Blagojevich: Bush should let George Ryan out of prison
Gov. Blagojevich, who for years has blasted corruption under his predecessor, George Ryan, said Thursday "it would be a good decision" for President Bush to let the 74-year-old Ryan out of prison early.
"I always err on the side of compassion," Blagojevich said during a Thanksgiving visit to the Chicago Christian Industrial League on the West Side.
(AP)
Durbin weighs asking for Ryan's release
Blagojevich, a Democrat, said Ryan, a Republican, has already served a significant amount of time behind bars.
"I think people make mistakes. George Ryan has paid a significant price for those mistakes. And if President Bush makes that decision, I think it would be a fine decision," Blagojevich explained. "He's a man well into his 70s. Mrs. Ryan is in her 70s and in frail health.
"So if the president makes that decision, I think it would be a good decision."
Ryan, imprisoned in Terre Haute, Ind., began serving a six-year sentence in November 2007 after his federal racketeering and fraud conviction. The Republican's offenses involved steering state contracts to friends in exchange for gifts, cash and other perks.
Blagojevich was elected governor in 2002, promising to end the corruption that happened under Ryan. He won re-election in 2006 after a campaign in which he repeatedly tried to paint GOP challenger Judy Baar Topinka as a Ryan crony.
Now it's Blagojevich's administration that federal authorities have been scrutinizing. Tony Rezko, a key Blagojevich fund-raiser and adviser, has been convicted on federal corruption charges linked to state deals.
Also, in a letter made public in 2006, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wrote that investigators probing job-rigging allegations within Blagojevich's administration "have implicated multiple state agencies" and "have developed a number of credible witnesses."
Blagojevich's comments about former Gov. Ryan come in the wake of Ryan's wife, Lura Lynn Ryan, telling the Chicago Sun-Times this week that she has sent word to the president asking him to release her husband.
"I was hoping we could get him home by Thanksgiving, but that's not going to happen," Mrs. Ryan said. "I was hoping by Christmas. I'm hoping that may happen. I don't want to get my hopes up too high."
On Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, also a Democrat, said he's considering asking Bush to commute Ryan's sentence.
"Let's look at the price he's paid," Durbin said. "His family name has been damaged. He is at an advanced moment in his life and been removed from his family. He has lost the economic security, which most people count on at his age. And he's separate from his wife at a time when she is in frail health.
"To say that he's paid a price for his wrongdoing, he certainly has. And the question is whether continued imprisonment is appropriate at this point."
On Monday, Bush issued two commutations and pardoned 14 people, including Richard Michael Culpepper from Downstate Mahomet, who was convicted of making false statements to a federal agent and sentenced to five years of probation in 1988.
The three former federal prosecutors who tried Ryan -- Patrick Collins, Joel R. Levin and Zachary Fardon -- called on Bush not to grant Ryan freedom or wipe away any official record of his crimes because Ryan has shown no contrition.
"A pardon or commutation for George Ryan would send a message to Illinois taxpayers and public servants that the consequences for public corruption in Illinois are less severe and would further fuel cynicism of our important institutions," the lawyers said in a joint statement.