There's a better way.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Although the Illinois Legislature's overhaul last week of that state's tarnished death penalty laws is welcome, lawmakers around the country - including in Oregon - should look at repealing a sentence that is fraught with inequities.

Illinois has been at the center of the national death-penalty debate for several years. In 2000, Illinois' then-Gov. George Ryan - a Republican and strong supporter of capital punishment - suspended executions when 13 death row inmates were found to have been erroneously convicted. Just before he left office in January, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 163 men and four women still on death row, giving them new sentences of between 40 years and life without parole.

The suspensions and commutations were based on separate studies by a Ryan-appointed special commission, the Chicago Tribune and a group of Northwestern University students and faculty. The studies showed a frightening number of death row inmates to be innocent of the crimes for which they were sentenced. Others had been sentenced based on unreliable evidence, poor legal representation and even in the face of DNA evidence that could have proved their innocence.

Last week, the Illinois Legislature sent to new Gov. Rod Blagojevich a package of safeguards designed to avoid errors in death penalty cases. The legislation bars executing the mentally retarded, gives defendants greater access to police evidence, allows judges to file dissents to jury verdicts in capital cases and gives the Illinois Supreme Court new authority to set aside sentences it deems unjust. The new laws grant the accused in capital cases greater access to DNA tests that might exonerate them and creates a program to study the best way to conduct police lineups.

While it's generally believed that a majority of Americans support the death penalty, that support depends on how the question is asked. Just a straight "Do you support the death penalty?" almost always is answered in the affirmative by a majority. But if the question mentions an alternative sentence, such as life without parole, an Oregon study found that support for the death penalty drops significantly.

The problems with the death penalty are many, as the Illinois situation uncovered. Innocent people can be and have been executed. Legal defense in capital cases is often spotty, with one defendant found guilty of a capital crime even though his defense attorney slept through much of the trial. Minorities are disproportionately charged with capital crimes. And it is morally wrong for the state to take a life.

Oregon voters abolished the death penalty in 1964, but voted to reinstate it 14 years later. Last year, sponsors of an initiative to abolish the death penalty once again abandoned their effort after concluding that their proposal would be defeated at the polls. It's to be hoped that a similar initiative will be launched for next year's election cycle.

At least the Illinois Legislature should be praised for cleaning up that state's death penalty. Now the next step there and elsewhere should be to dump the penalty altogether.