Ryan Meets with Families of Death Row Inmates
Outgoing Illinois Governor George Ryan met with the families of 45 death row inmates, providing them an opportunity to tell him why their loved one's death sentences should be commuted to life in prison.
"In a private, emotional meeting in a Near South Side Chicago church, family members of 45 Death Row inmates one by one asked Gov. George Ryan to commute the sentences of their children, siblings and parents."
"How do you look a mother in the eye, especially when the system is broken?" the governor said Friday outside Old St. Mary's Catholic Church. "I have to wonder if he's really guilty."
He was there "strictly to listen," the governor said, before deciding whether to commute any of the 142 death sentences to life in prison without.
| < Feds Secretly Taped Ill. Gov. George Ryan | Cameras In the Jury Room > |