Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was heralded for halting death penalties in Illinois — but later served time on a corruption conviction — has died at the age of 91.
Ryan, a Republican who served in the Illinois House, as Illinois secretary of state, Illinois House speaker, lieutenant governor and ultimately governor, is best known for declaring a state moratorium on the death penalty in 2000 that eventually led to its abolition.
But he’s also remembered for a federal corruption probe that netted him six years in federal prison in 2007, stemming from the illegal sale of commercial driver’s licenses — actions that ultimately were linked to the 1994 deaths of six of Scott and Janet Willis’ children. After five years in federal prison, Ryan served seven months of home confinement.
Born in Maquoketa, Iowa, Ryan went to school to be a pharmacist and at one time owned a chain of family-run pharmacies. He served as chairman of the Kankakee County Board and served five terms in the Illinois House, and as speaker from 1981 to 1983. He served two terms as lieutenant governor and secretary of state before being elected governor in 1998.
Beyond his call for a death penalty moratorium in 2000, Ryan also focused on the prevention of drunk driving and pushed Illinois to lower the blood alcohol level to 0.08 percent. Ryan also created Illinois FIRST, a five-year, $12 billion public works program that helped to rebuild the state’s infrastructure, schools, roads and transportation systems.
While he was in prison, his wife Lura Lynn was diagnosed with cancer and died. He was allowed to visit her and was able to make it to her bedside before she died.
“It was horrible to lose her, but life goes on,” Ryan told Michael Sneed in 2018. “I adored her, and her ashes are on my fireplace mantle in Kankakee.”
Former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin first met Ryan when he served as secretary of state. The two maintained a strong friendship, even after Ryan left prison. Durkin said Ryan spent his final years with his family in Kankakee, “re-engaging with the people that he had grown up with and the people in his community.”
Durkin said the execution of convicted killer Andrew Kokoraleis in 1999 weighed heavily on Ryan’s mind and was one of many cases that swayed Ryan to halt executions. Kokoraleis was put to death by lethal injection just hours after Ryan denied requests for clemency.
“He really struggled with it. And I know that because he told me, and also I talked to other people who were involved in talking to George about what he should do. But he did sign the warrant for execution, and it really troubled him so much afterward,” Durkin said.
“And he took the position that he was going to commute the sentences of everybody on Death Row in Illinois,” Durkin added. “And he just felt that it was such a burden upon him, and something that really troubled him. That the state shouldn’t be in the business of being executioners. That life is precious, and we shouldn’t be playing this role in society.”
In a 2020 interview with WBEZ, Ryan said the case of Anthony Porter, an ex-Death Row inmate who spent 16 years in prison before being exonerated, helped to influence his decision.
“Here’s a fellow that spent 16 years on Death Row and waking up every morning saying, ‘I wonder if today’s the day that they’re going to stick the needle in and kill me.’ And I turned to my wife and said, ‘How does that happen in America?'” Ryan said. “Poor guy sits on death row for 16 years, then they tell him, ‘Well, you’re innocent. You know, it’s too bad we made a mistake, and we’re gonna let you out of jail.’ That’s what really started me down the path to looking at the death penalty.”
Ryan said he got angry calls from federal prosecutors and even from George W. Bush, who at the time was Texas governor and running for president, about the moratorium. Ryan had served as Bush’s Illinois campaign chairman for his first presidential run and was consistently asked about the tension between the two.
“I’d get asked the question, ‘Well, what about, you know, what about George Bush, the governor of Texas? He says that his system is such that he doesn’t have any problems.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about his problem, about his system, but my system’s got problems. The system in Illinois doesn’t work right. Something’s wrong and it needs to be fixed,'” Ryan said in the interview. “And every time they’d asked Bush about it, he said, ‘These people have had a fair trial, and everything in our system works well, and my conscience is clear. They’re guilty, and they’re going to die.’ And he killed them.”
The moratorium led Ryan to several Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
In 1994, the Willis family van, driven by Scott Willis, ran over a piece of steel that had fallen off a truck on Interstate 94 in Wisconsin. Their gas tank exploded, engulfing their van in flames, killing six Willis children. An investigation revealed the driver of the truck that dropped the piece of steel had received his license through a historically rigged testing system at the Illinois secretary of state’s office, which Ryan once headed.
Asked in 2020 whether he felt he had come to terms with the Willis deaths, Ryan, at 86, grew a bit defensive.
“What do you mean have I come to terms with it?” Ryan said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it, didn’t have any part of it.”
“I have no feelings of guilt about anything I did when I was in public office. And you know, whatever the conviction was really doesn’t matter to me,” Ryan said. “My conscience is clear, and that’s what counts.”
In his final years, Durkin said Ryan showed no “bitterness” to those involved with his case.
“He did good things for the state. People are going to judge him based on what happened with the Willis family, and I’m not sure if it’s fair, but he did his time. And he had no resentment nor bitterness to the people who were involved in the prosecution, nor towards anybody afterward,” Durkin said. “So I think that really shows the character of George Ryan.”
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who lost his 1994 bid for secretary of state to Ryan, said the two were political adversaries. But he complimented Ryan’s stance on the death penalty moratorium.
“On many, many issues, I disagreed 100% with George Ryan,” Quinn said. “But I do admire the fact that when he saw wrong, he tried to right it.”
Dennis Culloton, who served as Ryan’s press secretary from 1999 to 2003, recalled the ex-governor “loved government” and the impact of a multi-billion capital program Ryan initiated.
He also remember Ryan for taking numerous “courageous stands” as governor, from the death penalty moratorium to upsetting the then-Republican White House administration over a trip to Cuba to promote agricultural trade relations.
“The Bush White House — George W. Bush was president at the time — was not thrilled with that, but he did it anyway because he thought it was the right thing to do,” Culloton said.
Brad Cole, CEO of the Illinois Municipal League, served as Ryan’s deputy chief of staff. He said he wants people to know Ryan was someone who helped others outside of the spotlight.
“Gov. Ryan was a very good friend of mine. He was also fundamentally a good man, and I wish more people knew that about him. He dedicated himself to helping people when others wouldn’t and did so quietly and out of the spotlight,” Cole said. “I will always be grateful for our more than 25-year relationship and am comforted that he and Lura Lynn are now together once again.”
Gov. JB Pritzker also offered his condolences Friday in a social media post.
“Sending my deepest condolences to former Governor Ryan’s family and loved ones,” Pritzker said. “May his memory be a blessing.”
Contributing: Alex Degman and Dave McKinney, WBEZ