Give the Trib the Nobel
ArchPundit
First, let me say, I love TalkLeft–it is one of the finest blogs on the web and one of the few that I learn something from nearly every day.
I have a problem with George Ryan and I think many opponents of capital punishment have overlooked his sins in making him out to be a folk hero because of the moratorium. I don’t particularly care why Ryan has been serious about death penalty reform, but I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it is because he sees the horror of a system that doesn’t work.
Working with the kindest assumption above, it makes his behavior all the worse in the license for bribes scandal. The license for bribe scandal has two elements. The primary element is that patronage workers were pressured to kick back to the then Secretary of State’s campaign to be governor. To raise the money workers accepted bribes for licenses from various driving schools and for low numbered Illinois License Plates. Here is a decent summary.
One of the Commercial Driver’s Licenses sold for a bribe went to a truck driver who could speak English about as well as he could drive a truck. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do either. To get a CDL in Illinois one must have at least minimal ability to read and write in English.
While driving through southern Wisconsin, the driver, Ricardo Guzman, had a tail light assembly that was about to fall off of the truck. Several other truckers attempted to contact him by radio and by sight, but because of the language barrier, Guzman didn’t notice. The assembly fell off, and the debris hit the Willis family minivan which burst into flames killing their six children and badly burning the parents Scott and Janet. Three others died in accidents with truck drivers who had illegally obtained Illinois CDLs.
An investigation followed. A close aid to Ryan, Scott Fawell, blocked the internal investigation, lied under oath, and had records destroyed. Over the last week we found out what everyone suspected, Ryan knew.
Not only did the above occur, but state workers were paid state wages to do campaign work. While this is nothing new in Illinois, the abuse of it in this case was quite extensive. Additionally, Fawell was in the business of encouraging stalking horse candidates.
Going by the standard Jeralynn cites from the Nobel Prize page " "those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," George Ryan has subverted the honest working of democracy in Illinois, tampered with the judicial system and led to the loss of innocent lives solely for the pursuit of higher office. To this day he refuses to meet with Scott Willis even in private and has been quite indignant at suggestions he was responsible.
The moratorium is a great step, but given his other actions, George Ryan has no business receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. While all individuals should be judged by more than their worst actions, George Ryan shows contempt for democracy and that is to me, contempt for mankind. What puzzles me is how a man can see the humane reasons for death penalty reform, but be oblivious to the havoc his actions caused to the political system and the Willis children.
Give the Nobel to those muckrakers who brought the issue to the forefront–The Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions or even the Chicago Tribune.
I oppose blanket commutation, but only on the pragmatic grounds that the outrage that would follow would doom any reform efforts in the next session and probably forever. ]
Up DATE: First, a couple minor grammar errors fixed–and change to death penalty reform in the third from the bottom paragraph.
In comments, Jeralynn suggests Barry Scheck for the prize which I think is a fantastic idea, though I still prefer Northwestern’s clinic.