Ryan Verdict Redux

By Amy Hart in News on Apr 19, 2006 1:30PM

When it was announced that George Ryan was found guilty on all counts on Monday, we were definitely surprised. We thought the jury would find him guilty on some of the lesser charges and basically let him off with a slap on the wrist, resulting in a big FU to taxpayers who footed the bill for the trial, as well as to federal investigators who spent eight years pursuing Ryan and codefendant Larry Warner.

We’re satisfied with the verdict and pleased to hear that, contrary to how some media reports made it sound, the jury seemed to really take this case seriously and work together through the difficult process of evaluating their instructions and the evidence. While there was no “smoking gun,” there didn’t need to be. The totality of the evidence proved that Ryan misused his office and abused the public trust. We will always be grateful for Ryan taking a stand against the death penalty, but that doesn’t cancel out his illegal and immoral actions and the damage they had on his office and the citizens of Illinois.

Illinois politicians have come out in support of the jury’s decision (like they would actually go against it), and some of them are probably taking deep breaths right now as they look at investigations into their own administrations. Will this change the culture of corruption in politics? Maybe for a little while, at least on the surface. But the chances of a politician getting caught red handed are slim and might just be worth the risk for a little personal gain. Still, we look at this verdict and think it's safe to let our idealistic light shine just a little bit brighter for the time being.

But hold up. Now we find out that jury foreman Sonja Chambers lied on her pretrial questionnaire, an offense that previously got two jurors kicked off the case. In fact, that was why it took so long for the verdict to be read on Monday. The defense was again asking for a mistrial.

So what will happen now? It's too early to tell, but we sense the defense is salivating over this development as they seek to have the conviction overturned, and our light of idealism is once again being overshadowed by a black hole of cynicism. The good news is that federal judges are now looking into conducting background checks on potential jurors so we hopefully don't have to deal with messes like this again.

Image via Christian Science Monitor