Ex-illinois governor George Ryan, known for the commissioning of the death cell, dies at 91

George Ryan, the former Republican governor of Illinois, who amazed the nation by hiring executions and clearing his state's death cell, died on Sunday at the age of 91. His death is the death of one of the most consistent – and most controversial – education in the modern history of American criminal justice.

Once an unshakable supporter of the death penalty, Ryan left the office in 2003 after converting the convictions of all 167 people in Illinois' death cell. He committed himself directly and quoted her illegal beliefs. The comprehensive step remains one of the boldest acts of mercy in the history of US history and a crucial moment in national settlement on the death penalty.

George Homer Ryan was published in Kankakee, Illinois, Illinois, as a pragmatic and persistent legislator in 1934. At the beginning of his political career – for the first time in the Statehouse, later as State Secretary and Lieutenant Governor – he supported the reinstatement of the death penalty and had the dominant policy of the late 20th century.

“I would do it again, even if I know what it would cost me.” – George Ryan

“I voted. I believed it. I thought it was startled by the crime,” he said in an interview with the avant -garde from 2021. “But I also believed in justice – and that meant not to perform innocent people.”

The catalyst for Ryan's transformation came in 1999 when Anthony Porter, a mentally handicapped black, relieved 50 hours before his planned execution. Journalism students from Northwestern University have contributed to uncovering evidence that implicable another man in the double murder.

“I was stunned,” said Ryan. “With what system can College children do what the dishes and lawyers didn't do? Then I realized that something was broken.”

In Until I could be sureRyan wrote his memoirs in 2020 that Porter's case “destroyed my self -confidence. It was the first time that I really started that our system could come within hours after killing an innocent man – and that we never knew it.

After the dismissal of Porter, the Chicago Tribune published a scorching series on the state's death penalty system, in which cases were emphasized that were impaired by police abuse, misconduct by the public prosecutor, poor defense work and racist prejudices. Ryan replied by declaring a moratorium for executions in 2000 and making Illinois the first state to do this voluntarily.

He also founded the Illinois Commission on Capital punishment, which gave 85 recommendations to improve fairness and accuracy. But Ryan became increasingly disillusioned with the default of the legislator.

“It was the most difficult day of my life. I not only put the sentences. I said the state misunderstood it – death wrong.” – George Ryan

“I waited for you to repair it,” he said. “But the reforms did not come. And I couldn't leave the conscience to the next man.”

When he prepared to leave his office, Ryan began to personally check personally for death penalties. What he found – closed confessions, unreliable witnesses, ineffective lawyers – condemned his conviction that the system was irrevocably broken.

“I read thousands of pages,” he said to The Vanguard. “Everyone followed me. You could see how poverty, breed and bad lawyers were about the death sentences. It was not justice. It was roulette.”

The cases that disturbed him were those of the “Distration Ten”, people who said they were tortured by members of the Chicago police department under the command of Detective Jon Burge. Some described that they were beaten with plastic bags, shocked by cattle products or with telephone books.

Ryan personally marked the files of Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard and came to the conclusion that they had been condemned to die based on spoiled evidence. On January 10, 2003, he spent full forgives shortly before the office was departed.

“That was the most difficult day of my life,” he recalled later. “I not only committed the sentences. I said the state misunderstood it – death wrong.”

In his book Ryan considered: “Grace is not a weakness. It is strongly founded in humility. To kill in the name of justice when justice is absent, the state -sponsored revenge.”

The counter reaction was quick and relentless. The public prosecutor accused him of having abused his power. The families of the victims felt cheated. “I was called a traitor,” he said. “But I didn't do it to be popular. I did it because otherwise I couldn't sleep at night.”

Shortly after leaving the office, Ryan was charged and convicted of the federal government's allegations of corruption, which were associated with his time as Foreign Minister. It served in the federal prison for more than five years. Critics claimed that his death penalty was a distraction from the scandal. But Ryan never fluctuated to defend the grace decisions.

“I would do it again, even if I know what it would cost me,” he said.

International personalities such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela praised Ryan's moral clarity. Tutu wrote to him in 2003: “Her courage confirms the dignity of every person, even those who have been annoyed.”

George Ryan's actions contributed to triggering a national shift. Illinois officially abolished the death penalty in 2011. Other states soon followed. Ryan's dramatic status owe law by exposing the practical and moral defects in the death penalty to a wider audience.

In his later years, Ryan became a pronounced abolitionist and demanded a federal moratorium. “You cannot insert this system into justice,” he told the avant -garde. “You either stop killing people, or you always make mistakes that you can't take back.”

He is survived by his wife Lura Lynn and her children. A private service takes place in Kankakee.

Ryan's legacy remains a topic of the debate – but the death penalty is engraved in history. A Republican governor, once proud of his recording of law and order, chose the truth about politics, mercy over revenge. As he wrote in his memoirs: “I couldn't be sure. And that was the end of the argument for me.”

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