December 2001
(Hibbing, Minnesota…) Over 40 percent of former welfare recipients reported they were not working. The new random survey of ten percent of the 11,417 people leaving between April and December 1998 showed that 80 percent had worked after leaving the state's W-2 welfare program.
The survey cited the following reasons for not working:
The result has been the inability to cover basic human needs. Three examples uncovered needs in the survey are:
The 58 percent who reported working averaged 35 hours a week at $7.95 an hour. According to local sources in the area, a wage of $7.95 an hour would not support an individual or family without subsidized housing, utilities and food.
W-2 is the brain-child of former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, now HHS Secretary in the Bush Regime. Many have charged that Thompson fabricated good feelings from the W-2 program by moving people on welfare into any job to promote his political future.
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families analyst Bob Jacobson supports the local sources by say, "Everybody wants to think that people who left welfare are stable and working in these jobs and are self-sufficient."
Sources &endash; AP article by Jenny Price in the Duluth News Tribune, Dec. 23, 2001 and my local reporting
NOTE: On Friday (12/1/00), you may have previously received a copy of Governor Ryan's speech I sent after receiving it from his press office. That version has been updated based on comments he added at the podium From my tape of the speech. In addition this edition of PI...DI also includes several interviews with the Governor and others in attendance as well as background on the event.
This Issue of Poverty Issues. . .Dateline Illinois (PI. . .DI):
Below: interviews with:
Governor Ryan
Willie Raines (13-year death row inmate)
Rev. Jesse Jackson
John Schmidt (1998 Dem. candidate for governor)
Governor Ryan delivered a speech last Thursday night (11/30/00) to the Center on Wrongful Conviction dinner regarding the death penalty. The center is part of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University's School of Law. Rob Warden, a former journalist is the center's director. Larry Marshall, an attorney is the legal director.
In addition to Governor Ryan the dinner also featured as speakers the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill), U. S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis). Both Feingold and Congressman Jackson have sponsored legislation to impose a federal moratorium on federal executions.
The dinner recognized and honored four Chicago Tribune reporters for the work they have done through a series on columns on death penalty. The reporters: Maurice Possley, Ken Armstrong and Steve Mills wrote a four-part in-depth series published in November 1999 on the failure of the death penalty that ordered more innocent people to death than were actually executed since 1977. Eric Zorn was also honored for his columns that focused on multiple innocent people sitting on death row. His journalism helped free them.
Finally, the Center on Wrongful Convictions honored Jennifer Thompson, who was convinced twice she had identified her rapist in North Carolina. It later turned out through DNA testing she was mistaken. Rather than denying her mistake she asked the man she put in prison through her testimony for his forgiveness and started speaking out on the issue of her mistaken identity and the consequences. She joined with the Center in attempting to stop the execution of Gary Graham in Texas.
The comments of Governor George H. Ryan at Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions Awards Dinner on November 30, 2000:
Thank you very much Larry Marshall. Thank you for those kind words and, quite frankly, you share in this award because of your tireless efforts on behalf of the wrongfully accused.
You have taken on the hard cases of people sitting in jail without a hope or prayer in the world, and you have helped to save them, to give them a shot at real justice. I congratulate you for what you've done and encourage you. I want to help anyway I can.
I am honored to be in the presence of so many people who have shown courage and passion and dedication to improving our justice system.
I want certainly to welcome my friend - new found friend, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) who has been committed to improving our justice system for many years. He and I were together I think two weeks ago or maybe last weekend - I can't remember in California and he spoke very eloquently. [The meeting Ryan refers to is the annual conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in San Francisco on November 19, 2000.]
Welcome to Illinois.
It is of course an honor to be with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Jesse Jackson. When you get both Jacksons that's pretty good stuff.
They have both put aside partisan differences to work with me to improve our criminal justice system, our schools and our economic development programs.
They have done a lot not just for Illinois, but for America.
Leonard Goodman is a lawyer who certainly could be doing a lot of other things than working on behalf of the wrongfully convicted.
But he learned from his grandfather Henry Crown and his Uncle Lester Crown that it is important to give back to your community -- and he has decided to fight on behalf of people who have few champions and little hope. An I want to say thank you.
Jennifer Thompson, a victim of crime who now speaks out about the justice system's capacity for error after she wrongfully identified a man that resulted in his going to prison for life until DNA cleared him.
And, of course, I want to acknowledge the Chicago Tribune team of Ken Armstrong, Steve Mills, Maurice Possley and Eric Zorn.
In government, as you know, we often joust with the media. But, without question, your reporting on the death penalty had a major impact on me. I learned things I never knew before about our state's terrible record
when it came to the administration of the death penalty system. Your reporting and columns crystallized my thinking.
One of the highest callings in journalism is to save the life of an innocent person on death row.
You have achieved that, and you are to be commended. I applaud you for your work.
All of you are the people who have really shown courage.
I am honored to accept this award.
I don't know that courage is the best word to describe what I did.
It is a matter of right and wrong.
I did what I thought was right.
All I did was to respond to the indisputable facts -- that the administration of the death penalty in the State of Illinois was just not fair; and our record was shameful.
As it was pointed out, we had 13 people exonerated of their crimes for which they had been
sentenced to die. Sentenced to die. more than the 12 we had convicted and executed since the
death penalty had been reinstated.
13 people, who lived the ultimate nightmare - sitting on death row, waiting to be killed by the state for crimes which they did not commit.
Now could you imagine what a horrible existence that must have been. With those people sitting years in prison knowing they were innocent and not having the means to prove otherwise.
It was the courage of people here tonight to make a difference.
I never imagined I would be here tonight. Some of you, like former [State] Senator Dawn Clark Netsch (D-Chicago) [1994 Democratic candidate for Governor who ran against and lost to Ryan predecessor, Jim Edgar] never would have imagined I would be here tonight.
I've been in elective office for more than 30 years.
During that time, I was a member of the county board in Kankakee, a legislator and executive office holder, I was a staunch death penalty supporter.
Like many other elected officials, I have believed there are crimes that are so bad that the death sentence is the only proper, societal response for the criminals convicted of those crimes in a court of law.
So, I supported the death penalty.
I spoke for it.
I voted for it.
I believed in it.
I was part of that great body of Americans who saw a nation in the grip of rising crime rates, inner cities becoming armed camps and ever-growing violence in our streets, our schools and even our places of worship.
Tough sentences, longer prison terms, more jails and strict imposition of the death penalty and those were the answers we saw.
Catch them, convict them, lock them up and throw away the key.
As a member of the Illinois General Assembly, I vividly remember voting for the death penalty.
And I can also remember the debate vividly on the death penalty. During the debate on the death penalty, those of us who supported the death penalty, we were asked by those who opposed, who would be willing to "throw the switch."
Would you be willing to throw the switch?
It was a sobering question and I wish now that I could swallow the words of unqualified support for the death penalty that I offered.
The fact is now, as governor, the responsibility is mine, I in fact do "throw the switch."
It's an awesome responsibility.
That's the toughest part of being Governor.
Since those days as a legislator, a lot has happened to shake my faith in the death penalty system.
I know a lot more about the administration of the death penalty in Illinois -- and the more I learn, the more troubled I've become.
I think the Anthony Porter case is a vivid example of what has gone wrong in our system, although you could examine anyone of the 13 cases of men who have been exonerated.
Back in the fall of 1998, when I was still campaigning for Governor, Anthony Porter was scheduled to be executed on September 23 of that year [1998].
He had ordered his last meal and been fitted for his burial clothes.
Mr. Porter had been convicted in the 1982 shooting death of a man and woman in a South Side Chicago park.
Two days before he was to die, his lawyers won a last minute, temporary reprieve based on his IQ.
I don't know how Mr. Porter could have understood the charges he was facing, let alone whether he could help in his defense.
But, with that delay, some of the great journalism students from Northwestern University, and their professor, David Protess, a powerful champion for justice, had the time to start their own investigation into the then 16-year-old case.
If you can imagine sitting on death row for 16 years as an innocent person.
I can't imagine it.
With the help of a private detective, (Paul Ciolino (See-ah-lee-no) a colleague of many here tonight) the students picked apart the prosecution of Anthony Porter.
Key witnesses, like one who claimed he saw Porter at the crime scene, recanted their testimony they now said Porter was framed.
The students then followed their leads to Milwaukee, where the private detective obtained a videotaped confession from a man named Alstory (All-story) Simon.
Simon told the private detective that he shot the two people that Porter had been convicted of those shootings. He said he shot them because they were in an argument over drug money.
With that new evidence, charges were dropped and the innocent Mr.Porter was freed in February 1999.
The charges against him were wrong, and he nearly went to his death for them. After spending 17 years on death row he was a freed man!
By then, I had just been inaugurated as Governor of the State of Illinois in my first term. And frankly, I was caught off guard. I didn't know how bad our system really was.
I couldn't believe the system that I had believed in could come that close to executing an innocent man. To come within two days of killing a man for a crime he didn't commit.
But-for the efforts of those highly motivated journalism students and Professor Protess, Anthony Porter might be dead, killed by the state for a crime that he did not commit.
I understand Shawn Armbrust is here tonight. She was one of the students working on Anthony Porter's case and secured one of the key recantations in testimony from a witness that helped to prove Porter's innocence.
I want you to know Shawn, you and your classmates are the ones who should be up here tonight receiving this award tonight. I want to tell you, I can't applaud you enough for your efforts.
Where are you, Shawn?
Shortly after Anthony Porter's case, while I was still reeling, the Andrew Kokoraleis case came to my desk.
Andrew Kokoraleis had been charged with the brutal rape and mutilation murder of a 21-year-old woman.
After the mistakes the system made, especially in the Porter case, I agonized.
I thoroughly reviewed the case files, consulted with experts, staff and with veteran former prosecutors, with attorneys.
I requested additional information from the Prisoner Review Board.
I double-checked and then I triple-checked.
I wanted to be absolutely sure that this man was guilty.
And in the end, I was sure beyond any doubt that Kokoraleis was guilty of a monstrous unspeakable crime.
But I want to tell you, it was an emotional, exhausting experience. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.
It all came down to who was going to "throw the switch." That was me.
I am a pharmacist from Kankakee, Illinois, who had the good fortune to be elected by the people of Illinois to be their Governor.
But I want to tell you, I could be the dean of a law school, could be a lawyer, or a Doctor from Peoria, it could be whoever wins the highest office in the state that has to make the final decision about death row inmates.
Should they live, or should they be executed by the state?
The Governor has to decide if he will throw the switch.
It's an awesome responsibility. Quite frankly, that might be too much to ask of one person to decide, whether you owned a drug store or you had been a law professor or a judge.
But, that experience wasn't the end of the journey.
The Chicago Tribune conducted a very in-depth investigation of the death penalty cases in Illinois. They did it last November [1999]. And we all know how startling that was.
Half of the nearly 300 capital cases in Illinois had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.
33 of the death row inmates were represented, at trial, by an attorney who had later been disbarred or at some point suspended from the practice of law.
I'm a pharmacist from Kankakee, I got to tell you, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how you can put a person up to die charge with them a crime that can take their life and be represented by an unqualified attorney. I don't understand that at all.
35 African-American death row inmates had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury.
In fact, two out of three of our 160 Illinois death row inmates are African-American.
Prosecutors used jailhouse informants to convict or condemn 46 death row inmates.
It was clear there were major questions about the system. Questions that I alone could not answer.
So, in January of this year, the 13th death row inmate was found wrongfully convicted of the murder for which he had been sentenced to die.
At that point, I was looking at our shameful scorecard which we had in Illinois. Since the death penalty had been reinstated in 1977, 12 inmates had been executed and 13 had been exonerated.
Up until then, with each remarkable, complex and sometimes confusing development, I had resisted calls by some to declare a moratorium on executions.
But then I had to ask myself, how could I go forward with so many unanswerable questions about the fairness of the administration of the death penalty in Illinois.
In my heart, I knew I could not go forward.
I couldn't live with myself knowing I might put an innocent person to death.
How on earth could we have come so close --- again, and again, and again, 13 times to putting fatal doses of poison into the bodies of innocent people strapped to gurneys in our state's death chamber.
It was clear to me that when it came to the death penalty in Illinois, there was really no justice in the justice system. and I believe that may be true for our justice system.
On January 31st [2000] I told the citizens of Illinois that I was imposing a moratorium, because of grave concerns about our state's record of convicting innocent people and putting them on Death Row.
I said then and I say today, there are too many questions that will that still need answers.
What I do know is that there is no margin for error when it comes to putting a person to death.
I said that a public dialogue must begin on the question of the fairness of the application of the death penalty.
That, surely, has taken place since I announced my decision.
In March of this year I empaneled a commission of 14 concerned, smart, honorable people.
My instructions to the committee were simple:
Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent person is facing a lethal injection, nobody will face that fate on my watch.
I am comfortable knowing that I did the right thing.
That's what everyone here is concerned about, fairness and justice.
Now, I want to tell you, I'm not only concerned about the death penalty, but I'm concerned about the whole criminal code we have in Illinois.
There is without question a lot of people sitting in prisons today, that didn't commit the crimes they are there for. They may not be facing the death penalty, but we've shortened their lives by putting them in prison for a crime they didn't commit.
I thank you again for this award and I once again commend you for all
of the work you have done to fight for justice.
And I want to tell you, keep up the good work. And I want to work with you.
Interview with Governor George Ryan at the dinner after the speech:
PI...DI: Have you talked with legislative leaders where they are on this?
GR: No, I haven't. I've made it a point not to get too far out front either way because of this panel I've got. I don't want to influence them. I want them to come back to the decision they've made. And they will.
I don't want to prejudice this in any way by saying I'm against this or for that.
PI...DI: You sounded pretty strong here tonight.
GR: I want to sound strong. I want to sound strong for a fair and equal system.
PI...DI: You went to San Francisco for a meeting on the death penalty?
GR: I was given an award there. Two weeks ago, I think it was.
PI...DI: You advised the people here tonight to keep up the fight.
GR: Absolutely. Why would we ever let our guard down on a thing like having innocent people executed.
PI...DI: How widespread do you think the problem of mistakes are in the criminal justice system?
GR: Frankly, I think it's pretty bad. Thirteen out of 25 that were exonerated. Something's wrong some place.
PI...DI: You're going to thread on some toes in the Republican Party, aren't you?
GR: I've already done that.
PI...DI: Is that the privilege of age?
GR: I don't know if it's that -- wait a minute what are you saying about my age? (his laughter)
Interview with Willie Raines after Ryan's speech and interview. Raines, an African-American, was on death row for 13 years, as one of four men convicted of murder from the state's poorest community, Ford Heights.
PI...DI: What did you think of Governor Ryan's speech?
WR: We need more people like him in office.
PI...DI: Do you think he was being sincere or a politician?
WR: From where I've been and where I think I'm going right now, I think he was serious about what he was saying.
PI...DI: I asked the Governor about problems in the whole criminal justice system beyond the death penalty. He said it was "pretty bad." What do you think about that issue?
WR: There are a lot of innocent people in prison. I think he's right about a lot of innocent people in prison.
PI...DI: Various people have told me that prisons are economic development tools. The press releases for the past ten prisons built in Illinois have stressed the economic development factors for the locality a prison is being located at as the reason for building it. Are prisoners economic development for down and out areas of the state?
WR: We're commodities. I was a commodity.
Interview with Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. prior to the dinner:
PI...DI: So, where is this issue going?
Interview with John Schmidt, a Chicago attorney and possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2002 prior to the dinner.
PI...DI: You've been on record as being in favor of the death penalty. Why are you here tonight?
JS: I'm rethinking that position. I'm not sure in the state system we'll ever get to the point where we can be sure an innocent person is not being executed.