Ryan rips 'corrupt system'

By Michele Steinbacher, Pantagraph
April 9, 2004

NORMAL -- Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan says that with each passing day, he feels even more strongly that the death penalty is wrong. "It's a rotten, corrupt system that is racist and unfair to the poor," he said of how the state imposed the death penalty. He spoke to about 200 people attending a political science conference Thursday at Illinois State University.

"I don't think we can ever fix the system," he said. "I don't think we can have a perfect system ... if there's even a whisper of a question" about someone's guilt.

On Saturday, Ryan will leave for Geneva, Switzerland, where he'll speak to the U.N. Human Rights Commission about his turnaround from death-penalty supporter to abolitionist.

Ryan, 70, said he doubts he'll see the death penalty abolished in his lifetime because it is such a politically charged topic, but young people offer hope.

"This generation has a better understanding of human rights," he said.

While he's gained worldwide recognition for halting Illinois executions, back in his home state Ryan was indicted in December on corruption charges. Ryan refused to comment to reporters on the charges, citing advice from his lawyers.

As a state legislator, the Kankakee Republican voted to re-enact the death penalty in 1977. But as he worked his way up the state hierarchy as secretary of state and then governor, he said he watched wrongfully convicted men freed.

Elected governor in 1998, he declared the system flawed and imposed a moratorium in 2000.

In January 2003, with only days left in office, Ryan pardoned four death-row prisoners and commuted all 167 other death sentences in Illinois.

"I did what I had to do," he said, noting the state Supreme Court upheld his actions. "Maybe all (167) were guilty, but who am I to decide if even one wasn't?"

Ryan said he wanted the moratorium only until the system could be improved, but in fall 2003 he said he realized no reforms could ensure innocent people would be spared.

Ryan travels extensively, "bringing the message about the unfairness of the system," he said. His efforts led to Nobel Peace Prize nominations in 2003 and 2004.

Ryan's speech Thursday closed the 12th annual Illinois Conference for Students of Political Science at ISU.

The keynote speaker was Edwin Colfax, director of the Death Penalty Education Project at Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions. The center was instrumental in helping free several men from death row, including Anthony Porter.

Porter, whose IQ is so low court officials at one time questioned whether he comprehended what was happening to him, was freed in 1999. Evidence uncovered
by Northwestern students showed he was innocent of the two murders of which he
was convicted.

Ryan said Porter's case changed his mind.

"Everything that I believed in came into question" with the unfolding of Porter's story, Ryan said.

"He spent 16 years on death row, and he almost was put to death," Ryan said, pounding his fists. "How does that happen -- to sit on death row innocent for
16 years in America?"