UPDATED: 04/09/04 10:49 AM
NORMAL
(AP) -- Former Illinois Governor George Ryan says that with each
passing day, he feels more strongly that the death penalty is wrong.
He's
scheduled to leave tomorrow for Geneva, Switzerland, where he'll speak
to the United Nations' Human Rights Commission about his turnaround
from death-penalty supporter to abolitionist.
Ryan
spoke yesterday to about 200 people at Illinois State University in
Normal. He said the death penalty is a “rotten, corrupt system that is
racist and unfair to the poor.''
He
says he doesn't think politicians can ever fix the system and make it
perfect. He also doesn't think the death penalty will be abolished in
his lifetime because it's such a politically charged topic.
In
January, 2003, Ryan commuted the sentences of all 167 inmates awaiting
execution after several people were released from death row for
wrongful convictions.
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2004, Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material cannot be
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