THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA possibly by imposing a moratorium, that no death penalty be imposed as a result of racial bias.134 Military commissions The military order establishing military commissions to prosecute persons currently detained at Guantanamo Bay envisages the death penalty.135 The military order has been widely criticized due to the perceived failure of the trial procedures contained therein to comply with international fair-trial standards. President Bush has declared a total of 15 of the persons detained at Guantanamo Bay as eligible for trial before the military commissions. Blanket commutations in Illinois In April 2002, a bipartisan commission appointed by then-Governor George Ryan released the findings of its two-year study of the death-penalty system in Illinois. The commission recommended dozens of reforms to the state's criminaljustice system that would reduce the scope and arbitrariness of capital punishment and lower the risk of wrongful convictions and executions. The commission was unanimous in concluding that no system, given human nature and frailties, could ever guarantee absolutely that no innocent person would be sentenced to death. A majority of the commission favoured abolishing capital punishment entirely. In January 2003, Ryan commuted the sentences of the 167 inmates on death row in Illinois, citing the flawed process that led to the death sentences. Pardon or commutation At the federal level, the president has the authority to grant clemency, and, at the state level, the state governor has the authority to grant clemency, although the process differs from state to state. According to unofficial statistics, clemency was granted in four cases during the first half of 2004. 134 135 Concluding Observations of the CERD on the United States, A/56/18, 14 August 2001, Paragraph 396. Military Commission Order No. 1 "Procedures for trials by military commissions of certain nonUnited States citizens in the war against terrorism", 21 March 2002, Part 6(g). 43