Politician pushes to end death penalty

CHICAGO -- Former Gov. George Ryan continued his campaign for a major overhaul of Illinois' capital punishment system Monday, saying it remains so broken that it's "very possible" that the state has executed an innocent person.\nSpeaking to a congressional panel led by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Ryan appeared along with a who's who of death penalty opponents and at least two men -- Leroy Orange and Aaron Patterson -- who walked out of prison after he granted them pardons.\nRyan's appearance came four weeks after he granted pardons to four death row inmates and commuted the sentences of all 167 death row inmates to life in prison without parole.\nRyan, whose moratorium on executions in the state three years earlier and whose stunning decision to clear the state's death row of every inmate gained international attention, said there is a "pretty compelling case to abolish the death penalty."\nPart of that case is his guess that with "a system as broken as ours it's very possible" an innocent person has been executed in Illinois.\nBut Ryan said at the very least, state lawmakers should take steps to improve the capital punishment system in Illinois by implementing some of the reforms recommended by a commission he formed.\nRyan said he hoped that with Democrats taking control of Illinois Senate, lawmakers would reform the system. The former Republican-controlled Senate "kind of made a joke out of it, frankly" when he was in office, Ryan contended. Democrats now have control of both houses of the General Assembly and the governor's office in Illinois.\nThomas Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney who was co-chairman of Ryan's Death Penalty Commission, said he was "not optimistic that even the most simple, basic reforms will be adopted." Sullivan added, "I believe that the members of the Illinois Legislature are not inclined to fix this broken system."\nSen. Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, who took over as the Senate's president last month, promised the reforms would at least get a fair hearing.\n"Things are a little different in the Senate now," said Jones after the congressional hearing, referring to the fact that he replaced Republican Senate President James "Pate" Philip when Democrats took control of the Senate.\n"At least the opportunity will be there for the issue to get debated in committee. There will be committee hearings," Jones said.\nRush, a vocal opponent of capital punishment, on Monday said he hoped Ryan's actions would trigger a national re-examination of the death penalty system.\nRush's spokeswoman Robyn Wheeler said Rush hoped to gather information from Monday's hearing to develop some legislation that might include a proposal to abolish the federal death penalty.