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1/23/2004
This morning the Illinois Supreme Court denied the Illinois Attorney General’s challenge to former Gov. George Ryan’s blanket clemency order last year, thereby leaving intact the historical right of the state’s chief executive to grant clemency for those on Death Row.
“The Court’s decision is a resounding reaffirmation of the breadth of the governor’s clemency power,” said Jenner & Block Partner Terri L. Mascherin, who argued the case on behalf of Willie Thompkins, Jr. and several other inmates whose clemency orders were challenged.
On Jan. 10, 2003, then-Governor George H. Ryan had announced that he was granting “blanket clemency” for all inmates who were then, or who had been, sentenced to death. He issued orders commuting the sentences of more than 160 inmates to life imprisonment, a maximum of life imprisonment, or 40 years.
However, newly-elected Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a mandamus action challenging some of Gov. Ryan’s clemency orders, including Mr. Thompkins’, thereby taking up the mantle originally championed by her opponent in the 2002 election, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett, and Ms. Madigan’s predecessor, former Attorney General Jim Ryan.
In its unanimous opinion written by Justice Robert R.Thomas, the court rejected all arguments offered against the Governor’s traditional clemency powers. “We note that clemency is the historic remedy employed to prevent a miscarriage of justice where the judicial process has been exhausted. We believe that this is the purpose for which the framers gave the Governor this power in the Illinois Constitution…Our hope is that Governors will use the clemency power in its intended manner – to prevent miscarriages of justices in individual cases.”
Ms. Mascherin’s efforts on behalf of Mr. Thompkins were formidable.
“This rightly brings to an end 15 years of legal battles over Mr. Thompkins’ death sentence,” Ms. Mascherin notes.
While Ms. Mascherin will continue to challenge Mr. Thompkins’ original conviction, he now faces a resentencing hearing in which the death penalty cannot be imposed.
The case is Madigan v. Snyder, No.95663.
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