Chicagoist: George Ryan Shouts Down Death Penalty Before Taking His Leave

Joe

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:18:23 -0600

Geekgrrl: Ryan became vocal on the death penalty only after the corruption clouds swirled. While I agree that the death penalty system in Illinois was broken, Ryan likely commuted those sentences to curry favor with potential jurors and give himself a legacy outside of corruption.

curmudgeon

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:20:43 -0600

Maybe he considers himself a murderer of 6 children and decided to spare his own life.

geekgrrl

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:47:25 -0600

i venture you're right on the pardoning; i'll fix that. i'm conflicted too. on the one hand, he had his fingers in all this corruption; on the other, he takes a very hard anti-death penalty stand. they seem to be unrelated. did he have this stand all along, or was it prompted due to the trouble he was in?

Annie

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:09:40 -0600

If he's in federal prison, I don't think G Rod has anything to do with pardoning him. I have highly conflicted feelings about Ryan. On one hand, I totally support what he did with the death penalty moritorium. But I also firmly believe that he would not have done it if he had any speck of a political career left. Does the lack of consequences make it any less heroic? Does heroism even enter into it? There's a lot of circular thinking involved.