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December
17, 2002
Largest
Gathering of Exonerated at Northwestern, Dead Men Relay Walk Across
Illinois and Special Staging of 'The Exonerated' for Gov. Ryan
CHICAGO
--- The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University
School of Law shone a bright light on flaws in the capital punishment
system Dec. 15 and 16.
On
Dec. 15, the largest gathering ever of exonerated death row prisoners
(36) and prominent advocates for reform of the capital punishment
system took center stage at the law school; on Dec. 16, 30 of the
of exonerated participated in a "Dead Men Walking" relay
walk across Illinois; and on Monday evening a special performance
of "The Exonerated," a highly acclaimed play that features
a number of celebrities, premiered in Chicago in a special performance
staged for Gov. George H. Ryan.
"The
events underscored flaws in the capital punishment system –-
false confessions, lying jailhouse snitches, erroneous eyewitness
testimony, incompetent lawyers," said Professor Lawrence C.
Marshall, legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
"The
flesh-and-blood consequences of the system’s flaws were brought
home as Gov. Ryan faces a momentous decision on whether to commute
all of Illinois’ current death sentences to life in prison
without parole."
Speakers
at the Dec. 15 gathering included Stephen B. Bright, director of
the Southern Center for Human Rights; Mike Farrell, actor, producer,
writer, director and chair of Death Penalty Focus; Rev. Jesse L.
Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition;
the Center on Wrongful Convictions’ Marshall; Barry Scheck,
professor and co-founder, Innocence Project, Cardozo School of Law;
and Denise LeBoeuf, director, Capital Post-Conviction Project of
Louisiana.
The
"Dead Men Walking" relay began before daybreak Dec. 16.
Thirty of the exonerated death row prisoners, each with a prominent
companion walker, participated in the walk from Stateville Correctional
Center near Joliet, site of the executions that have taken place
in Illinois, to the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago (100 W.
Randolph).
Gary
Gauger, accompanied by Marshall, began the walk at Stateville at
4:30 a.m., and a letter urging Gov. Ryan to commute all death sentences
to life in prison without parole, was passed from one exonerated
person to the next at one-mile intervals along the 37-mile route.
Around 4:30 p.m., Anthony Porter, with David Protess, the Medill
School of Journalism professor, who, with his students, broke Porter’s
case, concluded the walk at the Thompson Center, where the letter
was delivered to Gov. Ryan.
The
play "The Exonerated" featured Richard Dreyfuss (Kerry
Max Cook), Mike Farrell (Gary Gauger), Danny Glover (Delbert Tibbs),
David Brown, Jr. (Robert Hayes) and Curtis McLarin (David Keaton).
The audience included Gov. Ryan, many former death row prisoners,
including the six featured in the play, as well as judges, legislators
and others concerned with wrongful convictions. At the conclusion
of the play, exonerated audience members gathered on stage, embracing
the actors, and Marshall read the letter to the governor.
Written
by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the "intense and affecting
documentary play is an artfully edited anthology of interviews with
six former death row prisoners who were all discovered to be innocent
of the crimes for which they were convicted," according to
The New York Times.
Flaws
in the capital punishment system have led to wrongful convictions
and death sentences in 102 cases nationally, including 13 in Illinois.
It is expected that between 35 and 40 of the exonerated will attend
the gathering, according to Rob Warden, executive director of the
Center on Wrongful Convictions.
The
center is an outgrowth of the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions
and the Death Penalty that Marshall and others convened at Northwestern
School of Law in November 1998. The conference sensitized the public
as never before to the alarming number of innocent persons who have
been sentenced to death in the United States
The
13 Illinois exonerations prompted Gov. Ryan to declare a moratorium
on executions and appoint a blue-ribbon commission to study the
problem and recommend reforms. The commission recommended 85 reform
measures, which currently are being debated by the Illinois General
Assembly. Before Gov. Ryan leaves office on Jan. 13, he will decide
on clemency petitions brought in the cases of 160 men and women
currently under death sentence in Illinois.
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