Text of Governor George Ryan's Clemency Speech
Here is the text of Gov. George Ryan's clemency speech.
By the way, Ryan is not the first Governor to grant clemency to all on death row. The Governors of New Mexico and Arkansas did it years ago. (However, the number of people freed were very small in those states.)
As of now, and since 1973, 102 death row inmates have been found factually innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted and released from prison.
The Innocence Project has freed 123 inmates from prison by dna testing.
There have been 820 executions since 1976, when the death penalty was restored and 0 in 2003.
Here are some more Facts and Stats.
[Ed: text of speech link corrected]
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