Supreme Court Turns Down Former Gov. Ryan's Appeal
CHICAGO (WBBM/AP) -- Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear former Governor George Ryan's appeal, his legal team is preparing a petition to the President for clemency.
"In my opinion, the next appropriate step is to ask the President of the United States for executive clemency," said former Gov. James Thompson, whose law firm, Winston & Strawn, has represented Ryan pro bono since his indictment.
"His career is gone. His reputation is gone. His pension, for the moment, is gone," Thompson said.
He said the petition, which will seek to commute Ryan's sentence to time served -- and not an outright pardon -- will argue that Ryan is 74 and that he has health issues.
"You talk about the complete person," said Thompson, a former prosecutor who considered a number of clemency petitions as Illinois governor.
"Every conceivable purpose that you can think of for criminal sentencing has been served, whether it's deterrence, p
punishment, or any other theory that lies behind the criminal justice system," he said.
Thompson said he does not expect Ryan's decision to empty Illinois' Death Row as he left office to be a factor.
Ryan is imprisoned at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., just over the Illinois border. Thompson said Ryan spends much of his day doing prison maintenance.
Thompson noted that President George W. Bush has granted fewer pardons and commutations than any other recent U.S. president, but refused to say if the petition would be timed to make the appeal to Mr. Bush or his successor.
The justices made no comment on their action in response to Ryan's claim that he and his co-defendant, businessman Larry Warner, didn't receive a fair trial.
At the heart of the accusations against former Governor Ryan: the Willis family - Scott and Janet Willis. Six of their children died in 1994 in a fiery crash caused by a truck driver who got his license through bribes, when George Ryan was Secretary of State.
The Reverend Scott Willis talked with Newsradio 780 about the Supreme Court decision.
"We work within the system," Willis says. "We feel that the system is working, but there is no joy in the result of Governor Ryan going to jail."
Scott Willis and his family live in Tennessee now. We reached the Willises here in Chicago. Scott Willis says it's the first time the family has been here since October. They visited the library here - and Willis says his son read the news about the Supreme Court decision on a computer.
Ryan's lawyers had argued that his chances of getting a fair trial were wrecked when Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer replaced two jurors with alternates after deliberations were already under way.
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier upheld the convictions.
The former governor was convicted in April 2006 of steering contracts, tax fraud, misuse of tax dollars and state workers, and killing a bribery investigation. Elected governor in 1998, after serving as secretary of state, he was in office only a few weeks before the federal investigation became public. He served only one term.
Ryan began serving his sentence Nov. 7 at a minimum security camp outside the federal correctional center at Oxford, Wis., before being transferred in February to a similar camp at Terre Haute, Ind.
Contents of this site are Copyright 2008 by WBBM. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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