George Ryan

George Ryan ordered such a moratorium, noting that the state had executed 12 people from 1977 to 2000 but that the death sentences of 13 other people had been overturned in the same period. In 2003, on the eve of leaving office, Ryan emptied the…

…among them former Illinois governor George Ryan and associates of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He again drew on the finer points of law, using mail fraud charges to bring indictments against Ryan.

George Ryan, a conservative Republican, succeeded Jim Edgar as governor in 1999. He startled many of his followers by visiting Cuba under Fidel Castro’s reign, becoming the first U.S. governor to do so, and by essentially placing a moratorium on the execution of prisoners on…