ITALY: EX ILLINOIS GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR PANNELLA’S NON VIOLENT ACTION
April 8, 2004: The following is a letter sent by ex-Illinois Governor George Ryan, currently Hands Off Cain’s Honorary President, to The Radical Party.
1 MIN READ
I have come to know that you have been on hunger strike for six days and have now abstained from drinking for four days so as to assure the respect of the Constitution in your country. As Honorary President of Hands Off Cain I express my support and backing towards your initiative. As you well know, on January 11, 2003, I, as Governor of Illinois, granted clemency for all inmates who were then, or who had been, sentenced to death. The order related to 171 persons: 167 inmates had the sentence commuted to life imprisonment, 4 were released. That decision was the last I took during my mandate as Governor. However, newly-elected Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a mandamus action challenging some of my clemency orders. The Illinois Supreme Court denied the Illinois Attorney General´s challenge to my blanket clemency order last year, thereby leaving intact the historical right of the state´s chief executive to grant clemency for those on Death Row.
Also for that reason I support you non violent initiative to reaffirm the right of the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to grant clemency.
Take care of your health,
Yours, George Ryan
KEEP READING
ALL THE NEWS · DEATH PENALTY On the same front
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 10, 2026
Oman: new law introduces death penalty in drug crimes
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 10, 2026
USA - Florida. Daniel Conahan, 72, White, was executed on September 10
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 9, 2026
Pakistan: LHC acquits death-row prisoner after nearly seven years
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 9, 2026
IRAN - 3 men executed in Isfahan on September 9
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 8, 2026
Thailand: killer of Hua Hin hotel receptionist sentenced to death
DEATH PENALTYSEPTEMBER 8, 2026