Gov. George Ryan claims to have agonized about enforcing a punishment he has supported consistently in his public life. He admits to having doubts about the execution of Andrew Kokoraleis March 17.
Gov. Ryan was advised that there was not a single shred of physical or scientific evidence that tied Andrew to the crime for which he was executed–no fingerprints, no DNA, no eyewitnesses. For 17 years while he was imprisoned, Andrew maintained that he was innocent.
The governor’s close advisor reportedly gave what the governor would have us believe is apolitical advice, that Mr. Kokoraleis was the least sympathetic candidate for clemency that Ryan would ever encounter. Thus it is apparent that Gov. Ryan’s “agony” was in reaction to his calculated political stand and the convict’s popularity.
Likewise his decision cannot be separated from the recent and serious questions about the application of the death penalty in the state of Illinois, not to mention serious allegations of police and prosecutorial impropriety in this case.
On March 14, local media heard from religious leaders of metropolitan Chicago who could have helped Gov. Ryan with a moral dilemma. Previous to this press conference the governor had turned a deaf ear to the religious community in general, and the religious community in particular of which Andrew Kokoraleis was a part. His refusal to hear the objections, general and specific, of the religious community is not only inconsiderate but offensive. But all religious people of good conscience can agree that using the death of any individual, criminal or innocent, for individual political gain is indicative of a cold indifference to the life that was lost. It is immoral.
We regret the governor of Illinois has chosen personal political gain rather than leading the people of this state based on morality and a proper civil ethic.
