“I’m ready to go,” said former Gov. George Ryan, who planned to caravan with his family to the federal prison in Oxford, Wis., today.
“Look, I’m fine. It’s the beginning of a journey I hadn’t expected, but it isn’t over,” Ryan told Sneed in an exclusive interview Monday night.
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John Cole
I am not going to overlook Gov. Ryan’s many crimes, but, IMHO, his behavior regarding the death penalty means, to me at least, that he has paid his debt in full.
Zifnab
So he’s living after the fall?
Do you think he feels “I’ll be Alright Without You?”
Perhaps he’s just a victim, having been caught in the line of fire.
I bet he’s even planning an Escape.
Pb
Uh-oh, that story doesn’t list his political affiliation at all! Quick, someone call Newsbusters, yet again the dastardly liberal media is… what’s that, he’s a Republican?! Uhh… nevermind!
Dennis-SGMM
Rev. Duane Willis and his wife, Janet, might disagree. Their six children were killed in a crash caused by a truck driver who’d obtained his commercial license by bribing an Ohio official. One of Ryan’s rackets was the issuance of commercial trucker’s licenses to anyone who paid a sufficient bribe – regardless of their qualifications to hold the license. A portion of each bribe was routinely funneled into Ryan’s campaign coffers.
Chicago Sun Times
Punchy
Shorter Cole–he exercised common sense and identified a blantantly obvious injustice; therefore, I absolve him of all his crimes.
Bruce Moomaw
Well, it’s more than most American politicians (in either party) have been willing to do. It doesn’t absolve him of everything he did, but it definitely absolves him of part of it (unless, that is, he did in return for a payoff, which I suppose is possible). In any case, given the horrendous number of seriously doubtful verdicts turned up by that investigation of Illinois’ Death Row before he did it, I still regard what he did as completely justifiable.
Leland Milton Goldblatt
I will remember him (George H Ryan)being called worthy
of a Nobel Peace Prize for emptying death row in Illinois when it became clear so many cases were deeply flawed, or for traveling to Cuba to try to engage Fidel Castro.
One of the finest men I know. He bought peace to the
Illinois state house.
eric
I feel sorry for him and respect his job as governor for the most part.