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Why was there even mild surprise last week when a jury convicted former Illinois Gov. George Ryan of corruption? When Illinois juries get their hands on a governor, they tend to put him away.Of our seven prior governors, three now have been convicted. In Illinois, jurors are batting .750. So, give jurors a chance and they'll take down corrupt governors. Which makes me wonder about any bewilderment that this jury convicted Ryan on all counts. Look at history: just three governors before Republican Ryan was Democrat Dan Walker, who served 17 months for fraudulently obtaining bank loans. But that was...

He was searched by guards who ordered him to "strip, squat and spread." He was threatened by fellow inmates when he balked that they were bucking the breakfast line. His job was scrubbing toilets, but twice a day he had to pick up cigarette butts with a nail on a wooden rod marked "Governor's Stick." So don't tell former Illinois Gov. Dan Walker that minimum security prison is a picnic or a Club Fed. He calls it "brutal" -- so brutal that he contemplated suicide while inside. "It's what it does to you personally," Walker said. "It's not like 'hard...

CHICAGO (AP) — Former Gov. George Ryan, who drew international praise when he commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois’ death row, was convicted of racketeering and fraud Monday in a corruption scandal that ended his political career in 2003. The 72-year-old Republican faces up to 20 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy, the most serious charge against him in the 22-count indictment. The jury found Ryan guilty on all charges, including fraud, obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and lying to the FBI. Co-defendant Larry Warner, a Chicago businessman and Ryan friend, was also convicted of racketeering conspiracy, as well...

News broadcast says the verdict is in. Will be read shortly.

CHICAGO - Former Gov. George Ryan, who drew international praise when he commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois' death row, was convicted of racketeering and fraud Monday in a corruption scandal that ended his political career in 2003. Ryan, 72, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read and afterward vowed to appeal. "I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of public service that I provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years, and needless to say I am disappointed in the outcome," the former governor said. Ryan faces up to 20 years in...

Starting Monday, six men and six women will begin deciding former Gov. George Ryan's fate after hearing five days of closing arguments in Ryan's public corruption trial this week. Prosecutors got the last word with jurors Friday as the nearly six-month trial came to a close. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins looked at each juror and, citing their occupations, said justice was in the hands of "people who raise our families," people who work in the post office, at Walgreens, at Home Depot, grocery stores and as bartenders. "You are the most important team in Chicago right now," Collins said....

CHICAGO - Actor Mike Farrell testified Thursday that he has been inspired by George Ryan's honesty and integrity, but the star of TV's "M.A.S.H." series was upstaged by allegations of bias and bickering that flared among feuding federal prosecutors."I have thought of him as a good, old-fashioned, meat-and-potatoes, midwestern Republican gentleman," Farrell told reporters as he left the courthouse where the former governor has been on trial for 20 weeks, charged with racketeering, mail fraud and other offenses. Farrell and Ryan both have been active in the movement to abolish the death penalty. The actor, who flew in from Los...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should not grant clemency to death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams. Nor should he deny it. The governor should shelve the clemency hearing scheduled for today. He should call a press conference instead. He should say that in listening to the debate, he has come to understand that the challenge before him is not to parse the singular circumstances of one man's life. It is to tackle the much larger and more relevant issue that has been pushed to the surface by the Tookie Williams case: the public's conflicted feelings and growing questions about the death penalty...

The Anthony Porter case dominated local news here for weeks, and its effect was felt in early 2003, when departing Governor George Ryan emptied Illinois' death row. Yesterday, a jury in Chicago ruled against Porter, stating the City of Chicago did not act in a malicious matter when they investigated the double murder Porter was convicted of in 1982. Six years ago, two days before Porter was to be executed for that crime, a Northwestern journalism professor, David Protess, and some of his students located a Milwaukee man who confessed to the murders. That man has since recanted. Hmmm... What...

CHICAGO - The onetime top aide to ex-Gov. George Ryan testified Monday that a lobbyist helped computer companies land millions of dollars in state contracts while raising political funds for Ryan. The lobbyist, Larry Warner, was careful to keep his name off campaign finance reports, Scott Fawell said in his second day on the witness stand at Ryan's racketeering trial. Ryan, 71, and Warner, 67, are charged in the 22-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and other offenses. Both men say that nothing they did was illegal. Fawell said Warner raised $100,000 at a dinner for Ryan while helping...

CHICAGO - The political strategist who helped engineer former Gov. George Ryan's rise to power took the witness stand Thursday and in testimony laced with wisecracks began telling a jury how Ryan doled out state contracts, leases and favors to the well-connected. Scott Fawell waved to spectators and grinned broadly as he took his seat. He nodded to Ryan, saluted a newspaper reporter and made no effort to disguise his disdain for the prosecutors who put him in federal prison for graft. Asked by prosecutor Patrick M. Collins why he agreed to testify against his former boss, the 48-year-old Fawell...

CHICAGO - The biggest corruption trial in Chicago in decades opened Wednesday with a federal prosecutor launching a blistering attack on former Gov. George Ryan, saying he betrayed the public's trust by taking cash and gifts to help insiders land lucrative state contracts. "The fix was in in Illinois government," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon. The verbal pounding brought Ryan defense attorney Dan K. Webb to his feet to demand a mistrial the minute Fardon sat down. The request was denied. Ryan, 71, is accused of giving a lobbyist friend, Larry Warner, free rein to steer contracts to his...

CHICAGO - Former Gov. George Ryan arrived in court Monday to face charges stemming from a federal investigation that already has found his former campaign committee, campaign manager and chief of staff guilty of racketeering, Federal prosecutors have accused the Ryan administration of doling out big-money state contracts and leases to political insiders, resulting in charges being brought against 79 people, including many state employees. Ryan, who maintains he is innocent, did not speak as he made his way through security and defense attorney Dan Webb said they had decided not to comment publicly during the trial. "This is going...

Former Gov. George Ryan said he is confident he will be exonerated at his upcoming corruption trial because the government doesn't have one witness that says they gave him a "corrupt dollar." "They've torn at the very fiber of my life and my family and friends, they haven't got one witness that said they gave me a corrupt dollar or they paid me off in any fashion with money and so I think there are several things that will come out in the trial that will be worthwhile," Ryan told Chicago's WGN-TV in an exclusive interview broadcast Thursday night. Ryan...

Former Gov. George Ryan struck back at prosecutors Friday, calling their suggestion that Ryan cleared Death Row to influence potential jurors at his upcoming corruption trial "bizarre" and "truly outrageous." Ryan leveled the criticism in court papers filed Friday by his attorneys Dan Webb and Brad Lerman. Ryan is charged with being politically corrupt when he was secretary of state and governor, and he wants to tell jurors at his trial in September about his historic decision to clear Death Row to show "how he conducted himself in office," according to the court filing. Prosecutor: Deeds irrelevant "The government wants...

Former death row inmate fights to avoid return trip to prison Tuesday, July 5, 2005 By Mike Robinson The Associated Press Aaron Patterson walked out of prison two years ago, a free man with a pardon from Gov. George Ryan and a chance to start fresh. But the happy ending never came for Patterson, whose story of torture by police and long years on death row helped to launch an emotional campaign against the death penalty in Illinois. These days, the 40-year-old Patterson sits glumly in a federal jail awaiting the start of jury selection today in a drug...

CHICAGO (AP) A federal judge in Chicago says she'll grant a request to delay George Ryan's racketeering trial after the former governor appeared in court to make a personal plea. Ryan said several times today that he was "begging" U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to delay his March 14th trial. And his appeal worked. The trial date is now set for Sept. 26. Pallmeyer says she'll allow the delay so Ryan won't be forced to replace his top defense attorney, who has a scheduling conflict. The trial will now begin in September. Ryan told the judge that he came to...

The party of Lincoln isn't what it used to be. Long before the Alan Keyes election debacle, long before George Ryan's troubles, the seeds for the party's downfall were planted. What would Abe say?State Rep. Angelo "Skip" Saviano was mad. His face red and his nerves frayed, Saviano glared incredulously at the political creme de la creme of the Illinois Republican Party arrayed around the horseshoe-shaped table in the Union League Club, Chicago's posh and historic rendezvous for the rich and powerful. The Illinois Republican State Central Committee once seemed as well suited to the Union League as the painting...

CHICAGO (AP) - Prosecutors unveiled their sweeping racketeering case against former Gov. George Ryan on Tuesday, saying he got free Caribbean vacations, cash for family members' businesses and a host of other perks through ties to corrupt state landlords and lobbyists. The government's preview of the evidence they plan to present at Ryan's trial portrays the former governor as intimately involved in even minor details of alleged corruption, from doling out coveted low-digit license plates to holding luncheons for state employees who raised money for his campaign fund. The document is something prosecutors often file in conspiracy cases and most...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) Prosecutors unveiled a panoramic view of their racketeering case against former Gov. George Ryan on Tuesday, saying he got free Caribbean vacations, cash for his brother's ailing business and a host of other financial benefits through ties to corrupt state landlords and lobbyists. The government's 114-page preview of the evidence they plan to present at Ryan's racketeering conspiracy trial portrays the former governor as intimately involved in even minor details of alleged corruption, from doling out coveted low-digit license plates to holding luncheons for state employees who raised money for his campaign fund. It shows Ryan as...