Early Release for Du Quoin's 'Citizen of the Year' Ryan?
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has asked President George Bush to commute the sentence of former Illinois Governor George Ryan, a governor who pumped millions upon millions of dollars into Du Quoin's infrastructure, but in his fall from grace is a permanent embarrassment on the town's historic "Citizen of the Year" program.
He may not have been governor at the time some of the vast projects were proposed, but his legacy includes Du Quoin's middle school, the new Illinois State Police Dist. 13 headquarters, the Southern Illinois Center at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds and the fire department's half million dollar aerial ladder truck.
For that investment in Du Quoin, he is the only non-resident of the city who has ever received "Citizen of the Year" honors.
The Associated Press in its overnight account reports:
Durbin asked President Bush on Monday to consider commuting former Gov. George Ryan's 6 1/2-year racketeering sentence to time served, standing firm on his appeal for mercy despite an outpouring of criticism.
"This action would not pardon him of his crimes or remove the record of his conviction, but it would allow him to return to his wife and family for their remaining years," Durbin said in a letter asking Bush to free Ryan from prison.
The letter followed a request to Bush from Ryan for commutation of his sentence, which was filed several weeks ago, said his attorney, former Gov. James R. Thompson.
Family and friends also sent 200 letters to Bush in support of commuting the sentence to time served, Thompson said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Illinois' Republican party said commuting the former GOP governor's sentence "sends the wrong message."
"The issue is not one of party but of bringing real change to Illinois by the way we conduct business," said Chairman Andy McKenna.
Durbin, a Democrat, told reporters he was moved by the plight of Ryan's wife, Lura Lynn, who is in ill health and needs her husband by her side
"I am asking for mercy for the husband of a woman I admire very much," he said.
Ryan, 74, a one-term governor, was convicted in 2006 of racketeering, fraud and other offenses, and has served one year of his federal prison sentence. It is customary for an outgoing president to issue pardons and commute sentences before leaving office, and Ryan is pinning his hopes for early release on Bush.
In his letter, Durbin described Ryan's circumstances in dismal terms.
"He has lost his state pension benefits and a commutation will not restore them," Durbin said. "He would emerge from prison facing economic uncertainty at an advanced stage of his life."
"I can tell you in the last few days there has been an outpouring of emotion in this state over the suggestion of clemency for George Ryan - overwhelmingly negative," Durbin told a news conference at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago, a few doors from the courthouse where Ryan stood trial 2 1/2 years ago.
Patrick M. Collins, who was chief prosecutor at the Ryan trial, said commuting a sentence should be reserved for extraordinary cases. "My question is, what is the extraordinary circumstance we have here?" Collins said. "Yes, we have an elderly defendant but that doesn't distinguish Mr. Ryan from many other people in the federal prison population."
Collins pointed to Donald Tomczak, former No. 2 man in the Chicago water department, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and went to prison. "He's about Mr. Ryan's age, he has a spouse at home who I'm sure loves him dearly," Collins said. "And he actually acknowledged his conduct and cooperated."
Ryan was convicted of taking part in a cover up of bribes paid in return for truck drivers licenses when he was Illinois secretary of state in the 1990s. using state employees to run his campaigns and steering contracts to lobbyist and cronies.