Using words like "liar" and "criminal" and "dictator," family members of murder victims and prosecutors across the suburbs were nearly unanimous in their condemnation of Gov. George Ryan for his commutation of death sentences.

Complaints ranged from the venue in which Ryan chose to make his announcement to accusations that he had promised families not to grant blanket commutations.

"This should be a criminal act," said Dawn Pueschel, sister of murder victim Dean Pueschel. "This is a crime to do what the governor has done."

"He spit in our faces," said Katy Salhani, sister of murder victim Debra Evans.

claims; because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious -- and therefore immoral -- ‘I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,'æ" Ryan proclaimed, quoting Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun's dissent to the constitutionality of executions.

Ryan's remarks roused a packed lecture hall at the law school of Northwestern University, whose professors and students have helped free numerous innocent men from death row. The audience included international media, parents, spouses and children of the once-condemned, and numerous men freed from death row.

Ryan, who voted to reinstate Illinois' death penalty in 1977, had done a nearly full reversal by 2000, when he halted all executions after it became clear the state's capital punishment system was troubled. more

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003