Maine Township Assessor Tom Rueckert might not be the person you’d expect to stand up and defend township government. He is, after all, an assessor who does not assess. That job has long been placed in the hands of the Cook County assessor, leaving township officials like Rueckert and his staff to function as little more than customer service representatives in Cook County.
Still, Rueckert believes his direct, local approach to helping residents make sense of their property tax assessments is precisely what makes township government worth keeping in Illinois. “We’ve had 4,000 people come to us for help in the first three months of this year,” he says. “Why do they come to us? They come because they just got something in the mail from the county assessor, they can’t figure it out, and when they call the county, nobody answers the phones.”
Stickney Township Supervisor Lou Viverito agrees. “Don’t even mention the word county around here,” he says. “If we told people that we were turning things over to the county, they would be scared to death.”
This is the idea of township government, created more than 150 years ago in Illinois to act as a buffer between rural, unincorporated areas and often-distant county seats, not to mention even more distant state and federal agencies. Townships still thrive in Illinois, collecting and spending millions in taxes every year. But in the collar counties around Chicago, where townships have long since been almost completely overlapped by suburban local governments, they are increasingly coming under fire as irrelevant.
But township proponents say that, with government officials in Springfield and Washington setting anything but a good fiscal example, now is not the time to take shots at tiny townships.
“It’s very frustrating in Illinois to see how badly they’ve been heading up the government,” Naperville Township Supervisor Gary Vician says. “And they want to look at townships?”
It might come as a surprise to many township officials that they are seen as ripe for reform, seeing as how township government, especially in the heavily developed collar counties, is used to flying under the radar.
Typically a tiny portion of property tax bills, townships seem to survive on some combination of bureaucratic inertia and the fact that they have a deep well of support among state legislators, many of whom either cut their political teeth running for “entry level” offices in township government, or who find jobs on township payrolls for loyal supporters. Township officials argue it’s more than that. Suburbanites may not know much about their township governments, they say, but that doesn’t mean those governments aren’t doing anything.
“Last year we provided over 25,000 rides for the elderly and the disabled,” Wheeling Township Supervisor Michael Schroeder says. “Who else is going to do that?”
Township Officials of Illinois is a powerful lobbying arm and resource organization for township government. Bryan E. Smith, executive director, says Illinois voters look at big-spending, large governments and like what they see at the township level. He even applied this to township highway departments, which produce extremely high per-mile costs in the collar counties, thanks to the very small network of roads they maintain.
“Who says that other governments maintain roads less expensive?” Smith wrote in an e-mail response to several questions. “In four counties in the state (Douglas, Piatt, Coles and Moultrie) we have counties who have turned over their county road maintenance to townships because they can do it less expensive.”
Vician said this is the way to go in the collar counties. Rather than doing away with township road districts that have little road left to maintain, why not turn maintenance of county roads over to townships?
“Surveys show that people are more satisfied with township workers than they are with state or county workers,” Vician said. “You can go talk to your township highway commissioner.”
Schroeder, on the other hand, said he is down to 5.1 miles of Wheeling Township roads and would like nothing more than to get that number down to zero.
“I wish they were all swallowed up by the municipalities,” he said. “I’ve been actively trying to eliminate those roads.”
The problem, he said, is that the roads townships are often left with are the ones municipalities don’t want. In the case of Wheeling, Schroeder said the township roads are in a flood plain.
Smith agreed. He said many municipalities “have annexed areas with a lot of tax revenue in their area and left the rest for the townships.”
The survey Vician cited was part of a report produced for Township Officials of Illinois by St. Louis-based demographer Wendell Cox. Titled “Local Democracy and the Townships of Illinois: A Report to the People,” (PDF) the document cited a 2001 survey—also prepared on behalf of Township Officials of Illinois—in which 88 percent of residents rated the performance of township officials highly, compared to 42 percent for state officials and 27 percent for federal officials. Cox also showed spending and borrowing patterns that suggests smaller governments, including townships, are better stewards of taxpayer money.
Townships in Illinois have three state-mandated roles.
Provide general assistance to the poor
Maintain roads in unincorporated areas
Assess property
Some say all these functions could be turned over to other units of government, most likely either counties or municipalities.
But township officials scoff at these claims, pointing to wasteful spending at the state and county levels, and to overburdened, cash strapped municipalities they say aren’t equipped to handle township responsibilities. Even in Cook County, where township assessors no longer assess, Smith argued they are needed.
“The township assessors act like a kind of satellite office for the county,” he said. “The Cook County Township Assessors deal with thousands of residents who seek out a ‘real person’ to help them with their property assessment issues. The county simply does not have the ability to provide personalized services to that many people.”
General assistance varies greatly from township to township, depending on the demographics of each. The types of services offered also vary, as many townships have expanded into popular areas like recreation and senior services. They also support local service agencies through grants.
Stickney Township Administrator Chris Grunow said townships have been a lifeline for social service agencies during the recent Illinois fiscal crisis, as the state has delayed its payments to these organizations.
Grunow argues that important social service programs would quickly fall by the wayside if they were folded into the budget of municipalities or counties, which are severely strapped financially. “I don’t think a lot of these programs would survive,” he said.
Money In The Bank: Piling Up A Mountain Of (Taxpayer) Moola
The majority of the 20 suburban Cook County townships carry large amounts of cash; 11 have more than 40 percent of their total assets in cash and cash equivalent assets, according to the townships’ balance sheets. Leading the pack is:
Thornton with $14.6 million in cash (42 percent of assets);
Lyons had $13 million (65 percent);
Stickney had $9.2 million (45 percent);
Hanover had $8.5 million (48 percent); and
Wheeling had $5.8 million (51 percent).
Such reserves are in excess of what municipal finance experts recommend as a “rainy day” fund—enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses for three to six months in case of a financial crisis.
For example, in fiscal 2010, Thornton reported total expenditures/expenses of $12.8 million. Based on those obligations, Thornton has enough money in the bank to cover expenses for more than 12 months. Lyons reports expenditures/expenses of $8.1 million—nearly $5 million less that its reserve.
Even some other township supervisors are wondering about the need for such abundant cash resources.
“Townships should not be in the business of hoarding taxpayer money,” says Sam Yingling, supervisor for Lake County’s Avon Township. “Anything over six months needs to be looked at.”
Holding that much cash is morally wrong and a bad business practice agrees David Hamilton, a township expert and former chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Roosevelt University who wrote an in-depth analysis on Illinois townships in April 2008, including the 20 in suburban Cook County, which also found the majority had big cash coffers.
“It’s unconscionable there (are) such large reserves,” says Hamilton, who is now Director of the Public Administration Program at Texas Tech University. “Why not leave the money with the taxpayers, rather than put them in the township’s bank?”
When asked to address why these townships hold so much cash, Cook County township spokesman Robert Porter said its reflective of the townships’ “conservative management” philosophy that calls for keeping lots of money on hand to pay for major purchases such as trucks, snowplows or buildings.
Thornton County Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli notes his township’s $14.6 million is the “largest surplus we’ve ever had.” However, he adds that the township recently paid $2.2 million to purchase a new garage and make related construction improvements to house 45 township vehicles, including trucks, buses and snowplows.
Another construction project is being planned but won’t likely happen until next year, he adds.
Stickney Township Supervisor Louis Viverito says his township’s cash reserves are now closer to a “couple of million” dollars because it used some of the funds on the new Stickney Public Health Center, which opened in July complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago).
At a time when many levels of government have racked up huge amounts of crushing debt, it begs the question: Isn’t the township approach to finance a better course of action?
Townships authorities say yes. But Hamilton doesn’t agree.
“If there (are) large reserves, there’s an incentive to spend them,” says Hamilton, who adds that townships often draw down their cash holdings by overpaying for the few services they provide, especially road maintenance, construction and repairs.
Redundant Services & People, Tens of Millions in Salaries
Of the $27.6 million in total salaries, an estimated $886,000 annually in salaries is paid to employ nearly 50 assessors and deputy assessors in full- and part-time positions.
There’s one problem: These positions are arguably unnecessary because, by law, the primary job of assessing homeowners’ property taxes and handling appeals belongs to the Cook County Tax Assessor’s office.
“The major role (of township assessors) has to be assessing property. If the county does that, then they have to sit down and manufacture new roles and that’s basically what’s happening,” says David Hamilton, a township expert and former chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Roosevelt University, wrote an in-depth analysis on Illinois townships in April 2008.
Ronert Porter of the TOC concedes townships “don’t assess,” but says the assessors and deputy assessors serve a vital role to the community by providing residents with tax assessment counsel and helping them with tax appeals.
“Can you imagine an 80-year-old going downtown to talk to the assessor?” asks Porter. “The townships are providing free staff labor to the Cook County assessor.”
Nonetheless, there continues to be overlap between the townships and the Cook County Assessor’s office, which recently re-opened four satellite offices, including in suburban Skokie and Rolling Meadows, after having such offices closed a few years ago.
“Why are they not just rolled into the Cook County assessor office?” asks Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling, who recently announced he was running for state representative, and is an advocate for a statewide effort to back legislation to cut government costs by reducing the number of townships or eliminating township services that overlap with other government entities or the private sector.
In addition to providing tax assessment assistance and counsel, the townships spend millions of dollars granting residents an array of social services not required by law.
Under state law the townships must provide immediate general assistance help, such as emergency medical care or short-term financial aid until the recipient gets county or state public aid.
Townships are permitted, but not required, to provide some other social services and are expanding beyond their core mission by operating food pantries, offering some basic medical services or teaching courses such as CPR training, or meeting senior citizens’ short-term transportation needs, such as rides to doctors and medical centers.
Some townships provide only one of these social services while others offer all of them.
However, a BGA check of the 20 suburban Cook County townships reveals that a majority are collectively paying millions of dollars for social services already being offered by an overlapping taxpayer-financed municipality, village or suburb; a private charity or a faith-based group; or the publicly backed Cook County.
For example, eight of the townships that run food pantries have nearby food banks or soup kitchens administered by churches or charities; six of the townships provide medical services that are also provided by Cook County; two townships give rides or selected services to senior residents as do two overlapping municipalities.
Based on the townships’ data provided to the comptroller, it’s unclear exactly how much the 20 townships are paying to provide these extra social services.
In his study, Professor Hamilton found that social services are an increasingly significant part of every township’s general assistance budget.
“This is another example of townships trying to justify their existence,” says Professor Hamilton.
Thornton Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli disagrees, saying his township provides bigger and better community aid. He contends Thornton is filling a demand for basic services that non-profits can’t or don’t deliver very well.
“I heard nothing but complaints about food pantries that handle 30 or 40 people,” he said, adding that his township’s food pantry serves up to 3,000 persons per month.
The BGA findings surface at a time when townships throughout Illinois are under fire from a growing number of lawmakers who view townships as prime targets for cost-cutting efforts to streamline and reduce Illinois’ estimated 7,000 units of local government—the highest number in the country.
Only 20 states still have township forms of government.
In addition to Senate Bill 1907, the bill that would pave the way toward getting rid of township road supervisors, there’s ongoing efforts in the Illinois General Assembly to make it easier for residents to vote their townships out of existence.
But even the most ardent township opponent realizes that passing such legislation will be a bruising legislative and political battle.
Having first been formed in the 19th century, Illinois townships have a lot of staying power and are often backed by political muscle and patronage that’s long been enjoyed by both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“There’s a bipartisan effort to defend turf,” says Rep. Quigley, when asked why township reform usually stalls in the Illinois General Assembly.
Indeed, a BGA check of the 20 suburban townships found some leaders have family or long-standing ties to influential political names and public office. They include:
Calumet Township: Bob Rita is supervisor with annual salary of $54,500, according to township records. Her late husband John was former mayor of Blue Island and township Democratic committeeman. Her son, Robert, is a state representative (D-28th).
Leydon Township: Bradley Stephens is supervisor, making $15,000 per year, according to township records. He’s also head of the Leyden Township Republican Organization and like his late father, Donald Stephens, is also mayor of suburban Rosemont. Stephens did not return calls.
Thornton Township: Frank Zuccarelli is supervisor with annual salary of $101,649, making him Cook County’s highest paid supervisor, according to township data. He’s also chairman of the board of trustees of South Suburban College, a non-paying post. His political group, known as the “Z Team”, is a major vote-gathering force in his area. Zuccarelli told the BGA that the township and political efforts are separate. “One does not have any effect on the other,” he says.
Stickney Township: Louis Viverito is supervisor with annual salary of $74,723—the second highest in Cook County, according to township records. He is also a recently retired Illinois state senator.
Rich Township: Al Riley is supervisor with annual salary of $25,400, according to township data. Riley, a former urban planner who served three terms as a township trustee, is also a state representative (D-38th) making $66,289 annually.
Sticker Shock Part II: Paying Big for Community College Retirees
For many students, community colleges are a low-cost alternative to expensive state and private universities.
But Illinois taxpayers aren’t getting a break when it comes to paying for benefits awarded to thousands of retired community college administrators and teachers, according to a Better Government Association (BGA) investigation.
Some ex-employees are reaping bounteous pensions that often greatly exceed what they have actually paid into the system. For example, two former community college presidents at local schools have received almost $2 million each; nearly 20 percent of the more than 8,000 Chicago-area community college pensioners garnered retirement payments in excess of $500,000 apiece and almost 500 retirees are enjoying annual six-figure payments, according to a BGA examination of state pension data.
These pension payouts come at a time when Illinois is struggling to meet its bills and is legally obligated to pay billions in unfunded public employee pension obligations. Under the state constitution, community college professionals are legally guaranteed these benefits.
What’s more, the cost will continue to spiral as additional workers exit the school system because none will be affected by a recently enacted state pension reform law, which only impacts new employees’ pensions.
“I would bet that not one in 10 Illinois taxpayers knows these community college retirees are getting such rich benefits,” says William Zettler, a suburban Chicago pension consultant who is also an advocate for public pension reform and overhauling the system.
SURS logoThe BGA reviewed pension data provided from State University Retirement System of Illinois (SURS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The pension list includes information effective mid-June, 2011 and includes more than 8,000 retirees from community colleges in Chicago, Cook and its collar counties DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will.
The BGA inquiry found:
The highest paid among Chicago area community college retirees is former Waubonsee Community College President John Swalec, who collects $223,891 a year from SURS. His payout is calculated based on contributions of $146,673 for a 27-year period, according to SURS data.
Swalec has collected a total of $1.94 million since retiring 10 years ago.
“I did not take advantage of the system,” the 77-year-old Swalec says.
He adds that there’s an unfair perception that retirees are gouging taxpayers when it’s the state that didn’t fulfill its obligation to regularly contribute to the state employee retirement system. Indeed, over the years the State of Illinois has taken a number of so-called pension “holidays” and did not meet its annual payment into the system.
“The state was not putting in their share as originally promised,” Swalec says. “It’s not money being taken out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”
The second-highest paid retiree is George Jorndt, the former president of Triton College with an annual pension of more than $215,000 a year.
He’s collected a total of $1.86 million after contributing $180,700. He’s credited with more than 27 years of service, SURS data show. Jorndt didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Russell Peterson, a former executive vice president for educational affairs at College of Lake County, is the third-highest paid pensioner among local community college retirees. He receives less than $197,000 a year and has collected $1.25 million. He contributed almost $216,000 for a 31-year period. Peterson declined to talk specifically about his own pension.
“Pensions should be fully funded,” Peterson says. “I know it’s difficult for the state, but they should be funded.”
Faculty members also draw large pensions.
Peter Remus, a retired mathematics department chairman at Harold Washington College in Chicago draws almost $175,000 a year in benefits. So far, he’s collected $581,104 after contributing $183,100. He’s credited with 36 years of service.
Remus, who retired in 2008, didn’t return a BGA call for comment.
Other community college leaders who are making six-figure salaries while still on the job, are in line to collect impressive pensions once they retire. They include:
Robert Breuder, the president of College of DuPage. For the 2012 fiscal year, which began July 1, Breuder has a salary of $274,070, a 2.8 percent increase from the prior year. He also gets an annuity of $27,170, a housing allowance of $19,640, an auto allowance of $9,166, professional development allowance of $9,166, life insurance gross up of $9,166 and $2,136 for his cell phone, according to figures provided by the college.
Vernon O. Crawley, the president of Palos Hills-based Moraine Valley Community College. For fiscal year 2012, Crawley is making a base salary of $343,906, a 6.6 percent raise over the prior year, according to figures provided by the college. He receives $62,521 in benefits, $22,000 in annuities and extra duty pay of $5,000. He has 42 vacation days and 30 sick days. (Unused vacation and sick days are figured into pension calculations at retirement.) Crawley declined to comment.
Girard Weber, the president of College of Lake County. Weber, 60, also will be eligible for a sizable pension. He’s paid $230,625 for the 2012 fiscal year, the same base salary he received for fiscal 2011, according to figures provided by the college. He also gets $53,091 in benefits, which includes a housing allowance of $15,000 and insurance benefits of $10,216. He gets 25 days of vacation and 25 days of sick leave. Weber is contributing $27,875 toward his state pension this fiscal year, according to the school.
Weber says the debate too often villainizes the people receiving the benefits rather than the state lawmakers who didn’t properly fund the retirement plans. Weber suggests that adjustments can be made to preserve pensions while addressing the issue of underfunding. He also believes the potential fixes to the pensions should be assessed fund by fund.
For data on other community college presidents’ salaries and benefits,
see the Illinois Community College Board website.
The BGA examination of Chicago-area community college pension data found that almost 500 retired community college administrators and faculty are drawing $100,000 or more in annual pensions as well as health care benefits.
Already, 168 community college faculty and administrators have raked in more than $1 million in total pension payouts with suburban College of Lake County leading the way with 39 pensioners who are in the millionaires club. More than 1,400 retirees received total payouts between $500,000 and $999,000 with City Colleges of Chicago at the head of the class with 520 retirees in that category, according to the BGA findings.
Combined, the number of retirees who have already received more than $500,000 makes up almost 20 percent of the more than 8,000 community college pensioners as of June, 2011.
That pool of recipients is expected to expand in the coming years as more community college workers leave their jobs—putting greater strain on the SURS, which also includes employees of Illinois’ public four-year state universities and is just 46 percent funded.
In the private sector, any pension below 60 percent funded is considered troubled, according to federal pension law. Those underfunded private pensions are required to take steps to increase funding and face restrictions, including a requirement that they halt cost of living increases for annuitants.
The BGA investigation also found:
There are 492 pensioners currently receiving more than $100,000 a year, according to BGA estimates. The annual payments were calculated by BGA using monthly payment data provided by SURS and multiplied by 12 monthly payments.
The colleges or systems with the greatest number of $100,000-a-year pensions are: City Colleges (110), College of Lake County (93), College of DuPage (79) and William Rainey Harper (48) in Palatine.
The breakdown for pensioners who have received at least $1 million is: College of DuPage (29), City Colleges (22), William Rainey Harper College (21) and Oakton Community College (14).
After City Colleges’ 520 retirees, the breakdown of the $500,000 to $999,000 group is: Triton College (119), Harper (115), DuPage (110) and Moraine (87).
Seven of the 10 top-paid community college retirees (based on monthly payments) in the Chicago area were presidents or interim presidents of their schools; three of the top 10 were from the College of Lake County. The majority of the highest paid retired faculty and administrators are from suburban schools.
Community colleges fund salaries and operations largely from local taxes and tuition, while the state kicks in a smaller amount of money.
Faculty contracts are usually negotiated with various unions representing the different schools. Those contracts outline raises and working conditions, including the terms of how much class time a professor has to work.
For example, a review of the City College faculty contract shows that teachers are expected to teach 15 hours a semester. (English composition faculty teach 12 hours.) In addition to the class time, teachers are expected to reserve a minimum of seven hours a week for student conferences and advising.
At College of Lake County, faculty are expected to teach a minimum of 15 hours a semester and keep 10 office hours a week.
Community college presidents receive benefits in addition to their salaries, including car and housing allowance and other expenses. The local board for each college decides the salary, benefits and expense packages for their presidents.
Anyone hired before January 1 of this year can retire at 55 with eight or more years of service or at 62 with five or more years. With at least 30 years of experience in the system, a person can retire at any age.
Most SURS participants contribute 8 percent of their income annually to the pension fund.
One trade-off for the state retirement benefits: SURS pensioners don’t receive Social Security.
No matter how a deal is reached, the state guarantees the school employees that their pensions will be paid, an assurance that private workers don’t enjoy.
undefinedIf a private company can’t fund its pensions and a benefit plan is taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), retirees are only promised a portion of their retirement savings. The maximum guaranteed PBGC pension amount is $4,500 a month, or $54,000 a year, for workers retiring at age 65 in 2009, 2010 or 2011.
Nonetheless, Illinois state employees are constitutionally guaranteed to get a full pension no matter the financial condition of a state fund such as SURS.
“In the private sector, such guarantees would not exist,” contends Zettler. “The price of the pension is part of the cost of doing business and should not be negotiated locally and then off-loaded to the state.”
(Full disclosure: In the past, Zettler has worked on a fee-basis as a pension consultant to the BGA.)
Illinois public pensions are in dismal financial shape and running short by almost $80 billion to fund long-term pension obligations. The state’s five major pension plans aren’t even half funded. It’s a critical issue for the state as pension liability takes money away from primary and secondary education as well as social programs and raises the likelihood of future tax increases.
And last year’s pension reform law won’t put a dent into those guaranteed pension payments.
Ready for Reform?
Minority Leader Tom Cross (left) with Speaker Madigan
A bi-partisan pension reform package surfaced in Springfield last spring. It was designed to change the benefit structure of current employee pensions and was backed by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Plainfield) during the last session of the legislature.
However, that effort died after failing to attract support from rank and file lawmakers.
Public employee unions staged an aggressive campaign aimed at killing the initiative, which would have required higher employee contributions to pension plans. It is possible the Madigan-Cross plan will re-emerge during the upcoming fall veto session.
Part of that plan called for requiring higher contributions from the employees currently paying into the pension systems, a strategy that other states are attempting to help fund their obligations, says Syl Schieber, a Maryland-based pension consultant.
“If you’ve got a system—whatever it’s costing—every extra dollar you can get participants to put in, is a dollar the taxpayer is off the hook for,” Schieber says. “If you start the process right now and get money in the bank today, that starts to accumulate some returns.”
Special Investigation: The High Costs of Wrongful Convictions
Wrongful convictions of men and women for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers $214 million and have imprisoned innocent people for 926 years, according to a seven-month investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
The joint investigation, which tracked exonerations from 1989 through 2010, also determined that while 85 people were wrongfully incarcerated, the actual perpetrators were on a collective crime spree that included 14 murders, 11 sexual assaults, 10 kidnappings and at least 62 other felonies.
“I am astounded,” said former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, who chaired the Capital Punishment Reform Committee established by the Illinois General Assembly. “Those are astounding numbers in terms of total years in prison and dollars spent.”
Moreover, the 97 felonies in that crime spree may be just a fraction of the total number of crimes committed by the actual perpetrators. The investigation found that the 85 exonerations left 35 murders, 11 rapes, and two murder-rapes with no identified perpetrators and thus no way to add up their accumulated crimes.
While the BGA/CWC study revealed that almost all of the wrongful convictions were caused by multiple factors, the cause most commonly alleged was government error and misconduct by police, prosecutors, and forensic officials.
The investigation was conducted by the non-profit, non-partisan BGA and the Center on Wrongful Convictions, a non-profit organization, based at Northwestern University School of Law, which has been instrumental in the exoneration of 23 innocent men and women in Illinois.
The investigation’s findings are based on the cases of 83 men and two women who were charged with murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, and armed robbery, and who were exonerated between the years 1989 (chosen because it is the start of the DNA-exoneration era in Illinois) and 2010. The study involved nearly a hundred Freedom of Information Act requests; interviews and emails with the exonerated, police and prison officials, attorneys, judges, and proponents for reform; reviews of public documents assembled in criminal cases and filed in civil suits; and complex calculations based on the varying costs of maintaining inmates in prisons and different county jails (some incarcerations began in the 1970s).
The financial toll was calculated by adding the costs of incarceration in jails and prisons, compensation paid to the wrongfully convicted by the state in the wake of exoneration, and civil litigation costs (lawyers fees, expert witness fees, and judgments and settlements).
The study also suggests that the total financial cost to state taxpayers will approach or surpass $300 million in the next several years as 16 civil suits now pending and a 17th to be filed later this year are settled or come to trial.
Furthermore, because litigation expenses are such a large part of the public expenditure on wrongful convictions and because 55 of the 85 cases originated in Chicago, the bulk of the state’s bill for wrongful conviction has been borne by Chicagoans.
Other states, counties, and cities have instituted a variety of reforms to reduce the financial and human toll. Some of those reforms have been in place for nearly ten years.
The study also revealed that it is far cheaper to incarcerate the innocent than to compensate them afterward.
Over the period of time studied, which covers the past 35 years, the BGA/CWC investigation found that the cost of keeping the 85 in jail and prison for a total of 926 years came to $18.5 million.
Litigation and compensation expenditures afterward were more than ten times that amount. Through the Illinois Court of Claims, the state provides compensation to the wrongfully convicted based on their years of imprisonment, and those costs totaled $8.2 million. A total of $31.6 million has been paid to private attorneys to defend governments and their employees in civil suits filed after exoneration, and $155.9 million has been paid to exonerees in settlements and judgments. Total litigation and compensation expenditures were $195.7 million.
One bad set of prosecutions can cost taxpayers dearly. The conviction of four men for a 1978 double murder in Ford Heights ultimately cost taxpayers $45.2 million. A woman, who started out as a witness in the case but later was wrongfully convicted as a participant, added another $5 million.
More disturbing, one bad case can ruin lives and wreak havoc in communities.
During the 26 years that Jerry Miller was serving prison time and probation for a brutal rape he did not commit, Robert Weeks, the actual perpetrator, attacked at least four women, raping three (he was stopped before raping the fourth); committed aggravated battery on 11 police officers; and attacked a man with a chain in an unsuccessful attempt to steal his watch, according to police and court documents.
Those documents indicate that injuries to the four women included a broken cheekbone, a broken nose, a broken orbital bone, a broken wrist, and lacerations, contusions, and hematomas to one woman’s face, neck, ribs, and legs.
Three of the police officers required hospital treatment. Many of the attacks occurred in and around Wicker Park.
(An attorney for Weeks declined to comment.)
After his release from prison on parole in 2006, the innocent Miller, an Army veteran with no previous criminal convictions, endured the humiliation of having his name, photograph, and physical description posted on the state’s registered sex offender website. In a recent interview with the BGA, Miller said he was also required to attend and pay for sex offender classes, prohibited from jobs that had contact with children and from living with any family member who had children, and forbidden to answer his door on Halloween.
Documents filed in Miller’s civil suit against the city indicate that serological testing by the Chicago police crime lab to determine the blood type of the perpetrator should have cleared him, but the technician reported inconclusive results, a conclusion that a nationally renowned expert found “simply inconceivable” in 2009 after conducting the same tests on the rape victim’s garment. Nothing in police reports indicate that Miller had done anything suspicious to make officers suspect he was a rapist, nor was he seen in the vicinity of the rape when it occurred, nor was there any physical evidence linking him to the crime.
According to police reports, Miller became a suspect because two patrolmen saw the composite sketch of the rapist and thought it resembled a man they’d seen several days earlier near Lincoln Park, approximately two miles from where the rape occurred. Miller had worked at a restaurant near the Lincoln Park Zoo and said he was back in the neighborhood that day looking for another job as a cook.
One of the parking lot cashiers picked Miller out of a lineup, another was described in police reports as having made a “tentative” identification, and although the victim picked two other men out of a photo array as possible suspects, at trial she said Miller “looked like” the man who attacked her.
DNA testing in 2007 exonerated Miller. His civil suit cost the city $8 million in settlement and legal fees.
Alleged government error, often rising to the level of misconduct, and eyewitness misidentification—both of which cost Miller and the city so much—are the two leading causes of wrongful convictions in the BGA/CWC study.
Government error and misconduct appeared in 81 out of the 85 cases, and purported eyewitnesses fingered the wrong person in 46, according to the investigations.
False confessions occurred in 33 cases, allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel appeared in 23, and incentivized witness testimony in 30 (an incentivized witness is someone who testifies with the expectation of some reward or benefit from law enforcement officials).
In the government error and misconduct arena, police behavior dominated (66 cases), followed by prosecutors (44). In 29 cases, forensic specialists testified or provided evidence that supported the prosecution’s faulty theory of the case.
Cook County Judge Tommy Brewer, a former FBI agent, assistant state’s attorney, and criminal defense attorney, found the frequency of government misconduct in the results particularly disturbing. In a recent interview he said that they “remind us that what we call the criminal justice system is often anything but just. And to the extent justice is lacking in our criminal justice system, it is not because of human frailties but often the deliberate malfeasance of those we entrust to run the system.”
Jurisdictions in various parts of the country have introduced reforms designed to address the causes of wrongful convictions, but Illinois has been slow to adopt many of them.
According to an ongoing study being carried out by Sullivan and colleagues at Chicago-based law firm Jenner & Block, 11 states and hundreds of municipalities require the electronic recording of interrogations for all major felony crimes. Illinois requires recording only in homicide cases.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has recommended model rules requiring that prosecutors, upon finding new evidence that might indicate a wrongful conviction, must turn that material over to the defense; investigate to determine if the person is indeed innocent, and if so, take steps to remedy the conviction. While other states have embraced that reform, Illinois has not.
Illinois also lags behind in enacting reforms designed to reduce eyewitness misidentification.
In 2001, New Jersey’s Attorney General John Farmer introduced the “blind” administration of lineups and photo arrays, an attempt to eliminate any cues from officers conducting the process. A blind administrator does not know who the suspect is.
Wisconsin, North Carolina, and municipalities in various other states, including Boston, Denver, and Dallas, have followed New Jersey’s lead.
The BGA/CWC study found a substantial lag time between wrongful conviction and exoneration (the average length of imprisonment in the 85 cases was more than 10 years). Thus in Illinois, the financial costs and the attendant human toll is likely to proceed apace for the foreseeable future.
Illinois Taxpayers Forced To Pick Up Big “Injustice Tab”
A joint investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions has found that Illinois taxpayers, especially those living in Chicago, have paid a hefty price for the wrongful convictions of innocent people and those painful payments are expected to continue.
Eighty-five cases of wrongful conviction have cost Illinois taxpayers $214 million since 1976, the bulk of the expenses occurring in the last 20 years.
COSTS EXPECTED TO RISE DRAMATICALLY
That wasted expenditure—for incarceration in county jails and state prisons, for Court of Claims compensation (state funds provided to the wrongfully convicted), and civil litigation—will rise dramatically in the next several years, perhaps by as much as 50 percent, as 16 pending civil suits filed by exonerated men are settled or go to trial, the BGA/CWC investigation determined.
The costs of wrongful convictions, however, are more than sums on a spreadsheet. The human cost to the convicted, to their families, and to the community is immense.
The BGA/CWC investigation is the first to examine a large sample of DNA and non-DNA exonerations in an effort to determine the wide array of costs to taxpayers presented by wrongful convictions, isolate the factors that led to those costs, and attempt to catalogue the human toll of those convictions by documenting the havoc committed by the actual perpetrators who escaped prosecution because the wrong man or woman was charged. (See how financial cost was determined, and the methodology of the investigation.)
The investigation revealed that it is far cheaper to incarcerate the innocent than to compensate them afterward. The cost of keeping the 85 in jail and prison for 926 years came to $18.5 million.
Litigation and compensation expenditures afterward were more than ten times that: Court of Claims compensation for the wrongfully convicted cost $8.2 million, $31.7 million has been paid to private attorneys to defend governments and their employees, and $155.9 million has been paid to exonerees in settlements and judgments—a total of $196 million.
Twenty-five of the exonerees in the BGA/CWC investigation did not file for court of claims compensation, and 21 did not file civil suits. Four natives of Mexico, convicted of murder, were pardoned by Gov. Jim Edgar in 1991 only after agreeing that they would not sue. Nine men filed suits and lost; two because they had filed too late.
The two largest awards, both for $15 million, went to James Newsome, who served 15 years of a life sentence for a 1979 homicide, and Juan Johnson, who served 13 years of a 30-year sentence for a 1989 murder.
Four of the top ten awards went to men convicted of a 1978 double murder in Ford Heights. The quartet spent a total of 62 years in prison, a conviction that cost taxpayers $45.2 million in incarceration costs, Court of Claims compensation, and civil litigation fees and awards.
Although taxpayers throughout the state bear the financial burden of incarceration costs and state Court of Claims compensation, the civil litigation expenses are borne by residents of the municipalities where the wrongful arrest and/or prosecution took place.
Because so many of the 85 cases studied originated in Chicago, the bulk of the cost of wrongful convictions in our investigation were borne by city taxpayers.
Even though the incarceration costs for the 85 cases have come to an end, the total cost to taxpayers will escalate dramatically in the next several years because nearly twenty percent of the exonerees have lawsuits pending.
For taxpayers, those pending cases are likely to require sizable payouts.
Ronald Kitchen, Marvin Reeves, and Michael Tillman, for example, filed lawsuits after being released in the last three years, each having served more than 20 years for murders they did not commit. In their civil suits, all three allege they were tortured at the hands of Chicago police officers under the command of Jon Burge.
Burge went to prison in March after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about his knowledge of police torture in the civil suit of Madison Hobley, who served 16 years in prison for the arson-murder of seven people, including his wife and son. That suit was settled in 2008 for $7.5 million. Taxpayers also incurred more than $3 million in fees paid to private attorneys who defended the police and the city.
Since 1990, the city has lost every civil suit based on claims of torture during the Burge regime.
LAWSUITS RAISE TOUGH QUESTIONS, CONCERNS
A fourth suit also names Burge as a defendant, though it does not allege torture. That suit was filed by Alton Logan, who served 26 years for a shotgun murder he didn’t commit. In a recent email, Russell Ainsworth, Logan’s attorney, reported that five detectives deposed in the case have taken the Fifth Amendment, rather than fully answer questions about Logan’s arrest. (In 1982, while serving a life sentence for the murders of two Chicago police officers, Andrew Wilson confessed to his attorneys that he was the actual perpetrator of the shotgun murder. They kept this secret until 2007, when Wilson died in prison.)
Herbert Whitlock served 21 years in prison before charges were dropped in 2008. (Jim Avelis/Tribune Star)
Taxpayers could face another large bill in the cases of exonerees Randy Steidl (sentenced to death, served 17 years) and Herbert Whitlock (sentenced to life, served 21 years). The two were convicted of a 1986 double murder in Paris, Ill. Steidl was exonerated in 2004, and prosecutors dropped charges against Whitlock in 2008.
Their cases are bolstered by the findings of Michale Callahan, the Illinois State Police lieutenant who was assigned to re-investigate the murders in 2000. Callahan, now retired, concluded that some of his colleagues and superiors had buried exculpatory evidence, some of which pointed to other suspects.
According to documents supplied by the Illinois State Police in response to a BGA Freedom of Information Act request, taxpayers have thus far incurred $3.7 million in outside counsel fees for attorneys defending the police in the Steidl and Whitlock civil suits.
An exoneration raises difficult questions. Those questions include:
When did police or prosecutors know the original theory of the crime was flawed?
If the indicators that the wrong person had been charged or convicted were present years earlier, what took so long to seek the true culprit?
Is it now impossible to prosecute because too much time has passed or because misconduct in the original prosecution presents too great an obstacle?
What officers and prosecutors got this case wrong?
Do any of those officers have a pattern of producing false confessions?
Do any of those prosecutors have a pattern of misconduct?
Once questions arose about the validity of the conviction, why would the state not re-investigate rather than leave a murderer, rapist, or armed robber on the loose?
Probing the answers to those questions can be expensive, according to Santa Clara University School of Law professor Gerald Uelmen, former executive director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. “After the exoneration of a wrongfully convicted person, the police will actually have a disincentive to continue the investigation and identify the actual perpetrator,” Uelmen said in a recent email. “Such an investigation could supply persuasive evidence that the initial investigation was negligently performed, increasing the liability for damages that the wrongfully convicted defendant might recover from the department and/or the individual officers.”
The BGA/CWC investigation of 85 cases included 16 sexual assault cases in which the victim survived. In one of those cases, a man was convicted. In all of the others, it is now too late to prosecute because the statute of limitations has expired.
Sixty-two of the men and both of the women in the study were charged with a total of 69 homicides. Thirty-seven of those remain unsolved.
Reform Blueprint: Changing Law Enforcement’s Culture, Tactics
On February 28, 1997, nurse June Siler was waiting at a bus stop near Michael Reese Hospital at 1:30 a.m. when a young man approached wearing dark clothes, a stocking cap, and black Velcro shoes. “How long have you been waiting for the bus?” he asked, and then he grabbed her from behind and slashed her in the throat and face with a box cutter. She staggered into the Michael Reese emergency room, was later operated on at Northwestern Memorial, and survived.
The following night, 41-year-old Robert Wilson attracted police attention by standing at the same stop at 7:50 p.m. Wilson didn’t have the Velcro shoes, but he was wearing dark clothing and a coat similar to the one Siler had described, and when police searched him they found a pocket knife and a gun. At the police station, detectives took a Polaroid shot of Wilson, mixed it with photos of five other men, and showed the array to Siler at the hospital. Wilson’s was the only Polaroid photo in the group, and he was the only man wearing clothes similar to the man who’d done the slashing. Siler identified Wilson as her attacker, and did it again, with certainty, at trial.
She’d fingered the wrong man.
Unknown to her, just about at the time that she was viewing Wilson’s photo, Jerryco Wagner, 21-years-old and mentally ill, approached Manual Guzman at a bus stop not far from Michael Reese. “How long have you been waiting for the bus?” Wagner asked, and then he grabbed Guzman from behind and stabbed him in the neck. Over the course of two weeks, Wagner stabbed six people, all within a mile and a half of Siler’s bus stop, before being caught. When he was arrested he was wearing a pair of black Velcro shoes.
“I feel blessed; it’s one of the happiest days of my life. I’m free from the penitentiary. I can’t ask for anything better,” Wilson, 51, said after his 2006 release. (Photo/Center on Wrongful Convictions)
In the wake of a federal judge’s decision in 2006 to grant Wilson a new trial, Chicago Tribune reporter Maurice Possley tracked down Siler for her reaction. She grew angry, not at the judge, but at police and prosecutors. Siler told Possley that at the time of the photo array, she could tell Wilson’s Polaroid was the only shot that had been taken recently. She said she had told the police that Wilson looked somewhat like her attacker, but he seemed too old. The detectives assured her, she recalled, that he would have looked younger in a stocking cap. Siler said she had heard later about the other stabbings and had asked to see a photo of that perpetrator, but none had ever been produced. She realized that she’d picked the wrong man, and without her as a witness, the state declined to try Wilson a second time.
In the 85 cases examined by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions, alleged government error and misconduct, and eyewitness misidentification, finished first and second as contributing causes of wrongful convictions, followed by false confessions, incentivized witness testimony (an incentivized witness is someone who testifies in expectation of or in exchange for a reward from law enforcement officials), questionable forensic evidence, and allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel.
Various reforms, many involving minimal expense, can reduce the likelihood that justice will go awry in an individual case.
SUGGESTED REFORMS
The BGA and the CWC has compiled a list of best practices already in place elsewhere in the country, proposals from blue-ribbon commissions, and recommendations made during previous reform efforts in Illinois, chosen because nearly all involve only minimal expense. This list should be considered as a starting point toward reducing the escalating human and financial toll of wrongful convictions. Other possible reforms will be unveiled in follow-up reports to this BGA/CWC investigation.
>> Use “blind” administrators
Eyewitnesses made mistakes in identifying perpetrators in more than half of the 85 cases examined by the BGA and CWC. Investigators who run lineups and photo arrays can influence a witness’s decision, either subtly or overtly, intentionally or unintentionally.
To prevent this from occurring, police in New Jersey, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Ohio are using “blind” administrators—someone who is unfamiliar with the case, unaware of its trajectory, and incognizant of which member of the lineup is the suspect.
In a photo spread, a knowing administrator can become effectively blind by putting each photo into a folder, shuffling the stack until he or she no longer knows which file contains the suspect’s photo and which hold shots of “fillers,” and then handing the entire selection to the witness, instructing him or her to open them in sequence and make a decision about each image before moving on to the next. Various computer programs can accomplish the same task, allowing a witness to make a selection from a group of photos while an administrator is “blind” to the viewing.
North Carolina and Ohio take further steps to safeguard the process by recommending that the eyewitness be told not just that the culprit might not be in the lineup, but also that the administrator does not know who the suspect is. This discourages the witness from looking for cues. North Carolina’s blind administration legislation was included in the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act, or HB 1625, which became effective on March 1, 2008. Ohio’s blind administrator law is part of the Ohio Revised Code Annotated, Chapter 2933.83.
>> Record police lineups
Would a prosecutor have charged Robert Wilson with stabbing June Siler if the photo array procedure had been videotaped, capturing both her hesitancy and the detectives’ encouragement? Twenty-four hours later, with a second stabbing at a bus stop near Michael Reese, perhaps the assistant state’s attorney might have not been so quick to approve charges against Wilson.
North Carolina recognizes the value of capturing the interaction between witnesses and police during lineups and photo arrays and mandates that they be recorded with video and audio equipment “unless it is not practical.” See North Carolina’s mandated recording in the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act.
>> Record felony interrogations
In 2003, state Senator Barack Obama sponsored a bill that became law in Illinois, mandating that all homicide interrogations and confessions should be recorded electronically. The requirement came after 13 death row inmates in Illinois were exonerated, some as a result of substantiated claims that their confessions had been coerced.
Those recordings have proved to be beneficial to both suspects and police, protecting the former from coercion and the latter from false accusations of brutality. That requirement could easily be extended to cover all major felony cases.
According to an ongoing study by former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, law enforcement officials in more than two dozen towns, cities, and counties throughout the state are already voluntarily recording more than the law requires, and 11 states and hundreds of municipalities across the United States record interrogations in major felony cases. (back to top)
>> Approve recommended rules of professional conduct for prosecutors
The American Bar Association maintains rules of professional conduct for attorneys, called the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. Rule 3.8, Special Responsibilities of Prosecutors, governs the actions of prosecutors in their evaluation of evidence and decision to prosecute. The first tenet, 3.8(a), holds that “The first duty of a prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.”
Illinois adopts each clause of rule 3.8 of the Model Code, but for clauses (g) and (h), which require prosecutors to promptly disclose exculpatory evidence discovered post conviction and to seek to remedy wrongful convictions. Those clauses have been embraced by Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wisconsin, but not by Illinois. (back to top)
>> Record all interviews of in-custody informants Witnesses with incentives to testify—those who provide evidence in expectation of some benefit from law enforcement—have often proven to be both unreliable and dangerous. In “The Snitch System,” a study published by the Center on Wrongful Convictions in 2004, author Rob Warden pointed out that throughout the nation, incentivized witnesses have played a major role in putting innocent people on death row.
Of the 111 people who were sent to death row and later exonerated during the years 1970 to 2004, 46 percent had landed there as a result of a prosecution aided by an incentivized witness. “For the most part,” Warden wrote, “the incentivized witnesses were jailhouse informants promised leniency in their own cases, or killers with incentives to cast suspicion away from themselves.”
The BGA/CWC investigation of 85 wrongful convictions in Illinois also found incentivized witnesses testifying with nearly deadly effect, often in exchange for leniency for themselves. Of the 30 people they helped send to prison, 10 went to death row. Eight were sentenced to life. The 30 exonerees served a total of 406 years (an average of 13 years each) before they were released. The wrongful incarcerations and subsequent litigation have thus far cost taxpayers nearly $113.3 million, an amount likely to increase considerably in the next few years because of ongoing civil suits.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office electronically records all interviews of in-custody informants. (In a case in which an in-custody informant is used, case law would require the district attorney’s office to share those recordings with the defense.) This protects prosecutors from accusations of secret deals with such witnesses, and protects criminal defendants who can see if an informant’s story changes over time.
John Spillane, who served as chief assistant district attorney in Los Angeles County, told the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice that interviews of in-custody informants by attorneys or investigators from the district attorney’s office are required to be tape recorded. See page 3 of the this section of the commission’s final report, published August 4, 2008.
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice recommended this practice in its final report, published in 2008. (See page 4.)
>> Hold pre-trial credibility hearings when
in-custody informants are listed as witnesses
In recognition of the fact that in-custody informants are often unreliable, Illinois statutes require judges to hold pre-trial hearings to assess the credibility of such a witness—but only in death penalty cases. As of last March, Illinois no longer allows capital punishment. The statute could easily be expanded to cover all major felony cases. (back to top)
>> Admit expert witness testimony
on the phenomenon of false confessions
Thirty-three men and women—39 percent—in our study of 85 exonerees falsely confessed. Ten of the false confessors in our study were sentenced to death, six to life, and all 33 served a total of 340 years. Common causes of false confessions include:
desperation (a desire to bring a grueling interrogation to an end);
mental fragility (confessions elicited from the mentally ill or developmentally disabled);
brainwashing in which the suspect is led to believe that they must have committed the crime, but cannot remember doing it;
coercion with physical violence or with threats of some onerous sentence unless the suspect confesses right away; and
fabrication (authorities claim a suspect confessed though the suspect claims he or she didn’t). (back to top)
Currently, trial judges have the discretion to admit expert testimony on the phenomenon of false confessions, but they often decline to allow it. Removing the judge’s discretion and allowing admittance of the testimony could have significant impact, particularly in cases in which the developmentally disabled or juveniles have been charged.
>> Require transparency from the Chicago Police Board
The single greatest cause of wrongful conviction in the BGA/CWC investigation was alleged police error and misconduct, appearing in 66 of the 85 cases, contributing to 14 death sentences, 17 life sentences, 779 years of wrongful imprisonment, and $207.2 million in costs to taxpayers.
Identifying problem officers, however, has been a road strewn with obstacles, particularly in Chicago, where in 2007, not even a majority bloc of city council members could pry loose a ready-made list of officers with 10 or more complaints filed against them.
Disciplining problem officers has also been difficult. A study of abuse complaints filed against Chicago police officers between 2002 and 2004, conducted by Craig Futterman, a clinical law professor at the University of Chicago, concluded that the odds that an officer charged with abuse would receive meaningful discipline were 2 in 1,000.
One small but significant step would be to require transparency from the Chicago Police Board. The board ultimately hears some of the most egregious cases of police abuse and publishes summaries of their decisions online, but in doing so, they name no names. Those summaries also fail to explain the reasons behind the board’s decision or to indicate how each member voted. (In December 2009, the Chicago Justice Project published the results of a study of 10 years of data that found that the board upheld the police superindent’s recommended discipline for a sworn officer only 37 percent of the time.)
In 2010, an ordinance that would have required the board to publish that information, proposed by Chicago Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward), died in committee, despite testimony in favor of those provisions from the head of the police department’s Internal Affairs unit. (back to top)
>> Track police prosecutions by the Cook County State’s Attorney
Chicago’s in-house police accountability agency, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), refers its most serious complaints of abusive behavior to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office for possible criminal charges. A BGA inquiry in January 2011 established that while abusive off-duty behavior does sometimes move those prosecutors to indict, abuse committed by on-duty Chicago police officers is largely ignored unless it is captured on video.
None of the officers who engaged in the torture were ever indicted by the Cook County State’s Attorney, and even after the city of Chicago acknowledged that the torture had taken place, the county’s chief prosecutor declined to question the convictions of men whose confessions were highly suspect.
With little difficulty and with minimal expense, the Cook County State’s Attorney could publish quarterly website updates tracking the number of cases referred to the office for possible criminal prosecution by the IPRA. That report could describe the alleged abuse, the police district where it took place, whether the officer was on or off-duty, the time and date at which the incident allegedly took place, and the date of receipt of the IPRA complaint. When a decision is made not to prosecute an officer, that could be reported without revealing the officer’s name. When a case resulted in an indictment, the officer could then be named on the office’s website, and thereafter the outcome of the case and any sentence imposed could also be published. This would enable the public to compare the number of cases referred with the number that result in indictment. (back to top)
>> Make forensic labs independent from law enforcement agencies
The BGA/CWC investigation found that 29 of the 85 exonerees were convicted with the help of forensic officials who supported the prosecution’s faulty theory of the case. Five of those men were sentenced to death, nine to life, and the group served a total of 329 years. Those 29 cases cost taxpayers $105.8 million in incarceration costs, compensation fees, and civil litigation.
In Illinois, most forensic testing of physical evidence for criminal cases is performed at various branches of the state police crime lab, at the DuPage County crime lab (run by the DuPage County Sheriff), and at the Vernon Hills-based Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory, which is funded by annual fees paid by approximately 40 law enforcement agencies located in nearby counties.
In February 2009, a Congressionally mandated National Academy of Sciences report, “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States,” concluded that imprecise and exaggerated forensic testimony had contributed to the admission of erroneous and misleading evidence in criminal trials, that the reliability of many forensic methods was open to question, and that forensic science experts were vulnerable to bias. The report pointed out that forensic science labs and law enforcement agencies have different missions, and recommended that labs be made independent from police departments and prosecutors offices or autonomous within them. (back to top)
>> Establish minimum levels of experience
for defense attorneys in the most serious felony cases
Allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel arose in 23 of the 85 wrongful conviction cases in the BGA/CWC investigation. Five of those 23 exonerees were sentenced to death, five to life, and the 23 served a total of 283 years in prison.
In 2001, the Illinois Supreme Court imposed higher standards on attorneys working in death penalty cases, an attempt to “insure that capital cases are tried by experienced, well-trained attorneys.” Among other requirements, the new Rule 714 barred attorneys in death penalty cases from serving as lead counsel if they did not have five years of criminal litigation experience in the previous seven years and if they had not worked as head counsel or co-counsel in at least eight felony jury trials, at least two of them murder cases, which had been tried to completion. Stiff requirements for co-counsels were also imposed.
In January 2011, the Illinois General Assembly voted to end the death penalty in Illinois, and when Governor Patrick Quinn signed the bill on March 9, Rule 714 became moot. However, the sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole remains, and other felonies now carry enhanced sentencing requirements that can amount to a virtual life sentence. All of those cases merit Rule 714’s level of protection for the defendant.
BGA/CWC Investigation: Numbers And Sources Behind The Stories
Acknowledgments
BGA Staff: James Edwards, Solomon Lieberman, Mary Frances O’Connor, Jessica Curry, Samuel Cuomo, Kathryn Chimienti; BGA Interns: Sophia Bairaktaris, Tania Karas, Gregory Pratt, Emily Jurlina, Diana Novak, Taniesha Robinson; CWC: Dolores Kennedy, Ron Fredrickson, Jennifer Linzer, Tom Severson; Navigant Consulting: Pancho Nagel; Adam Verwymeren Design.
How BGA/CWC’s investigation determined facts, figures
For the purposes of the BGA/CWC’s investigation, an exoneree was defined as someone who has been convicted of a crime and later restored to the status of legal innocence as a result of evidence that was not presented at the original trial.
This definition excludes certain categories of wrongful conviction that a layperson might call “getting off on a technicality” (e.g., the gun used in the crime was in the closet, but the conviction was overturned because police had searched the house without a warrant). The actual mechanism of exoneration varied: the 85 individuals were either acquitted upon retrial, or had all charges withdrawn by a prosecutor or dismissed by a judge, and/or received a court-issued certificate of innocence or a gubernatorial pardon.
We confined our study to cases of murder, sexual assault, attempted murder, and armed robbery. We examined only cases in which exoneration occurred after 1989, the start of the forensic DNA era in Illinois.
Because the sample was limited to the wrongfully convicted, someone who was wrongfully charged, but not convicted, did not qualify. Thus some notorious cases that cost taxpayers millions of dollars—many caused by law enforcement misconduct—are not included in the sample.
Prosecuting the innocent is more expensive because they are less likely to plead guilty and more likely to have prolonged battles in state and federal courts after conviction. We have not included prosecution costs in the investigation, however, because they are difficult to quantify and somewhat immutable: the prosecutor (and the public defender, if one is engaged) would be working on another case if the exoneree’s charge was not consuming his or her time.
I. MASTER DATABASE
Our estimate of the financial cost is conservative when judged by other standards as well. In determining the cost of incarceration in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for each of the 85 wrongfully convicted individuals, we have multiplied the number of days served by the average daily cost of keeping a prisoner in IDOC custody during the years each prisoner served. This method does not account for the fact that custody costs are higher for prisoners convicted of violent crimes, and much higher for prisoners on death row, where a good number of the individuals in the BGA/CWC investigation resided.
Some estimation was involved in determining cost of jail incarceration, in part because several counties don’t keep separate budgets for their jails and so were unable to provide cost-of-operation figures, and also because other counties were able to provide operating costs for some years but not others. For counties that were unable to provide any cost figures, we applied a cost-per-year based on a calculation of the yearly averages of those counties that did provide data. For counties that could only provide current year data (Cook County among them), we used the current cost and adjusted for previous years using the Consumer Price Index.
Some county jails could not provide precise entry and exit dates, necessary to calculate the cost of incarceration of an inmate (some of our exonerees were jailed as far back as the 1970s). In those cases we have assumed that the individual was in county custody from the date of arrest until the date he or she entered IDOC custody. In instances where we made that assumption it is noted in the text.
Three columns on the financial cost spreadsheet call for explanation. In some cases, the Illinois Department of Corrections release date (“IDOC Physical Release Date”) does not match the “Date of Final Release” found in a separate column. In those cases, the exoneree was transported from IDOC custody to a county jail, usually as a result of winning a new trial. After prevailing in that trial or having charges dropped or dismissed, the exoneree exited from a county facility, not from the IDOC, and that exit date is listed as their “Date of Final Release.”
The “Date of Exoneration” can refer to many different dates. Some individuals were pardoned, others won acquittal or had their convictions vacated, still others received court-issued certificates of innocence. Because of this variation, in some cases the “Date of Exoneration” matches the “Date of Final Release,” and in others it does not.
II. THE CAUSESOF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
In determining the causes of each wrongful conviction, we examined court documents and news articles on each of our 85 cases. With few exceptions, multiple causes contributed to each conviction. As there is no arbiter who makes a final pronouncement determining exactly where each case went wrong, our analysis depends on the public record of what was alleged—not determined—in each case.
Four of the seven categories in our study of what went wrong might not be immediately understood by the lay reader.
A case was found to include “Questionable Forensic Evidence or Testimony” any time forensics were used to help convict a defendant who was later exonerated.
An “Incentivized Witness” is one who expects or is awarded some benefit from law enforcement authorities in exchange for testimony. Such a witness might take the stand in expectation of collecting reward money, receiving some sort of other payment (e.g., “relocation money”), or receiving leniency for crimes with which he or she may be or have been charged or convicted. Sometimes the incentive comes in the form of a threat that if the witness does not testify, he or she will be charged with a crime.
The “False Confession” category includes cases in which the exoneree or a co-defendant who implicated the exoneree allegedly confessed to a crime he or she had not committed or allegedly made a statement from which authorities inferred guilt. In some cases, false confessions were coerced by physical force and in others the coercion was psychological. In other cases, someone who was mentally ill or of limited intelligence incriminated themselves. The false confession category also includes cases in which police or prosecutors claimed the accused confessed and the accused claimed the contrary.
The “No Crime Committed” category includes two cases in which a victim claimed to have been sexually assaulted. In Gary Dotson’s case, the alleged victim admitted that she’d lied and he subsequently became the first person cleared by DNA testing in Illinois. In Wilder Berry’s case, a federal judge granted him a retrial based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. (The judge called Berry’s lawyer “incompetent.”) At Berry’s second trial, a jury acquitted him based on evidence his first lawyer had failed to present.
III. TRACKING THE CRIME SPREE
To document the felonies committed by the real perpetrators while others served their prison time we examined court records, other public documents, and news articles. In 48 of the 85 cases, the real perpetrator has not been publicly identified, so the total felonies we report are without doubt vastly underestimated.
In at least two cases, law enforcement authorities have indicated that they know who has committed the crime, but they have not publicly released that person’s name, so there was no avenue to track their felonies.
In other cases, someone’s DNA was traced to the crime or the real perpetrator was identified in some other way, but no charges were filed. (In some of those cases the statute of limitations had expired by the time the felon was identified.) In three of our exonerees’ cases, someone confessed to the crime or provided details to police that only the perpetrator could know, but was not subsequently charged. (Each of those three men is already serving a severe prison sentence—one is on death row in Texas, another is serving a life sentence in Illinois, and the third is serving a 29 year sentence in Arizona.) In all of these cases, we included their felonies in our tabulations.
Lastly, in four cases on the spreadsheet there is no perpetrator to identify because either there was no crime committed or because a shooting took place and the shooter is known, but the circumstances were such that in the end, the state was ultimately unable to hold anyone responsible.
DATA PACKAGES
Below you’ll find the three downloadable data packages defined above, and a “data brief” that looks at key information for each of the 85 exonerees.
I. Master Database
II. Causes of Wrongful Convictions
III. Tracking the Crime Spree
Data is divided into two sections: a biography of the individual and his or her case, and the financial costs tied to the individual’s incarceration, compensation for wrongful conviction, and civil suits. Sources include court documents, government records, news articles, and interviews with attorneys for the wrongfully convicted. >> DOWNLOAD THE MASTER DATABASE
Data breaks down the causes behind wrongful convictions, including areas such as alleged government misconduct or error, and erroneous eyewitness identification. The sources include court documents, state and county public records and news articles. >> DOWNLOAD THE CAUSES DATABASE
Data tracks whether the real perpetrator was ever found, and, if so, the crimes he or she committed while the wrong person was serving time. Sources include court documents, Illinois Department of Corrections records and news articles. >> DOWNLOAD THE “TRACKING THE CRIME SPREE” DATABASE
A Devastating Toll: Lost Freedom, Family And Friends
While the financial cost of wrongful convictions can be estimated, no accountant can tally, no calculator can measure, and no spreadsheet can tabulate the human cost—a toll that’s horrible to consider: innocent men and women serving hundreds of years in prison while murderers and rapists roam free, families destroyed, and exonerated inmates released to a hostile marketplace.
In 85 cases of wrongful conviction, innocent men and women served 926 years for crimes they did not commit, according to a joint investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions. The study encompassed only cases in which the wrong man or woman was sent to prison for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, or armed robbery.
Forty-two men lost more than a decade of their lives, and five lost a quarter century or close to it. Often they have emerged as exonerated relics, unfamiliar with cell phones, intimidated by computers, lepers in the marketplace and sometimes pariahs in their chosen neighborhoods. All have lost what most of us hold dear—contact with spouses, children, parents, and other relatives. Some, sentenced to death, would be in the grave today if the state had had its way.
The BGA/CWC investigation found that while those wrongfully convicted men and women were targets of society’s wrath, the actual perpetrators, left on the street, went on to commit at least 97 felonies, including 14 murders, 11 sexual assaults, 10 kidnappings, 19 armed robberies, and 43 other charges, such as attempted murder of federal officers, aggravated battery, and various narcotics offenses.
And those figures are incomplete. A full documentation would require resources only government can afford. In many cases the wrong man or woman has been determined, but not the right one, so there is no way to conclude how many crimes the actual perpetrators committed, sometimes over the course of a quarter-century.
But the number of years of incarceration and the sum of the felonies can’t begin to convey the actual human cost. Hidden in the numbers is a universe of pain borne by individuals, families, communities, and even generations.
Jerry Miller: Vindicated After 25 Years
Consider, for example, the human cost of the wrongful conviction of Jerry Miller, who spent 25 years under the thumb of prison and parole officers who believed he’d committed a very brutal sexual assault. While the now 52-year-old Miller lost more than half of his life, the real perpetrator indulged in a decades-long crime spree, victimizing a series of women and assaulting 11 Chicago police officers, according to the BGA/CWC investigation.
DNA testing has shown the man whom Jerry Miller did time for was Robert Weeks.
At approximately 11 p.m. on September 16, 1981, Weeks attacked a salesperson approaching her car in a parking lot at 506 N. Rush Street in Chicago.
According to police documents, Weeks beat, raped and robbed her, and then stuffed her into the trunk and tried to drive off with her car. The parking lot cashier, however, recognized the vehicle and refused to allow Weeks to exit. A second cashier challenged him and he fled on foot. The victim, rushed to the hospital, suffered a fractured nose, her left eye was swollen shut, and she was bleeding so profusely from a laceration in her vaginal wall that no vaginal swabs were collected as evidence, according to a 2009 forensic report filed as a court document.
Two police officers, not connected with the investigation, saw a composite sketch of the perpetrator and thought it resembled Jerry Miller, whom they had stopped in Lincoln Park five days before the rape.
Miller, 23 at the time, had been honorably discharged from the Army about a year earlier, had worked as a cook at a restaurant not far from the Lincoln Park Zoo, and was back in the neighborhood because he’d heard that a donut shop in Lincoln Park was hiring. Two police officers had stopped him, asked what he was doing, and let him go. Now they thought they might have their man on the Rush Street parking lot attack.
Jerry Miller, taken shortly after his 1981 arrest for rape. Because the rapist had worn a hairnet, police had Miller wear one as well. The victim picked two other men out of the photo array, but at trial said that Miller “looked like” her attacker. (Undated)
Miller, who had never been convicted of a crime, was put in a lineup monitored by two detectives and the two officers who’d stopped Miller in Lincoln Park. Both cashiers fingered him, though the police report indicates that one identification was “tentative.” At trial, the victim testified that she believed Miller “looked like” the man who attacked her. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, but the eyewitness identification proved to be enough. On October 1, 1982, Miller was convicted of rape, robbery, and aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to 52 years.
According to police and court documents, while Miller was in custody for nearly a quarter-century, Weeks was in and out of prison himself, having committed the following offenses:
September 21, 1981: Five days after the parking lot rape, Weeks attacked a man near Division and Ashland at 11:55 p.m., beating his face and body with a chain in an unsuccessful attempt to steal the victim’s watch.
April 4, 1982: At 4:10 a.m., Weeks grabbed a 33-year-old woman who was coming home from work, pulled her into an alley off Division and Ashland, punched her in the face, bounced her head against the pavement, raped her, choked her, kicked her in the head, and then robbed her. She required surgery for a broken cheekbone and spent five days in the hospital.
April 9, 1982: Five days after the above rape, Weeks grabbed a 34-year-old woman at approximately 1 a.m. as she parked her car in an alley in Wicker Park, struck her in the face, choked her, bit her on the forehead, and tried to force her back into the car. He was unable to proceed further because a civilian responded to her screams, gave chase, and alerted police.
April 9, 1982: Weeks attacked the four officers who arrived on the scene in response to the above attack. According to court documents, he bit one officer in the hand, kicked two in the groin, and struck another in the face. Weeks pleaded guilty to the attacks on the two women in Wicker Park and the attacks on the officers, and in August, 1982 was sentenced to 12 years by Judge Thomas Maloney.
August 13, 1996: After being arrested while breaking into cars in Wicker Park, Weeks kicked the squad car window causing the door to bend out.
February 10, 1999: Weeks pleaded guilty to violating sex offender registration requirements.
December 22, 2000: Weeks raped a 28-year-old Wicker Park resident as she returned home from a party at 4:30 a.m. The woman was treated for lacerations, contusions, and hematomas to her face, neck, ribs, and legs. Weeks, who fled the scene, was not identified as the perpetrator for six years.
February 7, 2001: Weeks attacked a 23-year-old woman near Division and Ashland at 1:50 a.m. as she walked home from work, hit her in the head with a rock, broke her nose, crushed her orbital bone, and raped her. Aside from severe facial and head injuries, she suffered a compound fracture of the right wrist that required surgery. Weeks was in prison on other charges by the time he was identified as the perpetrator six years later.
March 23, 2001: After being taken to a South Side police station on a battery charge, Weeks attacked five Chicago police officers while being booked and taken to the lockup. He punched one in the face, kicked two in the head, spat in the face of a fourth, and kicked a lieutenant in the groin and back (leaving a footprint on his shirt). The lieutenant was also treated at Mercy Hospital for lacerations to his hand, sustained in the effort to get Weeks into a cell.
May 1, 2004: Weeks attacked two Chicago police officers who had arrived at the O’Hare L platform in response to a complaint of public indecency. They tried to arrest Weeks, had to call for backup, and after he was subdued, the responding officers were taken to Resurrection Hospital, one in an ambulance, the other in a police car.
(An attorney for Weeks declined to comment.)
Illinois Department of Corrections inmate Robert Weeks as of March 24, 2011.
By the time Weeks was sent to prison for the L platform attacks, the wrongfully convicted Jerry Miller was in his 23rd year of incarceration.
“[It’s] a long time,” he said in a recent interview with the BGA. “A lotta people died, a lotta things changed.
“Some people miss you, some forget you. I stayed in touch with those who wanted to stay in touch, but people move on with their lives. And they’re supposed to, they have to, because otherwise it would be like they would be inside with me. I wouldn’t want to wish that on anybody. So I said, ‘Go on with your life, I’ll catch up with you later.’ Lot of people did that.”
During that long stretch, he begged a series of law firms to take on his case to no avail. In 2000, he heard from another inmate about the Innocence Project, a New York-based group that works to free the wrongfully convicted using DNA testing. Miller thought there might be DNA in his case, and he wrote another letter.
Six years passed in the back-and-forth that followed, and on March 20, 2006, with the Innocence Project committed to his case, Miller was released on parole. After serving nearly half of his 52-year sentence, he boarded a bus to Chicago wearing prison-issue khakis and with “about $30” in his pocket.
Soon afterwards, he met with his parole officer and learned that his hard times weren’t over. Miller says that was the first time he heard that he had to register as a sex offender, that he was required to wear an electronic monitor at all times, that he was forbidden to live near a school or day care center or with relatives who had children, and that he had to enroll in sex offender classes and pay tuition to attend them.
“I was really very upset because I had just done 25 years for a crime I didn’t commit and now I had to further be humiliated,” Miller said. “I thought prison was bad. But now I was like the scum of the earth.”
He went to live with a cousin. She gave him a job driving disabled adults to various appointments, and he got a second job at a barbecue restaurant in Dolton, Ill. But he could see how much he was disrupting his cousin’s life. His photo was on the state sex offender website along with his address, date of birth, height, and weight. Parole officers came knocking on the front door.
“They literally have run of your house,” Miller said. “They walk through, questioning you about who is there. On Halloween, they are like storm troopers. They tell you don’t go to the door, do not interact with the trick-or-treaters—if you do, you will go back to prison.”
Miller kept insisting he was innocent, but disbelief, he says, was the natural reaction. He recalls being asked, “Well, why did you do all that time? Why are you on parole, if you are innocent?”
After a year on the outside, he told the BGA, “I was at the end of my rope. I felt, ‘I just can’t do this anymore. Come and get me. I am through with this parole.’
“And not more than an hour later of goin’ back home and thinking it over, I received that phone call. It was right on time.”
Slip worned by woman raped in 1981 by Robert Weeks. In 2007, DNA testing on the garment exonerated Jerry Miller. (Exhibit, Miller V. Mahon, 2009)
That phone call, on March 27, 2007, was from his attorneys. “You need to find somewhere to sit down,” they said, and then they told him that DNA test results had cleared him, that his genetic code was no match for the code in the semen on the parking lot victim’s clothing.
“I was ecstatic. Started callin’ everybody on my phone. I was laughing and saying, ‘I told you so,’ and next thing you know, my phone died. I told my parole officer, she was really happy, but I was still on parole, they couldn’t treat me any different than anyone else. With the people they deal with, how many times did they hear that the guy was innocent? They hear that from everyone. When I went to the sex offender class I told them and they was looking at me cross-eyed too.”
A few weeks later, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Miller’s attorneys filed a joint motion to vacate and dismiss Miller’s conviction, and on April 23, 2007, a judge ruled in favor, making Miller the 200th person exonerated in the United States by DNA testing.
About two weeks after Miller learned that DNA testing had cleared him, an Illinois State Police forensic scientist matched the specimen code from the 1981 parking lot rape to Robert Weeks. That link would not have happened had Weeks not attacked the two Chicago police officers on the L platform in 2004. After that offense, Weeks’s DNA profile was entered in the National DNA Index System, a criminal registry.
But in terms of justice, that link meant nothing. At that point in 2007, the statute of limitations had long passed on the rape that had robbed Jerry Miller of more than half his life.
However, six months earlier, on October 13, 2006, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office had been able to use Weeks’s DNA profile to charge him with the two Wicker Park rapes he’d gotten away with in December 2000 and February 2001. On November 19, 2009, more than two years after Miller was exonerated, Weeks was sentenced to natural life in prison on charges resulting from those two sexual assaults. He now resides in Pontiac Correctional Center.
In 2008, Miller filed a civil suit against the police department, naming the police crime lab employees and the two police officers who’d picked him up in Lincoln Park as defendants. Miller’s attorneys also sued the Chicago police detectives who’d worked on the case, alleging that their behavior in the 72 hours Miller was held in the police station after his arrest was suspicious.
According to testimony at Miller’s criminal trial and court documents filed in his civil suit, the detectives had shown the victim a photo array, ostensibly with Miller’s photo in it (he was in custody at the time). The victim picked out two men as possible suspects. Because the police failed to mention the photo lineup in their reports, Miller’s attorneys argued that it was clear that she had failed to identify Miller and had instead picked two other men.
In their complaint, Miller’s civil attorneys also charged that the parking lot cashier who was noted as providing a “tentative” identification in the lineup report grew to “sure, positive” by the end of the day as a result of a conversation with one of the officers, witnessed by no one else.
According to People’s Law Office attorney John Stainthorp, the local attorney who represented Miller along with others affiliated with the Innocence Project, by the time the case neared trial, the central issue appeared to be validity of the “inconclusive” results of the Chicago Police Crime Lab’s testing on the semen on the victim’s clothing, tests which, in the pre-DNA era, often excluded suspects based on their blood type. Miller’s legal team had hired a nationally renowned expert to repeat the tests while being observed by scientists hired by the defense. That expert’s report concluded that the results should have excluded Miller, and he could not understand how a scientist following standard procedures could have come to any other conclusion.
In pre-trial motions in the civil case, Miller’s attorneys argued that a forensic officer’s reported finding should be viewed as part of a pattern of skewed results produced by the crime lab during the 1980s, saying that “prior to, at the time of, and subsequent to the prosecution of Jerry Miller,” the lab had failed to turn over scientific evidence exculpatory of criminal defendants in the cases of 14 men who were convicted and then, years later, determined to be innocent.
The accused officer declined to have an expert of his own perform any tests. In a pre-trial motion his attorneys argued that the inconclusive finding might have been the result of his failure to perform the test properly, but in that event, he had simply made “an innocent mistake while performing the testing,” and negligence alone was not enough to support Miller’s claim that he had been framed.
Shortly before the case was to be tried, the city and Miller settled the suit for $6.3 million. According to Chicago Corporation Counsel spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle, taxpayers also covered the $1.7 million bill from attorneys hired to represent the city in the suit.
So what are the human costs of the wrongful conviction of Jerry Miller? Had Miller not been charged for the parking lot rape, might a police officer have connected Weeks to it?
The 1981 attack took place long before computers assisted such police work, yet there was a clear pattern to Weeks’s three assaults in 1981 and 1982.
All three women suffered severe facial injuries; all were white victims describing a black attacker; all were attacked on Chicago’s Near North Side by someone who prowled late at night; and two of the three were attacked outside their cars.
Police noticed the similarities between Weeks’s April 9, 1982 attempted rape and his April 4 completed rape, put him in a lineup, brought the April 4th victim in, and she identified him. If the September 1981 case had remained open until Weeks was arrested for the April 1982 attacks, might someone have noticed the similarities in all three attacks? Might Weeks have ended up in a photo array or a lineup shown to the sales representative raped six months earlier? Could his subsequent rapes and his attacks on police officers have been prevented?
We’ll never know.
One fact is certain: Nothing can restore Jerry Miller’s life before his nightmare began.
He was misidentified by eyewitnesses, suffered for lack of proper forensic testing of the specimens, and served time for a rapist—now known—who cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations passed long ago.
Many are already running elsewhere, most could be accomplished with minimal cost, and all would help to reduce the devastating human toll of wrongful convictions.
Sticker Shock: Our State Pols’ Platinum Pensions
Illinois taxpayers are on the hook to pay millions of dollars in guaranteed pension benefits to former statewide office holders, including a couple of governors, and hundreds of retired lawmakers. And the meter is still running.
While a growing number of everyday people worry about having enough to live on after they retire, some of the state’s best-known politicians, including former governors and lawmakers, are reaping hefty and guaranteed annual pension payouts backed by Illinois taxpayers.
A Better Government Association investigation found that 27 of the 286 retired office holders—or nine percent—are enjoying annual pensions of more than $100,000. In some cases, retirees draw their pensions while also working in other government-related posts or lucrative private-sector jobs. Thirty retirees, or 10.5 percent, have drawn more than $1 million each so far.
The annual $100,000-plus pension club is a virtual “Who’s Who” of famous Illinois politicians, including former Govs. Jim Edgar and James Thompson; former Senate President Emil Jones; former Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch; and former Attorney General Roland Burris.
James Edgar
Roland Burris
Emil Jones
Dawn Clark Netsch
James Thompson
Moreover, Illinois taxpayers will keep paying for their politicians’ retirements well into the foreseeable future unless there’s a radical change in state pension law. The public-pension reform law that passed in 2010 won’t cut into payments for the current crop of state public office retirees or those of aging incumbents, who in the next few years could leave the state payroll to draw their own ample pensions.
That group of elders could include Gov. Pat Quinn, 62, who also served as state treasurer and lieutenant governor, and 69-year-old Michael Madigan, who was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1970 and has been speaker for most of the past 30 years.
“No one really knew in the past how much we’re paying for these pensions,” says suburban Chicago pension consultant William Zettler, who favors an overhaul of the current state-employee retirement system. “Nobody dreamt they are as high.”
The General Assembly Retirement System (GARS), which administers the pensions for state lawmakers and constitutional officers, is one of Illinois’ five major public-pension funds, albeit the smallest.
Like other major state pension funds––which are estimated to be collectively underfunded by tens of billions of dollars—GARS is in dire financial straits. At the end of fiscal 2010, GARS was only 26 percent funded with $66.2 million in assets and $251.8 million in liabilities. (See Part 3)
The BGA investigation into politicians’ pensions is based on a GARS list dated March 7, 2011 and acquired from pension consultant Zettler, who obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act and initially tabulated it for the non-profit Family Taxpayers Foundation. The pension data in this story and in the accompanying chart has been verified by the BGA. To view the table, click here.
GARS plan participants contribute up to 11.5 percent of their pay annually and their retirement payouts depend on the total number of years served. For example, those with 20 years of service can collect up to 85 percent of their final salary for their remaining lifetime. Moreover, if a participant retires at age 60 or older, that person gets a 3 percent pension increase every year.
Politicians Just “Following the Rules”
Leading the GARS list of annual pensions is former state Sen. Arthur Berman, who collects $203,428 annually, according to the March 7 pension data. He’s drawn a total of more than $1.6 million in payouts.
The Chicago Democrat retired from the General Assembly in 2000 with a salary of $59,657. But he later took a higher-paid position with Chicago Public Schools and his pension was determined based on the higher salary under a reciprocal state-pension system agreement that ended in 1994.
“Everything I did was legal,” Berman, 75, asserts. “I served in the Illinois Legislature for 31 years and survived 22 elections. People ask me how I did it and I tell them all I did was campaign 365 days a year.”
The upper-echelon of state retirees also includes two retired governors who are drawing big bucks since leaving office.
Former Gov. Jim Edgar, who served from 1991 to 1999, is No. 5 on the list and is collecting $134,853 a year, while former Gov. James Thompson, who was in office from 1977 to 1991, and is No. 7, gets $127,215 annually.
Edgar notes that he was a CEO, running the government of a big state, but didn’t earn the type of benefits awarded to top executives at public companies.
“I didn’t get the stock options and bonuses,” he says.
Edgar defends pensions for state officials and says curtailing benefits “is going to affect who you draw in” to serve public office. Pensions help attract and retain good candidates, he says, adding that retirement benefits were not the reason he sought office.
Edgar has collected more than $1.1 million in state pension benefits, while Thompson has drawn $1.9 million. Both men have had financially beneficial careers since leaving the Executive’s Mansion.
Yet, the 64-year-old Edgar is a distinguished fellow with the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, a position he’s held since 1999. Edgar teaches and lectures for the U. of I. system and is contributing to a pension program for state university employees. He makes $177,630 at the U. of I.
Edgar also serves on two corporate boards, including nut marketer and distributor John B. Sanfilippo & Son and personal-grooming products giant Alberto-Culver Co. (Melrose Park-based Alberto-Culver agreed to sell to Unilever for $3.7 billion. That deal, announced last September, hasn’t closed.)
In fiscal 2010, ending June 24, Edgar was paid $100,760 in fees and stock awards as a director of Sanfilippo. In fiscal 2010, ending September 30, 2010, he was paid $162,136 in fees and stock for serving on Alberto-Culver’s board, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
Meanwhile, Thompson, 74, has been a partner with the law firm Winston & Strawn since 1991. He was the firm’s CEO and chairman from 1993 to 2006. He’s currently the firm’s senior chairman. While there’s no breakout of Thompson’s compensation, Winston & Strawn reported profit per equity partner of $1.39 million last year, according to trade publication American Lawyer.
He is also head of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which owns and operates U.S. Cellular Field. Thompson receives no compensation for his role.
Thompson didn’t respond to requests for comment.
While Edgar and Thompson are collecting their pensions, the same is not true for former Govs. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Ryan forfeited his pension because of his felony convictions. The decision was challenged and taken to the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld stripping the former governor of his retirement benefits.
Technically, Blagojevich is eligible for his pension upon turning 55 but whether he collects depends on the outcome of his current legal proceedings. Should his current felony conviction for lying to the FBI be upheld on appeal, or if he is convicted of another felony, Blagojevich may be ineligible to collect his pension—a determination that will likely be made by state officials.
One of Blagojevich’s most controversial decisions was naming Burris to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated in 2008 by President Barack Obama.
Burris, who is also a former state comptroller, is No.6 on the GARS list and draws a $129,162 annual pension, according to the March pension data. He’s collected $1.6 million in state pension payouts.
“It’s legal and the law allows it and that’s all I’ve got to say,” says Burris, who recently retired from the U.S. Senate and is not eligible for a federal pension.
Netsch, who logged 22 years of state service as a lawmaker and comptroller, gets an annual pension of $121,720, according to the GARS list. Since leaving office, Netsch has stayed active in Democratic Party politics and is also a professor of law emerita at Northwestern University. She’s No. 10 on the list and has received more than $1.5 million in state pension awards.
“This is a continuing subject of debate and a good target for people who want to make all public officials look like thieves and crooks,” says Netsch.
While big names of statewide office holders draw the most attention, the bulk of the General Assembly’s retiree roster consists of rank-and-file lawmakers from the House and Senate.
Among the state’s Top 10 retirees are former lawmakers Edward Petka of Will County, who ranks second-highest with $161,280; Judith Erwin of Chicago, who is third-highest with $141,476 and John Friedland of Kane County who is fourth-highest with $140,649.
Erwin, 61, is now a managing director at ASGK Public Strategies, a position she’s held since February.
“For nearly 30 years, I made employee contributions as required,” she says. “I have been fortunate to work in state government but I never did anything to impact my pension. I followed the rules.”
Petka is a 30-year legislator who retired as a 12th Circuit Court judge last year. Petka, 68, drew a salary of more than $174,000 as a judge but under a reciprocal agreement no longer permitted in Illinois, drew a much higher General Assembly pension. He’s received almost $184,000 in state-pension payouts as of March.
Friedland served 25 years in the House and Senate. He retired from the General Assembly in 1992 but draws a big pension based on a salary he earned working for the Fox River Water Reclamation District until early 1993. He’s been paid $1.9 million in state-pension benefits.
“I just followed the rules and regulations when I was in,” he says.
After 20 years in the Legislature, Erwin went on to become executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, a job she held from 2005 until August of last year. She resigned for mixing politics and state business. Among other things, she was accused of working for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign using a state-issued cell phone and email account. She resigned from her $191,000 a year agency job, paid a $4,000 fine and agreed never to seek or accept state employment again. Erwin has received just under $77,000 in state-pension benefits as of March.
Nice Work…If You Can Get It
For incumbents, becoming eligible for a GARS pension is a fairly easy bar to reach in terms of time on the job and age.
A member is eligible to start drawing from a pension at age 62 if he worked at least four years in the system. Members with eight years of work can collect pensions at age 55.
Moreover, legislators are basically part-time employees who work about eight months of the year. Often, those lawmakers have businesses on the side that can include practicing law or owning a company.
On top of that, lawmakers and all state public pension employees are entitled to free health care, a benefit that wasn’t touched as part of the reform last year.
“A guy who retires at 60 is going to cost $15,000 to $20,000 a year in medical benefits, too,” Zettler says. “It’s a huge benefit.”
However, Berman counters that public pension and health care insurance is a well-earned benefit necessary to draw capable people to serve in office.
Netsch agrees with those sentiments, saying public pensions are “a cost of doing business” needed to help recruit and keep good workers and office holders.
Moreover, she says it is unfair to paint legislators as part-timers because “most people have to dramatically cut back or give up outside activities.”
Yet while politicians are guaranteed a pension, many of their constituents fear the prospect of retiring, especially in a fragile economy, say industry experts.
More than any time in the past 20 years, Americans are more pessimistic about their chances for a comfortable retirement, according to Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a non-profit organization that studies retirement and other worker issues.
And while many Fortune 500 CEOs and Wall Street financiers are pulling down huge compensation packages and fat bonuses, it is very rare for a middle manager or an everyday worker to draw $100,000 a year in retirement, says Jack VanDerhei, director of the research group.
Indeed, many Americans fret about outliving their life savings, he asserts.
Half of the more than 1,000 workers surveyed by EBRI recently said they worried they won’t be able to afford retirement. The survey also found that 34 percent of workers last year had to tap into an Individual Retirement Account, 401K, retirement savings or investment account to pay basic expenses such as mortgages, health-care insurance or utility bills.
Fifty-six percent of those surveyed had less than $25,000 in savings and investments for retirement. Only 59 percent surveyed said they or a spouse currently were saving for retirement, down from 65 percent in 2009.
Twenty percent surveyed said they intend to retire at a later age than originally planned. Fourteen percent have retirement savings of at least $100,000 and 10 percent have savings of $250,000 or more.
Undoubtedly, General Assembly and other state employees enjoy a level of security that private-sector retirees could only wish to have.
For instance, if a private company can’t fund its pensions and a benefit plan is taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), retirees are only promised a portion of their retirement savings. In 2005, for example, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled United Airlines could default on its pension obligations, leaving 122,000 workers and retirees with diminished retirement plans. The highest paid workers lost half their pension benefits.
The maximum guaranteed PBGC pension amount is $4,500 a month—or $54,000 a year—for workers retiring at age 65 this year, in 2010 or in 2009.
In comparison, an Illinois state employee is constitutionally guaranteed to get his or her full pension—no matter what the financial condition of the pension fund.
Governor, Speaker Open to Making Changes
Among those enjoying that guarantee is the current flock of incumbent state lawmakers and constitutional office holders including the current governor and speaker of the house.
Asked about the possibility of Madigan drawing a large pension some day, his spokesman Steve Brown defends his boss, saying that the speaker ran a “multi-million dollar operation” for decades. Madigan performed a job comparable to a private-sector business, Brown says.
Madigan is open to additional public-pension reforms, and the General Assembly pensions will be subject to any additional changes that may occur, Brown adds.
Gov. Quinn’s budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft wouldn’t comment on her boss eventually drawing a sizable state pension. “Governor Quinn is currently working and not collecting a pension,” she says.
But Kraft says Quinn is interested in discussing greater restrictions on state pensions. The governor “feels large state pensions that are already being collected need further review, and is open to further discussions on this matter,” she says.
Some changes are already in place, sparked by a pension-reform bill signed into law last year.
Under the new law, legislators and state officials who begin their jobs after Jan. 1, 2011 are subject to new eligibility rules.
Now, new hires—including brand new lawmakers and office holders—will have to wait until they are 67 years old, with 8 years of service, to qualify for benefits. A General Assembly member with 8 years of service can retire at 62 but will receive decreased benefits under the revamped pension rules.
Retirement benefits will be figured on a maximum salary of $106,800 while cost of living increases will rise at the rate of inflation or no more than 3 percent (whichever is lower).
Backers of the pension law say these reforms will save the state $200 billion over the next 35 years.
Others are not so sure it’s enough.
Of all the states facing problems funding their pension plans, Illinois has the dubious distinction of being the worst in the nation, according to the Washington-based Pew Center on the States.
“Illinois has some extraordinary challenges to deal with,” says Kil Huh, research director for Pew’s state policy arm.
Until those challenges are confronted and the pension system is reformed, Illinois taxpayers will continue to dole out millions of dollars to retired public servants.
Jerry Miller, taken shortly after his 1981 arrest for rape. Because the rapist had worn a hairnet, police had Miller wear one as well. The victim picked two other men out of the photo array, but at trial said that Miller “looked like” her attacker. (Undated) 
