Opponents of the death penalty got support from surprising quarters last month.

State Supreme Court Justice Moses W. Harrison II argued that the state's enforcement of its capital statute is inherently flawed and would one day lead to the execution of an innocent person.

Harrison's remarks came in a written dissent in a ruling on a death sentence appeal.

Justice Harrison concurred with the other justices that Donald Bull's conviction should stand for the 1993 murder in Canton of Donna Tompkins and her 3-year-old daughter Justine. But he diverged from the other justices on the issue of the sentence.

Noting that in the last decade nine men who had been sentenced to death in Illinois were later exonerated, Harrison provided sharp criticism of what he described as the state's efforts to achieve "finality in death cases as expeditiously as possible."According to Harrison, the men survived wrongful death sentences "despite the criminal justice system, not because of it." That there have been so many mistakes in such a short time period is indicative of a system that is not working, he wrote. Harrison argued the state's handling of the cases is "profoundly unjust," and that speedy reviews of capital cases will inevitably lead to a fatal error. If the prosecutors and the courts had their way, the nine men who have been exonerated "would probably have all ended up dead at the hands of the state for crimes they did not commit," Harrison wrote. He concluded: "If this is the best our state can do, we have no business sending people to their deaths."

In his argument against capital punishment, Harrison joined Justice Seymour Simon, who fought the death penalty while serving on the state's high court from 1980 to 1988.

Harrison's comments came shortly before a national symposium on wrongful convictions and the death penalty held at Chicago's Northwestern University School of Law.

In fact, a widening discussion of implementation of the death penalty springs from shifts in opinion by several influential legal authorities. In 1994, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun announced he could not support the death penalty, calling it an experiment that had failed. And in February 1997, the American Bar Association called for a moratorium on executions until states ensure that defendants receive adequate legal representation.

Illinois, which received national attention for the reversal of the convictions of Rolando Cruz in DuPage County and the Ford Heights Four in Cook County, is one of 38 states that imposes the death penalty.

Harrison's opinion raised the hackles of several of fellow justices. A response from Justice Benjamin K. Miller argued Harrison has a history of questioning the motives and integrity of those justices who disagree with his positions. Harrison's charges are "unjustified and demean the court," Miller wrote. Chief Justice Charles E. Freeman and Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow concurred with Miller.

APPOINTMENTS

Edgar picks board and commission members before leaving office

The governor of Illinois has authority over several semi-independent boards and commissions. And in the past several weeks, the outgoing governor, Jim Edgar, has made a slew of appointments. They include the following.

Edgar appointed Caroline Quinn and Judy B. Kjellander to the Illinois Arts Council. Quinn, of Mt. Vernon, is president of Farrar Oil Company. Kjellander is a Springfield attorney. The governor also reappointed Rosemarie Buntrock of Hinsdale to the council. Buntrock serves on the board of the Jeffrey Ballet of Chicago.

Therese M. Mackey of Springfield was named to the Juvenile Advisory Board to the Department of Corrections. Mackey is the publisher of the Springfield Business Journal and Prime Time. Robert Mclntire of Danville was appointed to the State Appellate Defender Commission. He is a public defender in Vermilion County.

The governor placed James H. Hayes of Chicago on the Advisory Commission on Internet Privacy. He is vice president and corporate counsel of Cash Station Inc. Also named to the commission were Abigail Abraham and Mark Gordon, both from Chicago. Abraham is a bureau chief in the computer crimes investigations bureau for the State Police. Gordon is a managing partner for Gordon & Glickson PC.

Edgar tapped Susan M. Larson and Susanne H. Hogan for the Business Enterprise Council for Minorities, Females and Persons with Disabilities. Larson, of Chicago, is president of HOLCOR. Hogan, of Willow Brook, is president of dsi Associates, Inc.

Michael J. Alter of Winnetka was appointed to the Illinois Economic Development Board. He is president of the Alter Group Ltd.

None of these appointments are paid positions, although expenses are paid and some appointments carry a per diem. Only Alter's appointment to the Economic Development Board requires Senate confirmation.

38 / December 1998 Illinois Issues

Q&A Question & Answer

CARLOS CUMPIAN

Illinois Issues asked Latino poet and publisher Carlos Cumpian for his perspective on the state of the arts in Illinois. Cumpian's hooks include Coyote Sun (1990) and Latino Rainbow (1994), and his poetry has been published in Spoon River Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse and ACM: Another Chicago Magazine. He teaches poetry at Columbia College in Chicago and is editor in chief of MARC HI Abrazo Press.

Q. What sort of funding environment do you feel the state of Illinois provides for the arts, particularly poetry?

I've received some money from the city of Chicago, but I've never received any from the Illinois Arts Council. I've been more successful with the Illinois Humanities Council. They're more aware that I'm documenting a people. Some people working in the field are sort of naive. They don't have the wherewithal to pursue funding. And once you get funding, you continue to get it for a long time. That makes it hard for new people to get in.

Q. How would you characterize the relative health of the arts in Illinois?

The dichotomy of "there's Chicago and then there's the rest of Illinois" still exists. [But] funding is not nearly where it should be. Here's the crying shame. We are looking at people who publish books in Illinois, books that get state and federal funding. We're publishing scads of books, but they never get out of Chicago, or Carbondale, or Springfield. We don't have the infrastructure for distribution. The state needs to find a way to make sure that books it funds actually have a chance to reach a wide audience.

Q. What could the state do to improve its arts community?

We hear a lot about increasing literacy. We need 10, 000 workshops around the state. Every single library in the state should have a workshop at least once a year. We don't, but it's not because of a lack of gas. We have gas. We can get there. And it's not because of a lack of talent either. It's a lack of funding.

Cumpian has been awarded two Community Arts Assistance Grants from the city of Chicago and has been honored for his poetry by the Illinois State Library. His latest book, Armadillo Charm (1996), was published by Tia Chucha Press.

Rosalie Warren

Illinois Issues December 1998 / 39