Illinois governor's commutations called an 'abuse of power'

By Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
January 14, 2003

Gov. Bill Owens has the power to commute the sentence of all five of Colorado's death row inmates, but it's not going to happen.

In an often contentious debate on ABC-TV's Nightline Monday, Owens told outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan that his decision to commute the sentences of all of his state's death row inmates was an abuse of power and a miscarriage of justice.

"You have the ability to do it, but should you have?" Owens asked Ryan during the show. "I don't think so. I have the same power, George . . . but I think it's an abuse of power."

Owens, a passionate supporter of the death penalty, was contacted Monday afternoon by Nightline producers to debate Ryan, said Dan Hopkins, Owens' spokesman.

"He felt it was a good opportunity," Hopkins said.

Three years after calling a moratorium on executions in Illinois, Ryan, a Republican whose term ended Monday, took the unprecedented step in his last days of pardoning four death row inmates outright and commuting the sentences of the remaining 167 inmates to terms of life imprisonment, or less.

Monday night, Owens attacked Ryan's decision.

"The Illinois legislature, the (Illinois) Supreme Court, more than 2,000 jurors, the prosecutors, the judges have all found these people guilty," Owens said.

Ryan defended his decision, saying the Illinois system was capricious and fatally flawed.

"My goal was to stop innocent people being murdered by the state," Ryan said. "We almost executed 12, 13 innocent people. We had a system that didn't work. I wonder if Bill has done a study of his system. I can't believe that he didn't execute some innocent people or come close to executing some innocent people."

But Owens said the state's system is unflawed.

"In Colorado we have a very good system," he said. "The people who are on death row, there are five of them, deserve to be there."

"There is a legal way to deal with this. It's through the legislature, through the rule of law, not the stroke of a pen."

But Ryan argued that his decision to commute those sentences is an integral part of the system.

"This is a final check," Ryan said. "I still believe there may be a case for the death penalty."

The half-hour debate cut short both governors, but not before Ryan got in a final dig on Owens.

"You're sitting on five cases, Bill. I think you're the wrong guy to bring into this debate."

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