Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, acclaimed by capital punishment foes emptying out death row, was sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison Wednesday in the corruption scandal that ended his political career.
"People of this state expected better, and I let them down," the 72-year-old Ryan said in court before hearing his sentence.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of eight to 10 years. Defense attorneys told U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer that even a sentence of 2-1/2 years would deprive Ryan of the last healthy years of his life.
Ryan was convicted in April of racketeering conspiracy, fraud and other offenses for taking payoffs from political insiders in exchange for state business while he was Illinois secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and governor for four years after that.
At the same time, Ryan was winning international acclaim for commuting the sentences of everyone on the state's death row.
The verdict capped Illinois' biggest political corruption trial in decades.
Prosecutors say evidence at the seven-month trial shows Ryan doled out big-money contracts and leases to his longtime friend, businessman-lobbyist Larry Warner, and other insiders and in received benefits in return, including Caribbean vacations.
Ryan also used state money and state workers for his campaigns, the government alleged.
Ryan and Warner, 67, have maintained that nothing they did in connection with leases and contracts was illegal. Warner was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, attempted extortion, and money laundering. He is also to be sentenced Wednesday.
Defense attorneys pleaded for mercy in court papers saying that Ryan had reached an "advanced age" and was plagued by Crohn's disease, diverticulitis and high cholesterol.
"The public shaming that Ryan has endured combined with the impending loss of his pension greatly lessens the need for the court to punish through the sentencing process," Ryan's lawyers said in court papers.
They said Ryan "has been publicly and universally humiliated."
The scandal that led to Ryan's downfall began over a decade ago with a fiery van crash in Wisconsin that killed six children. The 1994 wreck exposed a scheme inside the Illinois secretary of state's office in which truck drivers obtained licenses for bribes.
The probe expanded to other corruption under Ryan. Seventy-nine former state officials, lobbyists, truck drivers and others have been charged. Seventy-five have been convicted, including Ryan's longtime top aide, Scott Fawell, a star witness at Ryan's trial.
In 2000, Ryan, as governor, declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. Then, days before he left office in 2003, he emptied out death row, commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He declared that the state's criminal justice system was "haunted by the demon of error."
Even as he faced charges back home, Ryan accepted speaking invitations across the country and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his criticism of the death penalty.
Source: Attorney Library
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment