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Posted on 01/14/2003 4:25:19 AM PST by fporretto
January 14, 2003
Well, Illinois Governor George Ryan did it. He commuted the sentences of 167 convicted murderers from death to life imprisonment.
To really understand the depravity of what Ryan has done you need to examine his likely motivation. To do this, though, you need a little background.
Ryan is a profoundly corrupt and unpopular governor who's been known as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker his entire career. It was during his tenure as Illinois' Secretary of State that driver's licenses were routinely given to unqualified applicants in return for bribes. Driver's tests were fixed and licenses were given to hundreds of truck and passenger car drivers.
According to this article, "Over 690 truck drivers and 470 passenger car drivers were licensed as a result of the scheme. Later media investigations linked these drivers to at least 59 accidents and at least 9 deaths.
All told, federal officials claim, over $170,000 in bribes paid by unqualified drivers wound up in George Ryan's campaign coffers."
While he has spent his entire four year term successfully dodging direct implication in what has become known as the "Licenses-for-Bribes" scandal, it now looks like investigators have begun closing in on Governor Ryan. He looks to be at most a few months away from being indicted himself. According to this recent Chicago Tribune article, "(N)ewly filed documents contend that Ryan was present in 1998 when his top aide, Scott Fawell, ordered a subordinate to destroy evidence that he expected federal agents to be looking for as part of their probe into a licenses-for-bribes scandal.
So the first piece to the puzzle of Ryan's motivation lies in the fact that he is about to leave office in disgrace. He was long since abandoned by his party (he didn't even consider seeking the GOP's renomination), and his approval ratings approach those of Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal.
Some, looking to understand Ryan's actions, stop right there. They conclude that having come to some sort of epiphany about the unfairness of the death penalty, Ryan simply figures he has nothing to lose. Plus, some have suggested, by issuing all these pardons and sentence commutations, he might earn some brownie points with his future bunkmates.
Alas, while this is all true; I'm certain there's also something else at work. Something both sordid and profoundly pathetic.
Ryan made his announcement at the Northwestern University Law School before a gathering that resembled more than anything else a pep rally. The AP called the assembled group a "who's who of anti-death penalty activists."
"Gov. Ryan has taught us what leading truly looks like. This is greatness, my friends," gushed one Lawrence C. Marshall, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, in an excruciatingly lengthy introduction that brought to mind Bill Clinton's speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention. Ryan sure didn't mind, though. He basked in the praise and applause directed his way - emanating both from Marshall's speech, and his own 19 page oration. "The rest of the world might not think much of me," he probably thought to himself. "But these people understand me! They love me!"
Think I'm overstating it? Here's some more from the Sun Times.
"Ryan posed for pictures Saturday with former 'MASH' television show actor Mike Farrell--just one of many celebrities around the world who have lobbied Ryan to commute the death sentences. Calls and letters have come in from South African leaders Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu; from the Vatican, the European Union and the governments of Poland and Mexico.
'For a guy like me to get a call from Nelson Mandela, that's pretty impressive,' Ryan said."
Is it hard to imagine that Ryan clings to the adoration of celebrity leftists and Nelson Mandela as the rest of his world collapses around him? By issuing the blanket commutation - which he had repeatedly denied he would do - Ryan clearly thinks he can change his legacy from disgraced politico to Nobel Prize winner. Yes, he's been nominated for that - and if Jimmy Carter can get one, why not a debased mediocrity like Ryan?
And you just know that the sanctimonious twits at the JFK Center are going to give him a "Profiles In Courage" award.
The folowing are some of the "people" spared by Ryan's commutation. Just call these "Profiles In Carnage."
There are no questions about any of these people being innocent. The families of the victims of these crimes are being victimized yet again so that a corrupt, venal man can bask in the adulation of shallow Hollywood leftists and self-important ideologues who, their protests to the contrary notwithstanding, care not one whit for justice, fairness or decency.
George Ryan has chosen to spare people who have murdered, molested and tortured children so that the guy who played B.J. Honeycutt will call him a hero.
May he rot in hell.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Connecting the dots isn't that hard, and they lead to two conclusions: that the governor is sparing the most vicious people on Earth the proper consequences of their deeds, and that he's doing it for personal profit and satisfaction.
For other thoughts, please see:
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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