Illinois governor exiting with pardons

CHICAGO — Outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan has become the unlikely poster boy for reforming capital punishment.

To the chagrin of prosecutors and glee of death-penalty opponents, the Republican yesterday pardoned four men who he said had been beaten into confessing to murders they did not commit.

Ryan chastised prosecutors, judges and legislators for looking the other way even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the capital-punishment system is broken.

And with a second major death-penalty speech scheduled today, he has hinted strongly that he will commute many of the death sentences of more than 150 remaining inmates on Illinois' death row.

"The system has proved itself to be wildly inaccurate, unjust, unable to separate the innocent from the guilty and, at times, racist," Ryan said at a news conference.

While he has been hailed by death-penalty opponents around the world for his actions — Ryan imposed the nation's first moratorium on executions three years ago — critics complain that the governor merely is trying to deflect public attention from his political troubles. Prosecutors contend that Ryan, a pharmacist by trade, is failing crime victims.

"For the governor to grant pardons to these convicted murderers is outrageous and unconscionable," State's Attorney Richard Devinet said. "By his actions today, the governor has breached faith with the memory of the dead victims, their families and the people he was elected to serve."

From the beginning of his term to the end — he leaves office Monday — Ryan has been mired in controversy. A bribery scandal from his time as secretary of state has ensnared many of his closest allies and is threatening to implicate Ryan directly.

Republicans blame his troubles for their loss in the past election of the governor's office and both houses of the Legislature — the first time in three decades that the GOP has not controlled at least one.

Controversies aside, fixing the death penalty has become a mission for Ryan. There was the moratorium, a blue-ribbon panel he appointed that studied the issue for two years and, in recent months, unprecedented clemency hearings for all 159 inmates on death row. Ryan today will announce how many on death row he will spare, indicating yesterday that he possibly will commute some to life sentences or allow others out on time served.

Even Ryan admits that the path he has taken is foreign. He came into office four years ago pledging to invest in schools, fix roads and improve transit systems.

"The death penalty was nowhere on the radar," he said.

That changed when studies showed that since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977, 12 men had been executed but 13 men had been exonerated. Ryan pledged to stop executions and fix the system.

Yesterday, he pardoned four men — Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley and Stanley Howar — who were among dozens of men who claimed they were tortured by members of the Chicago Police Department's violent-crimes detective unit that former Lt. Jon Burge ran for more than two decades.

Each man said they confessed to murders to stop abuse that included near-suffocation and severe beatings. Burge was fired in 1993 after a police inquiry found he tortured suspects; he denies doing anything wrong.

"If I hadn't reviewed the case, I wouldn't believe it myself," Ryan said.

Hobley, Patterson and Orange were released by evening. Howard remains incarcerated for other crimes — non-capital offenses that Ryan and others believe Howard may not have committed.

"It's a dream come true — finally," said Hobley, 42, as he left the Pontiac Correctional Center. He spent 15 years in prison for an arson fire in which he saved a toddler but lost his wife and infant son. Seven people were killed.

Families of the men Ryan pardoned cried yesterday as they began making plans to pick them up from prison.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended the speech, lauded Ryan as a "man of conscience," but said more needs to be done. "We need a system of checks and balances, not just a good man every now and then," Jackson said.

Others were not pleased. One man announced to no one in particular after Ryan's speech: "I hope he gets indicted next week," referring to a drivers'-licenses-for-bribes scandal. Prosecutors have said Ryan was present when an aide allegedly ordered state employees to destroy key evidence in the case.

Many families of other victims of people on death row said they are expecting a sleepless night. They will receive an express-mail package from Ryan this morning telling them whether he has given clemency to the convicted killer of their loved ones.

Information from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.