Public Ready for Death Penalty Reform

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Gov. George Ryan of Illinois won praise locally and worldwide when he announced earlier this year that he would impose a state moratorium on executions, pending a study of why the state's death penalty system has gone so horribly wrong.

He acted after the balance had swung to judicial findings of innocence for 13 Illinois death sentenced inmates, one more than the number of people actually executed in the state since capital punishment resumed.

Illinois has garnered nearly universal support for this pause in executions. In advance of this decision were legislative proposals, judicial analysis and media exposure of a system riddled with flaws. Confronted with a …