1. George Homer Ryan was born on February 24,1934 and is an American former politician who served as the 39th governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003.
45 Facts About George Ryan
1. 2.
George Ryan was later convicted of federal racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud stemming from his time in office.
3.
George Ryan received national attention for his 2000 moratorium on executions in Illinois and for commuting more than 160 death sentences to life sentences in 2003.
4.
George Ryan chose not to run for reelection in 2002 amid a scandal.
5.
George Ryan was later convicted of federal corruption charges stemming from the illegal sale of commercial drivers licenses which resulted in the deaths of six children while serving as secretary of state and spent more than five years in federal prison and seven months of home confinement.
6.
George Ryan was released from federal prison on July 3,2013.
7.
George Homer Ryan was born in Maquoketa, Iowa to Jeannette and Thomas Ryan, a pharmacist.
8.
George Ryan attended Ferris State College of Pharmacy in Big Rapids, Michigan.
9.
George Ryan served a 13-month tour in Korea, working in a base pharmacy.
10.
On June 10,1956, George Ryan married his high school sweetheart, Lura Lynn Lowe, whom he had met in a high school English class.
11.
George Ryan grew up in Aroma Park, where her family had lived since 1834.
12.
George Ryan's father owned one of the first hybrid seed companies in the United States.
13.
George Ryan's brother, Tom, was a prominent political figure in Kankakee County.
14.
George Ryan was then elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1972, where he served five terms.
15.
Thompson and George Ryan were both reelected to their positions in 1986.
16.
In 1990, George Ryan was elected Secretary of State of Illinois.
17.
One of George Ryan's pet projects as governor was an extensive repair of the Illinois Highway System called "Illinois FIRST".
18.
George Ryan improved Illinois's technology infrastructure, creating one of the first cabinet-level Offices of Technology in the country and bringing up Illinois's technology ranking in a national magazine from 48th out of the 50 states when he took office to 1st just two years later.
19.
In 1999, George Ryan sparked controversy by becoming the first sitting US Governor to meet with Cuban President Fidel Castro.
20.
In 2000, George Ryan served as a chair of the Midwestern Governors Association.
21.
George Ryan helped to renew the national debate on capital punishment when, as governor, he declared a moratorium on his state's death penalty on January 31,2000.
22.
George Ryan refused to meet with religious leaders and others regarding "a stay of execution" in light of the impending 'moratorium' and other facts relative to the 'flawed' capital punishment system in Illinois; in fact, under George Ryan's governorship, 13 people were released from jail after appealing their convictions based on new evidence.
23.
George Ryan was ultimately exonerated with the help of a group of student journalists at Northwestern University who had uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence.
24.
George Ryan pardoned four inmates, Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley and Leroy Orange, and Stanley Howard.
25.
George Ryan declared in his pardon speech that he would have freed Howard if only his attorney had filed a clemency petition; George Ryan then strongly urged investigators to examine Howard's alleged robbery case, because it appeared to be as tainted as his murder conviction.
26.
George Ryan is not the first state governor to have granted blanket commutations to death row inmates during his final days in office.
27.
George Ryan won praise from death penalty opponents: as early as 2001, he received the Mario Cuomo Act of Courage Award from Death Penalty Focus, in 2003 the Rose Elizabeth Bird Commitment to Justice Award from the same organization.
28.
George Ryan was sentenced to six years and six months.
29.
Roger Stanley, a former Republican state representative who was hired by George Ryan and testified against Fawell, pleaded guilty to wide-ranging corruption, admitting he paid kickbacks to win state contracts and campaign business, secretly mailed out vicious false attacks on political opponents and helped obtain ghost-payrolling jobs.
30.
The indictment alleged that George Ryan steered several state contracts to Warner and other friends; disbursed campaign funds to relatives and to pay personal expenses; and obstructed justice by attempting to end the state investigation of the license-for-bribes scandal.
31.
George Ryan was charged with lying to investigators and accepting cash, gifts and loans in return for his official actions as governor.
32.
George Ryan agreed to a plea deal that cut the prison time for himself and his fiancee, Andrea Coutretsis.
33.
Stipulations agreed upon by the defense and prosecution and submitted to the court included admissions that all five of George Ryan's daughters received illegal payments from the George Ryan campaign.
34.
George Ryan said that he would appeal the verdict, largely due to the issues with the jury.
35.
On September 6,2006, George Ryan was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
36.
George Ryan was ordered to go to prison on January 4,2007, but the appellate court granted an appeal bond, allowing him to remain free pending the outcome of the appeal.
37.
George Ryan's conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit on August 21,2007, and review by the entire Seventh Circuit was denied on October 25,2007.
38.
The Supreme Court rejected an extension of his bail, and George Ryan reported to the Federal Prison Camp in Oxford, Wisconsin, on November 7,2007.
39.
George Ryan was transferred on February 29,2008, to a medium security facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, after Oxford changed its level of medical care and stopped housing inmates over 70 years old.
40.
George Ryan served as Thompson's lieutenant governor from 1983 to 1991.
41.
George Ryan's attorneys litigated the pension matter all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled on February 19,2010, that state law "plainly mandates that none of the benefits provided for under the system shall be paid to George Ryan".
42.
George Ryan was paid $635,000 in pension benefits during the three years between his retirement and his political corruption conviction, plus a refund of the $235,500 in personal contributions he made during his 30 years in public office.
43.
In 2010, George Ryan requested early release, partly because his wife had terminal cancer and was given only six months to live, and partly on the grounds that some of his convictions should be vacated in light of a Supreme Court ruling that was alleged to have affected their legitimacy.
44.
On January 5,2011, George Ryan was taken from his prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana, to a hospital in Kankakee to visit his dying wife.
45.
George Ryan entered a Salvation Army halfway house in Chicago on January 30,2013.