The Law of Unintended Effects
The AP reveals that Hearings backfire on death-penalty foes with a starring role for Illinois' incompetent Republican governor, George Ryan:

For nearly two weeks, the details of Illinois' most gruesome murders have been replayed for the public in a marathon set of clemency hearings that death-penalty opponents now believe may have backfired and hurt their cause.

The hearings, which are being held for nearly every murderer on Illinois' death row, were set in motion by Republican Gov. George Ryan, who suspended all executions nearly three years ago because of flaws in the criminal-justice system.

But the procedural flaws discussed at the hearings have been overwhelmed by the litany of the killers' bloody horrors, and the governor himself has become the target of bitter attacks by the relatives of murder victims.

"The pain and passion of these families is deafening," said Larry Marshall, a Northwestern University law professor who has been a driving force in exposing problems with Illinois' death penalty. "It's so overwhelming that people are forgetting all the problems that got us here."

So overwhelming, in fact, that Chicago's two major newspapers have urged Mr. Ryan to stop the hearings. "Halt the anguish, Gov. Ryan," implored a Chicago Tribune editorial. "Ryan's hearings cruel and unusual," headlined a Chicago Sun-Times editorial.

In the space of a week, the public heard once again about:

- A couple who fatally shot a woman, cut her nearly full-term baby from her womb, and killed two of her other children.
- Two brothers who beat a sleeping couple to death with baseball bats.
- A father who tortured his mute, severely retarded stepdaughter for five years until she died.
- A man who killed a couple after telling them to have their last kiss.
- A man who took eight women to remote locations and stripped, bound and murdered them.

"I can't imagine the public has heard such a parade of horrors combined into such a short time period in American history," said John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
...
"I do think that this is one of those occasions where there are some important pressing arguments about due process, fairness," said Jane Bohman, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. "But it's hard to put that in the forefront in the face of what these families are saying."

What did the "foes" expect the hearings would be like? Getting a room on death row in most US states these days requires extra special achievement. If there is some indication the convict is innocent, it's one thing to have a hearing. But a legal bun fight over misfiled papers or something similar? Someone tell them to find the nearest clue phone.