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4 unusual facts about George Ryan


Austin Sarat

His most recent book, Mercy On Trial: What it Means To Stop an Execution, investigated the use of executive clemency, particularly Illinois Governor George Ryan's decision to commute all impending death sentences in the Illinois state penitentiary system.

George Ryan

Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor, noted, "Mr. Ryan steered contracts worth millions of dollars to friends and took payments and vacations in return. When he was a sitting governor, he lied to the F.B.I. about this conduct and then he went out and did it again."

Illinois Route 31

The bypass was even featured on the front cover of IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation)'s Capital Improvements Plan during the Republican George Ryan years but was completely taken off the project list under Democrat Rod Blagojevich's administration.

Tony DeSantis

In 2005, he was linked to former-Governor George Ryan, to whom he had written several large personal checks.


Better Government Association

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the BGA exposed fraud in the Chicago Public Schools, lax security at the O’Hare International Airport, and corrupt secretary of state George Ryan, among other investigations.

Rebecca R. Pallmeyer

Judge Pallmeyer was the judge who coordinated the brief visits of former Governor and Secretary of State of Illinois, Governor George Ryan, who was then imprisoned in a Terre Haute, Indiana, federal prison, to his wife, former Illinois First Lady Lura Lynn Ryan, who died of cancer in the summer of 2011.


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