George Ryan, governor of Illinois who interrupted the prison executions, died at 91

George H. Ryan, the governor of Illinois who reopened a national debate on capital punishment in 2000 by imposing a moratorium on the executions of the death rown in his state, and who later went to prison for having taken bribes in a previous role as Secretary of State of Illinois, died on Friday at his home in Kankakee, Ill. He was the Secretary of State of Illinois. 91.

His death was confirmed by his son, George H. Ryan Jr.

Citing “a shameless assessment of condemning innocent people and putting them in the corridor of death”, Governor Ryan, a moderate republican who, like most Americans, has long favored capital punishment, defended his decision to suspend the death penalty in Illinois as an act of conscience.

Barely a year after his only four -year term, Ryan said that since 1977, when Illinois’ death penalty had been reinstated after a federal break, the state capital sentence system had been seriously wrong. Out of 25 detainees who had been placed in the death corridor at that time, he said, 12 had been executed but 13 had been sent to crimes they did not commit and were then exempt and released.

“I cannot support a system which, in its administration, turned out to be so heavy with error, and came so close to the ultimate nightmare, the innocent life,” he said.

He added: “Until I can be sure that everyone condemned to death in Illinois is really guilty, until I can be sure with a moral certainty that no innocent man or woman faces a lethal injection, no one will undergo this spell.”

The moratorium was greeted by the opponents of the capital penalty, who said that the unjustified death penalties were common in America, often corrupt by questions of race, poverty, bad lawyers and police or prosecutor. Contemporary research has suggested that 70% of fully examined capital cases contain reversible errors.