Ryan Attorneys File Emergency Motion For Release

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 6, 2011 1:30PM

With news of Lura Lynn Ryan in intensive care due to complications from chemotherapy, attorneys for her husband, former Governor George Ryan, filed an emergency motion yesterday to have Ryan released so that he can be at his wife's side.

The motion filed with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals states that Lura Lynn Ryan was admitted to with septic shock, a side effect of the chemotherapy she's having for incurable cancer that has spread to her lungs, liver, pancreas, back and ribs. "Though neither radiation nor chemotherapy will affect a cure, Mrs. Ryan . . . has elected to receive both treatments in the hope that they will keep her alive until she can be with her husband to say goodbye," the motion read.

Former Governor Jim Thompson, serving as one of Ryan's attorneys, said that Lura Lynn Ryan's condition is being taken on an hour-to-hour basis. The motion reads that George Ryan poses no flight risk, is not a danger to the community, and should be released during daytime hours. Prison wardens can grant bedside visit requests, but it's unknown whether one was made for George Ryan. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer last month upheld the most recent motion filed by George Ryan's attorneys to have his conviction overturned based on the Supreme Court's narrower definitions of the Honest Services Rule, stating in her ruling that, while she empathized with the Ryans, George Ryan put himself and his family in this situation with the actions that led to his conviction and prison sentence.