(Chicago, IL‚) January 11, 2003. Today, Governor George Ryan in the largest action of commutation in the US by a governor spared 167 men and women from the state's death chamber. Yesterday he pardoned four men on death row bringing the total to 171 during the two-day frenzy of humanitarian actions. Three of today's 167 prisoners under a death sentence were reduced to 40 years in prison to reflect what co-defendants in those cases were given. All the rest, including twelve technically off death row for further court hearings were commuted to natural life in prison without parole.
Ryan's announcement was anti-climactic by the time of the speech, but still drew a standing ovation from the 400 people in attendance. The speech at Northwestern University's School of Law drew a VIP audience and hundreds of media personnel that transmitted his speech throughout the world.
In introducing Governor Ryan, Larry Marshall, the Legal Director of the Wrongful Conviction Center said, "Governor Ryan through this process has opened his soul to change."
Ryan as he did on Friday at DePaul Law School lambasted the legislature for ignoring his 85 reforms suggested for improving a flawed system, called county state's attorneys as employing an unfair system of justice and called the US more in line with Third World countries, then advanced societies on the death penalty.
Ryan cited that only two percent of the 1,000 murders in Illinois in 2002 resulted in a death sentence. He asked several times where fairness was, if 98 percent of the murders resulted in less than a death sentence. Ryan also dramatically said, "In the United States the overwhelming majority of those executed are psychotic, alcoholic, drug addicted or mentally unstable. They are frequently raised in an impoverished and abusive environment."
He cited other statistics that showed:
Ryan called the death system an "absolute embarrassment." He cited the following:
The number of 17 exonerated men since 1977;
If you commit murder in a rural county, you are five times more likely to face death row, than a defendant from urban Cook County;
33 others have been wrongfully convicted on murder charges; and
93 people since 1977 have had death sentences rescinded or released from custody because they were innocent.
Ryan taking a page from Cook County State Attorney Dick Devine called this system 'outrageous and unconscionable."
Ryan also said his family has not been immune from the tragedy of murder of close friends. He said that the murder of Steve Small from Kankakee, part of Small Family Newspapers, hit his family hard.
Ryan also reached out to Mexico by repairing a situation where five foreign nationals of that country had been denied the right to meet with Mexican Consulate officials. The Mexican Consul General in Chicago attended to acknowledge Ryan's repair of this violation of a treaty.
Turning his focus on the legislature, he said, "The legislature has thumbed their nose at reforms three times."
Later at a news conference he said without being specific, "Legislative action would have had an impact."
Ryan also said that murder victim families "have every right to feel they have been betrayed by my action today." He also said he stood by his actions and would sleep well tonight.
Ryan in closing his hour-long speech called the death penalty system "arbitrary and capricious--and therefore immoral."
Picking up on the statement of the late US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, he said, "I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death."
Ryan ended the speech by saying, "The legislature couldn't reform it. Lawmakers won't repeal it. But I will not stand for it. I must act. Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error--error in determining guilt and error in determining whom among the guilty deserves to die. Because of all these reasons today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates."
When asked later, Ryan would not rule out working on this issue for an organization after he leaves the governorship on Monday.