Support for Gov

Support for Gov. George Ryan's freeze on capital punishment has fallen by nearly 1/2 in 2 years, a telephone survey of 625 Illinoisans finds. Only 46 % of respondents support the halt to executions, the Copley News Service poll found, while 42 % oppose it and 13 % are undecided. That's a sharp decline from a similar poll conducted in February 2000, just after Ryan stopped capital punishment while a commission studied the system's flaws. At the time, 81 % approved of the freeze, and 13 % opposed it. Ryan says he is not worried about what people think. "This has never been about what is politically popular".