CHICAGO — Lura Lynn Ryan, the wife of former Gov. George Ryan, said on Wednesday that her husband is being prosecuted because of his stance against the death penalty.
“This is something that the powers that be are for, and we really think that’s why this indictment came down,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”
This is the first time this has ever been mentioned anywhere to my knowledge outside of the diary I wrote last summer.
http://bushplanet.blogspot.com/2005/09/more-fixgerald.html
I reported long ago on my blog and in a diary on Booman that was reprinted on Daily Kos (and of course immediately banned) that my friend had spoken to Scott Fawell who is the chief witness against George Ryan that Karl Rove’s office warned Ryan not to commute the death penalty in Illinois. Ryan told Rove’s representative that it was a done deal there was nothing he could do. Rove told Ryan he would be punished.
Before Ryan became governor an investigation was taking place called Operation Safe Roads. Ryan was then Secretary of State of Illinois and head therefore of all vehicle agencies especially those having to do with driver’s licenses. This investigation concerned an accident in which a driver who had no legal license got in an accident in which there were a number of fatalities. The investigation later morphed into a specific investigation of Ryan and charges of bribery and special favors.
George Ryan is not a Duke Cunningham. He is a typical politician in Illinois. The typical politician in Illinois expects you to do him a favor then he will do you a favor. Ryan is Very liberal, and lives modestly. He was the first governor to commute the death penalty in the U.S. He also visited Cuba and encouraged relations with that country. He was a Republican and acted more like a brave liberal. He did a lot of things George Bush did not like.
“Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having?
“Because of all these reasons, today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates,” Ryan said
Ryan’s decision affects 156 inmates on death row in Illinois and 11 others who have been sentenced to death but who were not in the custody of the Department of Corrections because they are awaiting re-sentencing or trials in other cases. Some were also in other states’ custody. .
1). He visited Cuba and met with Fidel Castro
2). He supported Gun Control
3). He supported and brought to light the need for DNA testing for death row inmates
This brings us back to Patrick Fitzgerald. I have changed my stance after seeing him on TV and I have concluded he is a straight shooting Republican. He is an anomaly. He is unmarried, no kids, lives alone. Only that type of person can operate with some independence.
He is prosecuting George Ryan, perhaps the last of the truly liberal Republicans, and looking into corruption charges on Mayor Daley a democrat. He is also looking into corruption in the current Democrat governor Rod Blagojevich and seems essentially focused on Democrats in Illinois. There is, I believe, one other minor Republican official who Fitzgerald is investigating.
The fact that Ryan is a Republican is irrelevant given his position on the issues with Bush.
Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be honest. But his is still a very conservative Republican despite his so-called registration as non-affiliated. He has been called a mid-eval “crusader” by Lynne Stewart a civil rights lawyer who represented the blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a Muslim cleric in the bombing of the world trade center in the 90’s. She has since been convicted by Fitzgerald for releasing a statement to the media from the Sheik to the public. She faces 40 years in prison. She has appeared numerous times on Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/11/1545229&mode=thread&tid=25
All of Fitzgerald’s appointments have been made by Republicans. I have always wondered what pressure or influence that Karl Rove’s lawyer Robert Luskin must have had upon Fitzgerald to convince him not to indict Karl Rove.
I still don’t get it.