January 31, 2000
Web posted at: 10:33 p.m. EST (0333 GMT)

CHICAGO (CNN) -- Illinois Gov. George Ryan on Monday imposed a moratorium on the state's death penalty. All lethal injections will be postponed indefinitely pending an investigation into why more executions have been overturned than carried out since 1977, when Illinois reinstated capital punishment.

"We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system -- 13 people have been exonerated and 12 have been put to death," Ryan told CNN. "There is a flaw in the system, without question, and it needs to be studied."

Capital Punishment: In the United States The U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 struck down state death penalty laws, a ruling that also brought federal executions to a halt. In 1976, the court reinstated the death penalty after the adoption of new procedures. But it was not until 1988 that Congress adopted a new federal death penalty law, and in 1994 expanded the number of federal crimes covered by the death penalty. In Illinois Illinois resumed executions in 1977. Since then, 13 death row inmates in the state have been cleared of murder charges, compared to 12 who have been put to death. Some of the 13 inmates were taken off death row after DNA evidence exonerated them; the cases of others collapsed after new trials were ordered by appellate courts. MESSAGE BOARD Death penalty Crime and punishment   ALSO U.S. bucks international trend against capital punishment

The Republican governor will create a special panel to study the state's capital punishment system in general and determine what happened in the 13 specific cases in which men were wrongly convicted.

Condemned prisoners to remain on death row

As the review is being carried out, Ryan, who favors the death penalty, plans to grant stays of scheduled executions. But condemned prisoners will remain on death row.

"I still believe the death penalty is a proper response to heinous crimes," Ryan said "But I want to make sure ... that the person who is put to death is absolutely guilty."

Ryan said he would not impose a time frame on the length of the investigation. "I'm not going to set a deadline," the governor said. "I think we have to get the right people on the panel and ... have a free and open discussion about what has to be done here."

Death penalty opponents praised the governor's decision and called for the investigating panel to be a representative sampling of the general public.

"I hope this commission will truly and thoroughly and honestly examine the facts of these 13 cases," Bill Ryan, chairman of the Illinois Moratorium Project told the Chicago Tribune. "We need an investigation of why half the cases are overturned. We need to investigate what's been going on."

Public 'lacks confidence' in system

Jed Stone, a Chicago defense attorney who once headed the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said the public "lacks confidence in a criminal justice system that results in wrongful convictions of innocent people."

Gov. Ryan "is right to say let's study it, before we ever again use it," Stone told CNN affiliate WFLD.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses Harrison II also applauded Ryan's decision.

"I'm very pleased to hear that the governor is doing this," said Harrison, the sole member of the high court who has said the state's death penalty should be held unconstitutional.

Gov. Ryan says he supports the death penalty but wants to make sure the system works properly 208K/19 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

One of the 13 exonerated Illinois inmates, Anthony Porter, spent 15 years on death row and was within two days of being executed before a group of student journalists at Northwestern University uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence.

Porter was released from prison last year.

The governor's decision makes Illinois the first of the 38 states with capital punishment to halt all executions while it reviews its death penalty procedures. The Nebraska legislature passed a moratorium on executions last year but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike Johanns.

The Illinois House approved a bill to impose a moratorium last year but it failed in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.