Madej Case
When Illinois Governor George Ryan granted blanket clemency to all 167 inmates in the state’s death row last January, the last thing one might have expected was for any of them to object. But for Gregory Madej, still residing in Stateville Prison in Joliet, the Governor’s commutation of his death sentence to life in prison was a let-down.
Mr. Madej, a Polish national, was convicted of murder and felony murder in 1982 for rape, deviate sexual assault, and armed robbery. He was sentenced to death. He spent the next two decades appealing his conviction and sentence. In March 2002, Judge David Coar of the Northern District of Illinois granted him a writ of habeas corpus, because he had received ineffective counsel at his original sentencing. The court vacated Mr. Madej’s death sentence and ordered that the state re-sentence him within 60 days of the March order, as supplemented on September 25, 2002.
