Retroactive Justice

When legislators add a new item to the criminal code or increase penalties already on the books, justice requires that the new rules not apply to acts committed before the change. But what if a new law decreases possible punishments? Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie faced that question last August when the legislature overhauled the state's drug laws. Under the tough old rules, for example, selling as little as 2.5 gm. of marijuana brought a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years; now judges may impose terms as short as six months or even suspend a first offender's sentence. Aware that more than 600 convicts were serving time under the old penalty structure, Ogilvie decided "to make old sentences conform to the spirit of new statutes."

Study revealed that nearly 200 offenders would either have received the same sentence or were on the verge of being released anyway. That left more than 400 candidates for executive clemency. A special team of ten lawyers, six investigators and 60 Chicago area law students and professors was assembled to file the individual petition for each prisoner that is required by law. Then the parole board had to make recommendations on each case.

Last week, 3 1/2 months after he ordered the review, Ogilvie granted clemency to the first 41 defendants. Most of them were first offenders, and will be freed after a few further formalities. The Governor expects to have received recommendations from the parole board on the remaining cases by the end of this week. Not all of the prisoners will get clemency, of course. But for those who do, Ogilvie is determined to keep pressing the state bureaucracy. For the first 41, he promised that "an accelerated timetable will permit releasing most before Christmas."

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