Friday, January 10, 2003

"The governor wants to talk about some specific cases tomorrow where there was manifest injustice," Mr. Culloton said this evening. "As for what action he will take, I would encourage everyone to stay tuned."


Illinois Expected to Free 4 Inmates on Death Row
Gov. George Ryan plans to pardon at least four death row inmates on Friday in a last-minute exercise of executive power, a participant in the discussions about the decision said today. He is also expected on Saturday to commute many of the state's remaining 150 death sentences to life in prison.

The 4 men whose freedom is expected are among 10 who say they had been wrongfully convicted, in part because of false confessions beaten out of them by detectives at the Chicago Police Department's Area 2, under the direction of Cmdr. Jon Burge. Mr. Burge was fired in 1993 after being accused of torturing men suspected of murder.

The pardons will come three days before Governor Ryan's term expires on Monday and nearly three years after he became an international hero among opponents of capital punishment by declaring a moratorium on executions. Mr. Ryan, a Republican, was elected as a supporter of the death penalty. But with 13 death row inmates exonerated and only 12 executed since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977, he said the system could not be trusted.

Mr. Ryan's spokesman, Dennis Culloton, declined to discuss details of the twin speeches the governor has planned, for Friday at the DePaul University College of Law and for Saturday at Northwestern University Law School, whose Center on Wrongful Convictions has led the call for clemency.

"The governor wants to talk about some specific cases tomorrow where there was manifest injustice," Mr. Culloton said this evening. "As for what action he will take, I would encourage everyone to stay tuned."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/national/10DEAT.html

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