Former Illinois governor guilty in corruption case

CHICAGO — Former Gov. George Ryan was convicted of corruption charges Monday in the scandal that ended his political career in 2003 at the same time he was winning international acclaim for commuting the sentences of every inmate on Illinois' death row.

Ryan, 72, a Republican, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read, and vowed afterward to appeal.

He was convicted of steering state contracts and leases, including a $25 million IBM computer deal, to political insiders while he was Illinois secretary of state in the 1990s and then governor for one term. In return, he got vacations in Jamaica, Cancun and Palm Springs, and gifts ranging from a golf bag to $145,000 in loans to his brother's floundering business.

"I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of public service that I provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years, and needless to say I am disappointed in the outcome," he said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called Ryan's actions "a low-water mark of public service."

The jury in the state's biggest corruption trial in decades found Ryan guilty on all counts, including fraud, lying to the FBI and racketeering conspiracy, which alone could bring 20 years in prison at sentencing Aug. 4.

His co-defendant, Chicago businessman Larry Warner, 67, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering.

Prosecutors also want the two men to forfeit the $3 million they say Warner raked in through state business. The judge will rule on that later.

Ryan was the third former Illinois governor in the past three decades to be convicted of federal felonies. Otto Kerner was found guilty in a racing-stock scandal; Dan Walker was convicted of corruption involving bank loans.

The scandal that led to Ryan's downfall began over a decade ago with a fiery van crash in Wisconsin that killed six children. The 1994 wreck exposed a scheme inside the Illinois secretary of state's office in which truck drivers obtained licenses for bribes.

The probe expanded to other corruption under Ryan. Seventy-nine former state officials, lobbyists, truck drivers and others have been charged. Before Ryan's trial, 74 had been convicted.

In 2000, Ryan, as governor, declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death-row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. Then, days before he left office in 2003, he emptied out death row, commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He declared that the state's criminal-justice system was "haunted by the demon of error."

Ryan declined to seek a second term after the scandal sent his approval ratings plummeting. He was indicted a year after leaving office.

Jurors said no single factor tipped the balance in favor of conviction.

"It wasn't a smoking gun," said Kevin Rein of Glen Ellyn, a carpenter. He said "the government had a pretty good pile of evidence."