"Ex-Illinois governor Ryan breaks post-prison silence, ready to work at ending death penalty," is by Michael Tarm of Associated Press, via the Daily Journal. Here's the beginning:
George Ryan, an ex-Illinois governor and now an ex-convict, says he'd like to re-engage with the cause he left behind when he went to prison in 2007 — campaigning for the end of the death penalty in the U.S.
"Americans should come to their senses," Ryan said this week, in an hourlong interview with The Associated Press at his kitchen table.
Newly free to speak after a year of federal supervision that followed his more than five years in prison for corruption, Ryan appeared to have recovered some of his old voice and feistiness, in contrast to the subdued figure that emerged a year ago from the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, and ducked briefly into a Chicago halfway house.
At his home in Kankakee, south of Chicago, the 80-year-old Republican held forth on capital punishment, the state of American politics and the criminal justice system — though not the difficult details of his own corruption case.
He said he'd like to spend some time on the national circuit to encourage other states to follow Illinois' lead in abolishing capital punishment in 2011, which stemmed from Ryan's decision to clear death row in 2003. While he was treated as a champion by death penalty opponents at the time, he acknowledged some public figures now may have trouble openly associating with him.
Earlier coverage of George Ryan begins at the link.
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