In 2000 Illinois discovered we had 13 innocent men on death row waiting to be executed
And when I say innocent I don't mean they got off because of a technicality or something like that. I mean they were truly innocent of the crimes they were scheduled to be put to death for. Think Illinois is the only state this kind of stuff happens in?
Don
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge
Jon Burge
Jon Graham Burge (born December 20, 1947) is a convicted felon and former Chicago Police Department detective and commander who gained notoriety for allegedly torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991, in order to force confessions. A decorated United States Army veteran, Burge served tours in South Korea and Vietnam and continued as an enlisted United States Army Reserve soldier where he served in the military police. He then returned to the South Side of Chicago and began his career as a police officer. Allegations were made about the methods of Burge and those under his command. Eventually, hundreds of similar reports resulted in a decision by Illinois Governor George Ryan to declare a moratorium on death penalty executions in Illinois in 2000 and to clear the state's death row in 2003.
The most controversial arrests began in February 1982, in the midst of a series of shootings of Chicago law enforcement officials in Police Area 2, whose detective squad Burge commanded. Some of the people who confessed to murder were later granted new trials and a few were acquitted or pardoned. Burge was acquitted of police brutality charges in 1989 after a first trial resulted in a hung jury. He was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993 after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he had used torture. snip
In 2000, Governor Ryan halted executions in Illinois after courts found that 13 death row inmates had been wrongfully convicted. Ryan also promised to review the cases of all Illinois death row inmates. With the number of cases of alleged brutality, offers were made to allegedly coerced inmates to drop charges in exchange for reduced sentences. A plea agreement was reached with one convicted victim. Devine made a broader offer to several inmates. Aaron Patterson rejected the plea.
On January 11, 2003, having lost confidence in the state's penal system, outgoing Republican Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’ death row. He decided to grant clemency to all death row inmates by converting death sentences to sentences of life without parole in most cases and reducing some sentences. In addition, Ryan pardoned four death row inmates: Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard, who were among the ten who claimed wrongful imprisonment. In the unusual proceeding, the governor took the extraordinary step of a direct pardon release rather than a court proceeding.
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