Today's ABA Journal carries, "Law Prof Nominates Imprisoned Gov. for Nobel Peace Prize, Sees Message in No. 167," by Debra Cassens Weiss.
Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for halting executions in the state, according to a University of Illinois law professor who nominated him for the honor.
Francis Boyle is allowed to make nominations for the prize because he is an international law professor, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch blog, Political Fix. Securing the Nobel for Ryan has become “an annual crusade” for Boyle, the blog says.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch article is, "Illinois prof again nominates George Ryan for Nobel Peace Prize." It's by Kevin McDermott.
Illinois ex-Gov. George Ryan, currently serving a 6-1/2 year prison sentence for corruption, should win the Nobel Peace Prize for freezing all executions in Illinois and commuting the sentences of more than 160 death-row inmates, a University of Illinois law professor says.
Professor Francis A. Boyle has made an annual crusade out of attempting to secure the coveted prize for Ryan, a Republican who was convicted in 2006 of using his public office to enrich himself and his associates. As an international law professor, Boyle is allowed to nominate people for the Nobel.
``Thanks to Governor George Ryan there have been no . . . executions by the State of Illinois for over a decade,'' Boyle noted in an email announcing his latest nomination of Ryan.
In fact, Ryan's decade-old moratorium on executions laid the groundwork for a bill that passed the Legislature this month to abolish the death penalty in Illinois altogether. Gov. Pat Quinn hasn't yet signed it, but many expect him to.
"Nobel Peace Prize to Another Prisoner?," is the Courthouse News Service report by Joe Harris.
His supporters say that conviction is separate and irrelevant, and should not factor into Ryan's shot at Nobel Peace Prize.
Boyle has taken the argument a step further by claiming Ryan was prosecuted by the government because of his anti-death-penalty work, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Boyle, who has no proof of that claim, noted that Ryan took 167 inmates off Death Row in 2003 and was indicted 11 months later on federal charges that he and family members took $167,000 in cash and benefits in exchange for state contracts.
"They alleged $167,000 - no more, no less," Boyle told the Post-Dispatch in 2006. "That was no coincidence. That was clearly designed to send a message (from prosecutors) to Ryan and the abolition movement: 'This is the price you pay' for anti-death-penalty activism."
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