stirring things up Thank you very much for your coverage of the Iraq situation, especially for the articles in the Sept. 22Perspec- tive section. R.C.

Longworth put it well: Warring against Iraq would be like heaving rock into a nest just to see what will Our representatives in Congress should refuse to let President Bush heave that rock. Arlene Brennan Chicago Republican motives Somebody please tell me why in such a rush to march into Iraq. We managed to keep the Soviet Union from invading Western Europe for 50 years; why we prevent Iraq from attacking us for a few months? Is this about the safety of Americans or the safety of the hold on power? Joseph Vecchio Alpharetta, Ga. Stopping war I think that inside every person there is a kid. Kids always find a way to figure out their problems.

When girls fight, they hang on to things, but when boys fight, they just let it go and say As adults, the women fight, the men do. When men fight, the purpose is to kill the men on the other side. They are killing the kid they once were. So I think adults should still be like kids and work things out. Hannah Diamond Age 10 Libertyville Gary Viskupic U.S.

violence I watched in horror as Madelyne Toogood beat her 4- year-old daughter in a parking lot. Several moments later I watched two White Sox fans pummel Kansas City first-base coach Tom Gamboa, who allegedly provoked them with his middle finger. I then learned of President proposed policy shift to pre-emptive military action against a state the administration perceives to be a threat to the U.S. Then, the depressing, unifying link between these stories occurred to me: Violence has emerged as first choice for dispute resolution. Kenneth Jaconetty Park Ridge Child abuse I am sure people everywhere shared my feelings of anger and disgust as they watched the video of Madelyne Toogood beating her daughter in that Indiana parking lot.

But what angers me most is that there was a witness who could have stopped what was happening to that little girl, a witness who watched and did nothing. Have we become so self-preserving that we no longer feel its necessary to intervene when a child is in such obvious danger? In my opinion, that witness is an accomplice to this wretched crime. Karen Tierney Skokie Alcohol abuse Remove the alcohol to remove the troublemakers at the ballpark. Laurie Baker Wilmette Fan control The Blackhawks put up a net to protect fans. Looks like the Sox need to put one up to protect the men on the field.

Jim Howe Lisle Attacking players What is the best way to ensure that idiots like William Ligue Jr. and his son never try to attack a player on the field again? Simple: Ban them for life from ever attending another sporting event. Extreme measures? Not if you want to prevent any more attacks like the one on Tom Gamboa. Not if you want to teach fans that jumping onto the field and attacking players be tolerated. Richard Zowie San Antonio Jim claim that his culpability in the Rolando Cruz case can be compared to Richard role in Cook County wrongful prosecutions cases is only the most recent example of willingness to lash out at anyone rather than to admit his own personal and professional failings (Metro, Sept.

20). This aspect of character victimized Cruz for years; now Daley is the target. It is time for Ryan to finally acknowledge that he put politics above principle in the Cruz case, and was willing to let innocent men linger on Death Row rather than to admit that he and his office had blundered so miserably. As individuals who have worked on behalf in his case and on many of the Cook County cases, we can say, without reservation, that there is simply no compari- son between what Ryan did in the Cruz case and any conduct anyone has ever attributed to Daley in his role as Cook County attorney. For example, there is no evidence (or even allegation) that Daley ever personally ignored clear evidence that exonerated a defendant.

To be sure, some of the Cook County wrongful convictions show that there were (and are) grave and systemic problems within the law enforcement community, as within the defense bar. These problems are not unique to Cook County; they exist throughout the state. But no one is blaming Ryan for the misconduct of his subordinates. Rather, the allegations against Ryan focus on his personal, direct decision-making in the Cruz case. What makes this history all the more poignant is that Ryan now has the audac- ity to challenge Gov.

George power to help clean up the mess that Jim Ryan helped create. One would have thought that Jim Ryan would have been humbled by his grave errors in the Cruz case, that having come so close to executing two innocent men he would have decided to stay out of the death game altogether. Alas, it appears that Ryan has learned nothing from the Cruz experience. He continues to put his political aspirations ahead of the truth. Lawrence C.

Marshall Legal director Rob Warden Executive director Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law Jeffrey Urdangen Criminal defense attorney Chicago Cruz case highlights Jim true character.