Gov. George Ryan, who halted executions in Illinois almost three years ago and now is considering clemency requests from about 140 death row inmates, will be nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

The idea is drawing criticism from at least one state's attorney and from a man whose daughter was murdered 17 years ago.

Still, Ryan deserves recognition for his "crusade against what is clearly a racist and class-based death penalty system here in Illinois," said Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois law school in Champaign.

Boyle said Tuesday that he had decided to nominate Ryan after hearing him speak on the death penalty Dec. 19 at the law school. Law professors are eligible to nominate candidates for the peace prize, according to the Nobel Web site.

"His speech clearly came from the depths of his soul," said Boyle, a death penalty opponent.

A day after the speech, Boyle notified the governor's office that he planned to make the nomination.

"We want to reward Governor Ryan for all the fine work he has done against the death penalty so far and certainly encourage him to give a blanket commutation to everyone on death row now before he leaves office on Jan. 13," Boyle said.

Ryan has said he soon will decide whether to grant all, some or none of the inmates' clemency requests. If he commutes any death sentences, the affected inmates instead would serve a life term in prison.

"As we near the end of wrestling with the complex, weighty matter of life and death, it's nice that people appreciate what he is trying to do," said Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton. "But (a Nobel Peace Prize) is the last thing on the governor's mind."

Boyle and others who favor Ryan as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate have organized a campaign, including a Web site at stopcapitalpunishment.org. The effort is intended to show the Nobel committee that the Illinois governor has garnered national and international support, Boyle said.

"Nobel Peace Prizes generally are given to send a message to a target audience," Boyle said. "We think that giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Governor Ryan would send a very strong message here to the United States of America that the death penalty has to go."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, based in Oslo, will decide on the peace prize winner by Nov. 15, 2003, according to the Nobel Web site.

Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons and Downers Grove resident George Drobney, whose daughter was murdered in Macoupin County, blasted the notion of promoting Ryan for a Nobel Prize.

"If 'peace' is now defined as embracing murderers, causing endless pain to victims and snubbing the rule of law in Illinois, then he should win" the Nobel Peace Prize, said Lyons, a longtime critic of the governor's moratorium on executions.

"He has milked this cow for about as long as that cow can stand," Lyons added, referring to the governor and the death penalty issue.

Drobney was more succinct.

"It's real simple - these people are out of their gourd," he said.

Drobney's daughter, 16-year-old Bridget, was stabbed to death in a Macoupin County cornfield in July 1985. Robert G. Turner of Wilsonville is on death row for the crime.

"Do these people have their heads in the sand?" Drobney asked. "It's a no-brainer. Anybody with any brains who looks at his tenure as governor, how could they do that?"

Drobney said Ryan is using the death penalty issue to repair his reputation, which has sustained damage because of such problems as the licenses-for-bribes scandal in his former secretary of state's office.

But Boyle said the scandal "certainly plays no role with respect to me and my decision to nominate him."

"I don't think that would matter over in Norway, but I don't know," he added. "I'm not Norwegian."

Boyle plans to make a formal announcement about Ryan's nomination at a news conference Monday at the state Capitol.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at 782-6292 or Adriana.colindres@sj-r.com. Mary Massingale contributed to this report.