Source: Gov. to Pardon 4 on Death Row
A source close to the clemency process, who spoke Thursday only
on condition of anonymity, said Ryan would pardon Aaron Patterson,
Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard. All four men have
alleged that Chicago police tortured them into making confessions.
The announcement was expected to come during the first of two
speeches that cap Ryan's three-year campaign to highlight flaws in
the state's capital punishment system.
Ryan has said he will announce before he leaves office next
Monday whether he will grant clemency to any or all the state's 160
death row inmates. The pardons were expected to be announced during
Ryan's speech at DePaul University, home to an anti-death penalty
center founded by Andrea Lyon, a lawyer who represents Hobley.
"I would like to think the governor's office having this speech
here at DePaul and asking me to introduce the governor means
something good for my client," Lyon said.
The source said Ryan was still considering the fate of other
death row inmates late Thursday. Ryan plans to announce his
decisions on the balance of the other death row inmates on Saturday,
the source said.
Another speech Saturday afternoon at Northwestern University law
school has even more symbolism. The law school has led the attack on
the state's capital punishment system and Northwestern journalism
students have conducted investigations that freed a handful of
inmates. Northwestern professors and lawyers have called for Ryan to
issue a blanket clemency commuting the sentences of most death row
inmates to life in prison.
"I don't think he would come and give a speech that was going to
greatly disappoint us," said Rob Warden, executive director of the
Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions. "Let's put
it this way: He's not giving the speech at the Cook County State's
Attorney's office."
Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton would only say Thursday that
"there are several cases that the governor found to be a great
injustice and he wanted not only to study them in great depth, but
he wanted to discuss them in detail. And that's what he'll be doing
tomorrow."
Ryan declared a moratorium after 13 men were freed from Illinois'
death row because new evidence exonerated them or there were flaws
in the way they were convicted.
The most recent precedent for a blanket clemency came 16 years
ago when the governor of New Mexico commuted the death sentences of
the state's five death row inmates.
It is possible the four men Ryan plans to pardon could be
released from prison within hours of the governor's action.
Patterson and Hobley are on death row at the Pontiac Correctional
Institution. Orange and Howard are in the Menard Correctional
Institution in Chester.
Patterson claims he was tortured into falsely confessing to
murder after police threatened him with a gun, beat him and tried to
suffocate him in 1986. He previously turned down a deal to admit
guilt and drop his claim of police torture in exchange for freedom.
Hobley was convicted of murder and aggravated arson in the deaths
of seven people, including his wife and infant son. He contends he
made a false confession after he was beaten and suffocated.
Orange was sentenced to die for taking part in the stabbing of
his former girlfriend, her 10-year-old son and two others. The
conviction came despite Orange's description of torture and
testimony that his half brother, Leonard Kidd, was the one who
stabbed the victims. Kidd, also on death row, claims he too was
tortured into confessing.
Howard was convicted of murder, armed robbery and rape, among
other crimes. He claims he is innocent of the crimes, but says he
confessed after he was handcuffed to a wall ring, beaten and
suffocated by police in November 1984.
