From the Associated Press

December 17, 2003
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan indicted on corruption charges
MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer

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Former Gov. George Ryan, who gained a worldwide reputation as a critic of
the death penalty, was indicted Wednesday on charges of taking payoffs in
a corruption scandal that shadowed his entire four years in office and cut
short his political career.
Prosecutors said the 69-year-old Republican and his family took cash,
gifts, vacations and other favors to steer state business to friends and
associates while he was governor and, before that, Illinois secretary of
state.
"The charged conduct by former Gov. Ryan reflects a disturbing violation
of trust," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said. "Ryan is charged with
betraying the citizens of Illinois for over a decade on state business,
both large and small."
Ryan did not immediately return a call for comment and no one answered the
door at his home in Kankakee. Timothy Rooney, a partner of Ryan defense
attorney Dan K. Webb, said a statement would be released later.
Ryan, who served as secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and governor from
1999 to last January, has said he knew there was a culture of corruption
in the secretary of state's office but was unaware of the specifics.
He becomes the third Illinois governor indicted in the past 40 years.
Outside Illinois, Ryan is best known as an ardent critic of the way
capital punishment is carried out. He declared a moratorium on executions
in Illinois after it was discovered that 13 wrongfully convicted men had
been sent to death row.
Last January, just before leaving office, he cleared out Illinois' death
row, pardoning four condemned prisoners and commuting the death sentences
of 167 others to life in prison.
The scandal was a factor in his 2001 decision not to seek a second term,
and his unpopularity was considered a major reason GOP candidates were
routed statewide in the 2002 elections.
The five-year federal investigation initially focused on the selling of
driver's licenses for bribes at the secretary of state's office, which
oversees the motor vehicle agency. But the investigation was soon expanded
to a range of corruption under Ryan, a glad-handing, baby-kissing
politician from the old school.
The investigation seemed to draw inexorably closer to Ryan as prosecutors
landed dozens of convictions. Ryan became the 66th person charged; 59
people and his campaign committee have been convicted.
Among those convicted were Ryan's top aides, including his chief of staff
and the inspector general who was supposed to ferret out misconduct in the
secretary of state's office but covered up the scandals instead.
The indictment did not list a dollar figure for Ryan's ill-gotten gains
but said members of his family got cash loans and gifts totaling $167,000.
Ryan, a snowy-haired, deep-voiced former drug store owner, had served as a
state representative and lieutenant governor. His selling point with
voters was that he was good at making deals, and thus capable of getting
results.
The federal investigation was launched after six children in one family
died in a fiery accident on a Wisconsin expressway involving a trucker who
may have bought his driver's license.
Prosecutors soon traced $170,000 in payoff money to the Citizens for Ryan
campaign fund.
While Ryan's popularity plummeted in his home state, he was winning
widespread praise nationally and internationally as a leading critic of
capital punishment.
"I finally decided that if I was out of office for six months or a year
and learned that an innocent man was executed and I didn't do anything
about it, that would have been something that would have haunted me for
the rest of my life," he said in an Associated Press interview.
Supporters nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Critics accused him of
using the death penalty issue to deflect attention to the scandal.
Otto Kerner, was governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968, was later
convicted of bribery. Dan Walker, who served from 1973 to 1977, was
convicted on charges related to financial dealings after he left office.