Convicted former Illinois Governor George Ryan is out of legal options. Today the United State’s Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.
Ryan’s lawyers were arguing that a series of errors during jury deliberations prevented the former governor from getting a fair trial. An appeals court denied that argument and the Supreme Court declined to reconsider the case. But Former Governor Jim Thompson who worked on Ryan’s defense team says there may be one more option beyond the courts. Thompson says he hasn’t yet run this idea by Ryan but he says they could petition President George W. Bush to commute the sentence to time served.
THOMPSON: The man has gone from being the governor of the state of Illinois, to being a prisoner in the federal penitentiary. His career is gone. His reputation is gone.
Thompson says Ryan’s troubles have served to punish the him and deter others from committing similar crimes. The 74-year-old former republican governor is currently serving his six-and-a-half-year sentence in Terra Haute, Indiana.