Both the Attorney General and the Governor of Illinois have the last name Ryan. The AG is Jim Ryan and the Governor is George Ryan.

This is important today because AG Jim Ryan is suing Gov. George Ryan in an effort to block clemency hearings for 157 inmates on death row.

Gov. Ryan, who instituted the much needed moratorium on captial punishment in Illinois, is leaving office in January and plans to grant clemency to those still on death row because none of the 85 reforms recommended by the Illinios Commission on Capital Punishment have been instituted.

By now it is no secret that the death penalty system is broken. And that if an innocent person has not already been executed in this country, it is only a matter of time until that occurs. Illinois has one of the worst records: Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the Innocence Project reports that in Illinois "twelve people had been executed and thirteen freed from death row after their innocence was proven, five of them due to postconviction DNA testing" by the time Governor Ryan issued his death penalty moratorium two years ago.

So why is AG Jim Ryan trying to stop Gov. George Ryan from holding clemency hearings? We'd call it a political move. He's trailing badly in the polls in his battle with Democrat Rod Blagojevich to replace George Ryan as Governor.

It's not that AG Jim Ryan opposes the moratorium. He can't. In fact, he is one of the reasons it happened.

"Indeed, Jim Ryan's own personal involvement in one of the most controversial death penalty cases, that of Rolando Cruz, has left him open to criticism for being slow to fix the system. He headed the DuPage County state's attorney's office when Cruz was convicted for participating in the murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Cruz was later acquitted at a third trial amid charges that police and prosecutors fabricated evidence."

"The Cruz case was one that spurred George Ryan to declare a moratorium on executions in 2000."

Gov. Ryan is doing the right thing by ordering that sentences for those currently on death row in Illinois be converted to life sentences without the possibility of. Jim Ryan's lawsuit is merely a desperate power play to stay politically alive.