Cook County State’s Atty. Dick Devine on Thursday said that although the state’s prosecutors embrace many of the death penalty reforms that Gov. George Ryan submitted this week to the legislature, they take exception to some key measures.
Speaking in Chicago, Devine said the state’s prosecutors are to release Friday their complete response to the 85 recommendations made by a commission Ryan appointed to examine and reform the death penalty.
Devine, president of the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association, said prosecutors would support state funding for expanded DNA testing. He said they also support more training for judges and prosecutors and hearings to gauge reliability of jailhouse informant testimony.
But prosecutors see problems with a proposal for a panel to review their decisions to seek the death penalty as well as recommendations to prohibit the death penalty in cases with one uncorroborated eyewitness or accomplice.
Devine agreed that there are too many aggravating factors making defendants eligible for the death penalty, but he said that cutting them to just five, as proposed, is too drastic.
