I've always had a soft spot in my heart for George Ryan, the ex-Governor of Illinois, who is currently in prison. Whether it was his principled opposition to the death penalty and his commutation of the death sentences of over 100 on death row or his trips to Cuba to seek trade and better relations - I'm not exactly sure.
But when I heard about U.S. District Court Rebecca Pallmeyer’s decision to keep Ryan behind bars (with the holidays upon us), well that just pissed me off. Here's an old man with a wife who's dying of cancer, and the judge can't let him out. That's just plain cruel and I don't get it. It's plain wrong.
Free George Ryan!
In last Sunday's paper can be found a very basic refutation which excerpt follows.
ReplyDelete"Stosh," a frequent contributor to the message boards at Change of Subject, smacked some sense into my heart: Yes, George Ryan should be out of prison today. And he would be if he'd simply admitted to his crimes and pleaded guilty after his indictment seven years ago.
"This entire process took four years," wrote Stosh, referring to the approximate time between Ryan's indictment and when he finally reported to prison to begin serving a 61/2-year sentence. "Ryan's refusal to admit his wrongdoing is what is causing this situation. Nothing else."