Date: Thursday, February 22, 1996  
Source: By Christi Parsons, Tribune Staff Writer.   
Section: METRO DU PAGE  
Parts: 1  
Dateline: SPRINGFIELD    
Copyright Chicago Tribune

EXECUTION `RIGHTS' ADVANCE
HOUSE BACKS BILL ON INMATES' CONSENT   

   Convicted murderer Guinevere Garcia wanted to die, and many Illinois
lawmakers are angry that the state listened to people who didn't know the
woman but pleaded to spare her life.

   The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to require that a Death Row
inmate's signature be included in any appeal for a hearing before the
Prisoner Review Board. The board recommends whether Gov. Jim Edgar should
grant clemency requests.

   A month after Edgar commuted Garcia's death sentence to life in prison,
the House bill is quickly gaining popularity with members of the Senate and
death penalty supporters.

   Garcia's case attracted international attention when Amnesty International
and the group's celebrity spokeswoman, Bianca Jagger, came to Illinois to
plead for Garcia's life. The group requested a Prisoner Review Board hearing
without Garcia's permission and used it as a public forum to argue that the
death penalty is morally wrong.

   Angered by Jagger's appearance and, for some, by Edgar's decision, many
lawmakers and death penalty supporters complain that outsiders shouldn't have
been allowed to interfere.

   "If an inmate is of sound mind, they ought to determine what happens to
them," said Rep. Flora Ciarlo (R-Steger), a cosponsor of the bill. "Someone
else shouldn't be able to come along and say otherwise. I don't think that's
right."

                        ...........................

   Death penalty supporters argue that the measure would not prevent Jagger
or anyone else from making future appeals directly to the governor.

   But opponents of the bill argue that such a law, had it been in effect,
might have kept Edgar from learning about the issues in Garcia's case that
persuaded him to spare her from death.

   Edgar has not yet taken a position on the bill.
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