Governor George Ryan on "The Falliability of the Death Penalty"

Former Governor of Illinois George Ryan speaks at Stanford Law School about the death penalty and the criminal justice system. Speech begins at 5pm. Free dinner reception begins at 6pm.

George H. Ryan was the 39th Governor of Illinois. In January 2003, shortly before he left office, Governor Ryan commuted the sentenced of all 167 inmates on Illinois death row. He took this action based on his belief that the capital justice system was broken and could not be trusted with taking human life.

This action was the culmination of a dramatic transformation in Governor Ryan's views on the death penalty. Throughout his more than 30 years in public office, Governor Ryan had supported capital punishment. Yet, in January 2000, Ryan instituted the nation's first moratorium on state executions, pending a thorough review of the capital judicial process. “Until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection,” he announced, “no one will meet that fate." Two months later, Ryan formed the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the state's policy and process of administering the death penalty. That Commission recommended more than 80 changes to the state's capital punishment system—proposed reforms that will likely prompt many states across the country to reexamine how capital punishment is being carried out.

Governor Ryan's account of how he came to his monumental decision contains many lessons on the role of political leadership—lessons with significance far broader than the death penalty debate.