02.02.09 Progress Through Partnership
E-Newsletter for members and friends of Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers
Representing and Treating the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Courts
MCLE Forum on Monday, March 2
The Chicago Council of Lawyers and Chicago Appleseed, in partnership with Chicago-Kent College of Law, are pleased to present our upcoming MCLE forum, Representing and Treating the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Courts.
Date: Monday, March 2, 2009
Time: 1:00 to 3:00 pm
Location: Chicago-Kent College of Law Auditorium, 565 West Adams Street,
Chicago, IL 60661
Speakers:
Amy Campanelli, Acting Chief, Cook County Public Defender Bridgeview Courthouse
Jason Grebasch, Jail Linkage Team Leader at Thresholds
Mark Heyrman, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago's Mandel Clinic
Mark Kammerer, Director, Treatment Programs, Cook County State's Attorney's Office
The forum is free, but we ask that attendees RSVP to ccl@chicagocouncil.org. Attendees will earn 2 hours of MCLE credit.
For more information, click here.
Keynote Speaker Addresses Needed Criminal Justice Reforms
At the October 2008 Annual Luncheon, keynote speaker Paula Wolff, Senior Executive at Chicago Metropolis 2020, gave an impressive presentation about the connections between impoverished youth and increasing crime rates, and what we as a society can do to stem the increasing numbers of youth who turn to violence as a way of life. We look forward to working collaboratively with Paula and Chicago Metropolis 2020 in our mission to keep people out of the criminal justice system through treatment, vocational, and educational opportunities.
To download her presentation, click here.
Testimony to the Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee
January 26, 2009
Testimony of Professor Daniel T. Coyne, President of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, to the Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee, Chair: Thomas Sullivan; Vice-Chair: Richard Schwind
I am Professor Daniel T. Coyne. I am both President of the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Chicago Kent College of Law. It is the position of the Council that the death penalty system as administered in Illinois is hopelessly flawed. We come to this conclusion after exhaustive research into why this system has failed to provide the essential safeguards designed to prevent wrongful imposition of the death penalty.
During the past dozen years, the Chicago Council of Lawyers has examined Illinois' capital punishment system, issued proposals to reform that system and monitored developments in capital punishment in Illinois and the United States. After it became known that several innocent men had been sentenced to Illinois' death row, the Council in 1997 called on all three branches of Illinois government to impose a moratorium on executions and to appoint commissions to recommend reforms.
In 2000, the Council and the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice issued a 56-page report entitled Due Process and the Death Penalty in Illinois that analyzed death penalty cases, discussed why the system was failing to provide due process of law, and made dozens of recommendations aimed at improving both trial and post-conviction procedures in capital cases. In the same year, then-Gov. George H. Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions and established a Commission on Capital Punishment, which ultimately made 85 recommendations.
After looking at both our research and the work of others, it is the view of both the Council and Chicago Appleseed that full implementation of essential safeguards designed to prevent wrongful imposition of the irrevocable sentence of death is more than an aspiration. It is a necessity.
Unfortunately, the Illinois General Assembly has turned a blind eye toward this necessity. A few reforms have been implemented, but most recommendations have gone unheeded. In 2003, Ryan commuted the death sentences of all 167 inmates on Illinois' death row, noting that the legislature had failed to act on his commission's recommendations.
In December of 2007, in an effort to stimulate reform, the Board of Governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers voted to support the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois if the Illinois General Assembly did not take aggressive action to immediately implement all of the recommendations found in the governor's and the Council's reports.
In the last 12 months, there has been no discernible effort made by the General Assembly to implement any additional reform regarding the death penalty. The vast majority of recommended reforms have not been implemented and death penalty prosecutions continue to place an economic burden on the State budget.
We are spending millions of tax dollars pursuing criminal prosecutions through a system that does not work. We both squander needed dollars and put human life at risk. While the Council and Chicago Appleseed have recommended changes to the death penalty system in the past and have given the Illinois legislature time to act, we now conclude that this persistent and deliberate indifference to a crisis in the administration of justice in Illinois is intolerable. Accordingly, the Council urges the immediate elimination of the death penalty in Illinois.
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