Slate

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On the evening of June 30, 1985, Virdeen Willis Jr., an off-duty official at a state prison, was drinking with two women in a bar on Chicago's South Side. As he and his companions left, someone approached and shot him fatally in the neck. Four days later, police arrested Steven Smith, a convicted killer who had served time in the facility where Willis worked. Smith denied any involvement, the police couldn't produce the murder weapon, and no physical evidence tied him to the crime. About all the prosecution had to offer was a witness, Debrah Caraway, who said she saw Smith shoot Willis.


The prosecution's case was far from ideal, and Caraway was one of its big liabilities. The day of the murder, she had been smoking crack. She was across the street when Willis was shot. Her boyfriend had been considered as a suspect before Smith was arrested. The evidence suggesting Smith wasn't the culprit was also strong. The two women who were standing next to Willis when he was shot couldn't identify Smith as the gunman. Several witnesses said Smith had left the bar with two friends before Willis walked out—not alone and afterward, as Caraway claimed. But its one witness apparently was all the state needed. Two different juries found Smith guilty, and both times he was sentenced to death. Today, however, Smith is not only alive but free: In 1999, the Illinois Supreme Court vacated his conviction for lack of evidence, barred a retrial, and ordered him released.

Since restoring capital punishment in 1977, Illinois has executed 12 inmates. During that period, 13 other death-row inmates have been exonerated. This amazing record of fallibility was what prompted Republican Gov. George Ryan to impose a moratorium on executions two years ago. He also appointed a commission to examine the Illinois system of capital punishment and to offer proposals for its reform. Among the recommendations made by the commission in a report released last month we...