Entries tagged with “Governor George Ryan”
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Prosecutorial Accountability
,Clemency
,Jan 11, 2023
Illinois Commutations Twenty Years Ago Marked Turning Point in Death-Penalty Abolition
January 11, 2023 marks the twentieth anniversary of former Illinois Governor George Ryan’s decision to grant clemency to every death row prisoner in Illinois, the largest blanket clemency in the modern era of the death penalty. It was a watershed moment in both Illinois’ criminal justice history and in the ongoing national conversation about the death…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Clemency
,Jul 03, 2023
Louisiana Mass Clemency Efforts Highlight Similarities to Illinois Mass Clemency 20 Years Ago
As Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (pictured) considers the clemency petitions filed by 51 of the state’s 57 death row prisoners, advocates and journalists have noted the similarities between Louisiana’s death penalty system and that of Illinois, where Governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of all 167 people on death row in 2003. Both states have had high numbers of death row exonerations stemming from systemic misconduct, death sentences in both states are concentrated in a small…
Facts & Research
Clemency
,Oct 15, 2020
New DPIC Podcast: Former Illinois Governor George Ryan on Commuting Death Row and His Journey from Death-Penalty Supporter to Abolitionist
In the October 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, former Illinois Governor George Ryan speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the events that persuaded him to commute the death sentences of all 167 death-row prisoners in Illinois in 2003. Ryan and Dunham delve into the Governor’s journey from death-penalty supporter as an Illinois state legislator to death-penalty opponent as Illinois governor, and discuss his new…
Facts & Research
History of the Death Penalty
,Mar 09, 2021
NEWS BRIEF — Illinois Marks 10th Anniversary of Death Penalty Abolition
It has now been ten years since Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill ending the death penalty in Illinois. The abolition bill, signed on March 9, 2011, was the culmination of eleven years of debate after Governor George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in 2000 and then issued four pardons and 167 commutations, clearing the state’s death row in…