Posted on 12/03/2008 11:48:21 AM PST by steve-b
Despite receiving an "outpouring" of "overwhelmingly negative" feedback from the public, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is asking President Bush to commute former Gov. George Ryan's sentence to time served....
Durbin said he isn't asking that George Ryan be pardoned for his crimes, but that he be freed from prison after serving just one year of a 6 1/2 year sentence....
Ryan was convicted in 2006 in a racketeering fraud scheme.
"I would speak out for justice in any case brought to my attention," Durbin said. However, Durbin said he couldn't remember a time that he's written a president, asking him to step in.
Durbin said many people who have spoken to him say Ryan shouldn't get a break because he never apologized. He pointed to a statement released by Ryan's lawyer, ex-Gov. James Thompson. Thompson released an excerpt of Ryan's petition to Bush where Ryan expresses "a deep shame for me in serving this 78-month sentence resulting from my public corruption conviction."...
Ryan's racketeering conviction included his efforts as secretary of state to quash a probe into a highway tragedy that killed six children of the Willis family in 1994.
A lawyer for the Rev. Scott and Janet Willis said the couple opposes any leniency for Ryan....
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Translation: I'm sorry... sorry that I got caught.
Blank both of them!
Pond scum, both of them.
The fact is, all illinois politicains should be in jail. Ryan should be an example to all, that sometimes(not often) an illinois politicain will be held acountable.
Even our beloved Mayor Daley???
...The investigation into corruption in Ryan's office began with a horrendous tragedy, while Ryan was still Illinois' secretary of state. On Election Day 1994, a piece of a tail-light assembly fell off a semi-trailer on a Milwaukee expressway and bounced beneath a minivan, rupturing its gas tank and exploding the van into flames. Six children from the Willis family of Chicago, en route to a little getaway, were killed; their parents were severely burned.Other motorists told police they tried to warn the driver of the truck that the piece was dangling dangerously, but he didn't understand English. Federal law requires truckers to know and read English to get a license, and investigators were alarmed that this driver — who was from Chicago — didn't. Wisconsin authorities notified the Illinois secretary of state's office, which licenses drivers and was then headed by the freshly re-elected Ryan.
An internal investigation found the driver may have paid a bribe to get his license. Ryan's response was to squash the probe and fire the investigators. Four years later, with Ryan campaigning for governor, federal prosecutors picked up the case....
It’s only a matter of time... I just hope Blago is next.
Is this the same Ryan that was running for Senate and ended up in the klink and then Keyes took his slot but had insufficient time to prepare for a campaign and this is how the esteemed THE ONE, THE MOST MERCIFUL, THE MOST GRACIOUS ONE got elected?
If this is the one and the same then Bush should put Ryan under the jail.
Anybody know why it is that ALL outgoing presidents seem to get on the “pardon” bandwagon and start letting thieves and murderers off the hook. Thoughts?
Great...lets give a pardon to someone pro-illegal alien....and let Ramos and Compean rot in prison for cdefending our border from an illegal alien drug dealer
Knowing Bush...bet he will go Anti-American on this one and give Ryan a pardon...based on the word of a Dem...and let the two BP agents sit in prison
Anti-American Liberal Globalism stinks
That was Jack! Ryan.
No; that was Rep. Jack Ryan. His problem was a bunch of embarassing but not illegal stuff related to his divorce from Jeri Ryan (yes, the Seven of Nine Jeri Ryan).
Not “all” outgoing Presidents have done this. This started pretty much with Clinton.
Sure, Bush 41 pardoned some Iran Contra figures, but none of them were alleged to have personally profited from their “illegal” activities. I don’t think Reagan made any pardons of note when he left.
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT W, It’s a TRAP!!!!!!!!!!
How about if Durbin offers to trade places with Ryan? I’d go for that!! :^)
Pond scum, both of them.
That’s an insult to pond scum everywhere.
More like toilet bowl ring - both of em
The only pardons I can think of is Libby and the hero border guards Compean and Ramos who should have been out ages ago.
Todd “Urkel” Stroger is well on his way to bringing Chicago to its knees though, he is the one who needs to be replaced ASAP.
(Oh, and I support Don Wade to replace Obama!)
Let him rot.
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