Il governatore Ryan concede la grazia a 4 condannati a morte

"Ritengo che siano innocenti"

  Chicago, 10 gen.  - "Ho riesaminato questi casi e ritengo che si tratti di manifesta ingiustizia e che questi uomini siano innocenti", afferma ancora il governatore George Ryan nel testo, consegnato alla stampa, del discorso che pronuncer� questa sera alla De Paul University, che ospita un centro contro la pena di morte. "Ho ancora fede nel sistema e che alla fine questi uomini avrebbero ricevuto giustizia nei nostri tribunali ma il nostro detto � vero: la giustizia ritardata � giustizia negata", ha aggiunto Ryan.

I quattro condannati graziati che dovrebbero essere rilasciati gi� oggi sono Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Aaron Patterson e Leroy Orange. Tutti e quattro hanno sostenuto di essere stati vittime di una confessione estorta con la tortura dalla polizia di Chicago.   Ryan, repubblicano, negli ultimi tre anni del suo governatorato ha portato avanti una campagna di denuncia delle norme relative alla pena capitale nel sistema giudiziario nazionale.  Il governatore ha inoltre detto che prima di lasciare l'incarico, luned� prossimo, potrebbe concedere la grazia anche a tutti i 160 condannati a morte che si trovano nelle carceri dello Stato dell'Illinois. Un secondo discorso di Ryan � in programma domani alla facolt� di legge della Northwestern University anch'essa schierata contro la pena capitale.

 Costretti a confessare per tortura della polizia

I quattro condannati a morte che il governatore dell'Illinois George Ryan ha graziato fanno parte dei cosiddetti "Burge Ten", il gruppo di 10 condannati a morte che sostengono che la polizia di Chicago abbia loro estorto false confessioni con la tortura. Lo si legge sull'edizione digitale della Cnn che ricorda come l'allora capo della polizia, Jon Burge, sia stato rimosso dall'incarico dopo che un'inchiesta interna ha confermato che i sospetti avevano effettivamente subito abusi fisici.

    "Abbiamo le prove che i quattro uomini sono stati tutti malmenati e torturati e condannati sulla base di confessioni estorte", ha detto Ryan in un discorso pronunciato alla De Paul University di Chicago che ospita un centro contro la pena di morte. "Sono esempi perfetti di quanro il nostro sistema sia terribilmente malfunzionante", ha aggiunto il governatore.   Aaron Petterson, Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard e Leroy Orange erano tutti stati condannati alla pena capitale da almeno 12 anni. Orange addirittura da 17.

    Patterson, 38 anni, sostiene che nell'aprile del 1986 ha confessato l'assassinio di un'anziana coppia dopo esser stato minacciato dalla polizia con la violenza.   Hobley, 42 anni, � stato condannato per l'omicidio di 7 persone, fra le quali la moglie e un figlio in un incendio nel 1987. Sostiene che la confessione gli sia stata estorta dopo esser stato malmenato e quasi soffocato dalla polizia.   Orange � stato condannato a morte con l'accusa di aver preso parte all'accoltellamento della sua ex fidanzata, del figlio di lei e di due altre persone.

 La condanna � avvenuta nonostante la sua descrizione delle torture  e la testimonianza che sia stato il suo fratellastro, Leonard Kidd, ad accoltellare le vittime.

   Howard, condannato per omidicio, rapina a mano armata e stupro, si professa innocente e sostiene di aver confessato dopo esser stato ammanettato, malmenato e soffocato dalla polizia.  Il governatore Ryan, repubblicano, ha gi� sospeso in Illinois diverse esecuzioni capitali nel gennaio del 2000, esprimendo la preoccupazione che persone innocenti potessere essere condannate a morte.

10 January, 2003

Illinois death row prisoners pardoned

Other death sentences may be replaced with life in jail

Four prisoners on death row in Chicago who say their confessions were beaten out of them by police were given a last-minute pardon on Friday.

Illinois Governor George Ryan, whose term ends on Monday, said he believed "a manifest injustice" had occurred in the convictions of Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard.

  The old adage is true: Justice delayed is justice denied

 Governor George Ryan

 Three of the men will be freed, but Mr Howard will remain in jail to serve out a sentence for a separate crime.

 The governor is expected to announce on Saturday that he will commute the convictions of many or even all of about 150 other death row inmates to life in jail.

 That has not happened in any state in America for 16 years.

 Shaken beliefs

 The four men whose sentences have been quashed have always maintained that they only confessed to gruesome murders after they were beaten and suffocated by Chicago police officers.

 On Friday Mr Ryan agreed with them. He said: "I have reviewed these cases and I believe a manifest injustice has occurred ... I believe these men are innocent.

 "I still have some faith in the system that eventually these men would have received justice in our courts but the old adage is true: Justice delayed is justice denied."

 Governor Ryan suspended all executions in 2000

The BBC's Katty Kay in Washington describes Mr Ryan's changing stance toward the death penalty as a "road to Damascus" conversion.

 A Republican, he was elected in 1998 as a supporter of capital punishment.

 But after evidence found by students at the state's Northwestern University suggested that more than a dozen people sentenced to death in Illinois were innocent, Mr Ryan became a champion of the international anti-death penalty cause.

 Death penalty debate

 Three years ago he imposed a moratorium on all executions in his state.

 Since then, a commission created to review the Illinois system found it, in Mr Ryan's words, "badly broken and deeply flawed".

 The panel said the system disadvantaged the poor and that capital convictions too often resulted from police mistreatment and confessions reported by fellow inmates.

 A series of clemency hearings for almost every prisoner facing the death penalty in Illinois was held in October.

 On Saturday, Mr Ryan is expected to announce decisions concerning more than 140 other cases.

 Although opinion polls show that a majority of Americans still favour capital punishment, support has been eroding and opponents of the death penalty have called for a national moratorium. 

4 Death Row Inmates Pardoned in Illinois

Jan 10, 2003 

By JAMES WEBB, 

 CHICAGO - Gov. George Ryan said Friday he is pardoning four death row inmates who insist their confessions were tortured out of them by Chicago police.

 Ryan, whose term in office ends Monday, made the announcement in the text of a speech he planned to deliver Friday afternoon.

 Ryan said he was pardoning Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Aaron Patterson and Leroy Orange.

 "Today, I am pardoning them of the crimes for which they were wrongfully prosecuted and sentenced to die," Ryan said.

 "I have reviewed these cases and I believe a manifest injustice has occurred. I have reviewed these cases and I believe these men are innocent. I still have some faith in the system that eventually these men would have received justice in our courts but the old adage is true: Justice delayed is justice denied."

 All but Howard, who was convicted of a separate crime, were expected to be released from prison Friday, Ryan said.

 Ryan's speech at DePaul University was the first of two that cap the Republican governor's three-year campaign to highlight flaws in the state's capital punishment system.

 Hobley's sister, Robin, burst into tears Friday morning as she read an advance copy of the speech handed out by the governor's aides as she and other guests waited for him to arrive at DePaul.

 "I've read so many horrible transcripts in the last 15 years, I can't believe what I'm reading," she said. "I'm speechless right now."

 DePaul is home to an anti-death penalty center founded by Andrea Lyon, a lawyer who represents Hobley.

 Ryan has said he will announce before he leaves office Monday whether he will grant clemency to any or all the state's 160 death row inmates.

 His other speech is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Northwestern University law school. The school has led the attack on the state's capital punishment system and Northwestern journalism students have conducted investigations that freed several inmates. Northwestern professors and lawyers have called for Ryan to issue a blanket clemency commuting the sentences of most death row inmates to life in prison.

 Ryan declared a moratorium on capital punishment after 13 men were freed from Illinois' death row because new evidence exonerated them or there were flaws in the way they were convicted.

 The most recent precedent for a blanket clemency came 16 years ago when the governor of New Mexico commuted the death sentences of the state's five death row inmates.

  Patterson claims he was tortured into falsely confessing to murder after police threatened him with a gun, beat him and tried to suffocate him in 1986. He previously turned down a deal to admit guilt and drop his claim of police torture in exchange for freedom.

 Hobley was convicted of murder and aggravated arson in the deaths of seven people, including his wife and infant son. He contended he made a false confession after he was beaten and nearly suffocated.

 Orange was sentenced to die for taking part in the stabbing of his former girlfriend, her 10-year-old son and two others. The conviction came despite Orange's description of torture and testimony that his half brother, Leonard Kidd, was the one who stabbed the victims. Kidd, also on death row, claims he too was tortured into confessing.

 Howard was convicted of murder, armed robbery and rape, among other crimes. He claims he is innocent of the crimes, but said he confessed after he was handcuffed to a wall ring, beaten and choked by police in November 1984. 

Ill. Gov. Pardons 4 Death Row Inmates

By Robert E. Pierre

January 10, 2003

 CHICAGO, Jan. 10 � A conservative Republican from a staid Midwestern state, outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan has become the unlikely poster boy for reforming capital punishment.

 To the chagrin of prosecutors and glee of death penalty opponents, Ryan today pardoned four men who he said had been beaten into confessing to murders they did not commit. He chastised prosecutors, judges and legislators, for looking the other way even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the capital punishment system is broken.

 And with a second major death penalty speech scheduled for Saturday afternoon, he has hinted strongly that he will commute many of the death sentences of more than 150 remaining inmates on Illinois Death Row. "The system has proved itself to be wildly inaccurate, unjust, unable to separate the innocent from the guilty and, at times, racist," Ryan said at a news conference here at DePaul University.

 While he has been hailed by death penalty opponents around the world for his actions--Ryan imposed the nation's first moratorium on executions three years ago--critics complain that the governor is merely trying to deflect public attention from his own political troubles. And prosecutors contend that Ryan, a pharmacist by trade, is failing crime victims.

 "For the governor to grant pardons to these convicted murderers is outrageous and unconscionable," said State's Attorney Richard A. Devine. "By his actions today, the governor has breached faith with the memory of the dead victims, their families and the people he was elected to serve."

 From the beginning of his term to the very end--he leaves office Monday-- Ryan has been mired in controversy. A bribery scandal from his time as Secretary of State has ensnared many of his closest allies, and is threatening to implicate Ryan directly. Republicans blame his troubles for their loss in the last election of the governor's office and both houses of the legislature--the first time in three decades that the GOP has not controlled at least one. And incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich (D) is upset that Ryan continues to hand out high-paying, public jobs to political cronies.

 But the controversies aside, fixing the death penalty has become a mission for Ryan. There was the moratorium, a blue-ribbon panel he appointed that studied the issue for two years and, in recent months, unprecedented clemency hearings for all 159 inmates on Illinois death row. Ryan on Saturday will announce how many on death row he will spare, indicating today he will possibly commute some to life sentences or allow others out on time served.

 Even Ryan admits that the path he has taken is foreign. Like many new governors, he came into office four years ago pledging to invest in schools, fix roads and improve transit systems. "The death penalty was no where on the radar," he said.

 That changed when studies showed that since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977, 12 men had been executed but 13 men had been exonerated. Ryan pledged to stop executions and fix the system. Today, he pardoned four men--Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley and Stanley Howard--who were among dozens of men who claimed they were tortured by members of the Chicago Police Department's violent crimes detective unit that former lieutenant Jon Burge ran for more than two decades. Each man said they confessed to murders to stop abuse that included near-suffocation and severe beatings. Burge was fired in 1993 after a police inquiry found he tortured suspects; he has continually denied doing anything wrong.

 "If I hadn't reviewed the case, I wouldn't believe it myself," Ryan said.

 Ryan has never been seen as a trailblazer. He had friends on both sides of the political aisle, and never appeared to be driven by a specific social or political agenda, choosing instead to deal with problems as they arose. "He is not an ideologue," said former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, a political science professor at University of Illinois at Chicago. "He's practical."

 Families of the men Ryan pardoned cried today as they began making plans to pick up them up from prison. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended Ryan's speech, lauded him as a "man of conscience," but said more needs to be done.

 "We need a system of checks and balances not just a good man every now and then," said Jackson.

 Others were not pleased. One man who said he was a state employee announced to no one in particular as he left DePaul after Ryan's speech: "I hope he gets indicted next week," referring to a driver's license-for-bribe scandal that has plagued Ryan. Prosecutors have said Ryan was present when an aide allegedly ordered state employees to destroy key evidence in the case.

 And many families of the other victims of people on death row said they are expecting a sleepless night. Saturday morning, they will receive a express mail package from Ryan telling them whether he has given clemency to the convicted killer of their loved ones.

The Washington Post