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I'M SO SORRY (I GOT CAUGHT)

September 07, 2006

Former Illinois Governer George Ryan was sentenced yesterday to 78 months in federal prison for dismally long string of crimes, including one count of tax evasion. Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer imposed the sentence. Among other outrageous crimes, Mr. Ryan was convicted of trying to squelch an investigation of drivers license bribery that led to the death of a six kids at the hands of a semi driver who couldn't speak English.

I wonder if the sentence would have been longer if the judge had happened to overhear post-sentencing bathroom banter between former Illinois Governor (and former federal prosecutor) "Big Jim" Thompson and Governor convicted felon Ryan, as reported by Jim Kass in the Chicago Tribune:

To call Ryan complicated, and use it to offer him mercy when, even on sentencing day, he refused to apologize for his crimes is an insult. That does more to promote cynicism than the sight of Big Jim Thompson showing up in the hallway outside the courtroom, confident, the former prosecutor and governor smirking, chomping gum.

Judge Pallmeyer must believe in the potential goodness of all people.

But she didn't hear Ryan laughing in the washroom after she imposed her light sentence, Ryan joking with his buddy Big Jim.

"Wonder what [defense lawyer Dan] Webb is going to say to the media," Ryan said, chuckling, spry enough in his allegedly weakened and infirm state that he bent quickly, like a portly gymnast in hard shoes, to see if anyone was hiding in a stall.

A young reporter who was dressed in a nice suit--and so didn't look like a young reporter but more like an attorney--wanted to use the facilities.

"Got a ticket?" wisecracked Ryan, smiling, hearty, apparently crushed by the tough sentence he might not ever serve.

At the end of his term as Governor, Mr. Ryan bought himself cheap goodwill in some circles by ostentatiously commuting all death sentences in Illinois. It's too bad he couldn't commute six death sentences he was actually answerable for:

A few minutes earlier, though, he was seeking mercy, speechifying, oozing contrition without ever offering a real apology, just like a politician. He even used his deep George Ryan political voice.

The people of Illinois, Ryan said, "expected better and I let them down and for that I apologize. My failures will never leave my mind as long as I live. ... I should have been more vigilant."

He meant he should have been more careful. But there was no apology to the Willis family, sitting nearby, for his order to cut off the investigation of the license-for-bribes scheme that helped lead to the crash that killed their six children.

It's hard to say what's more depressing; this man having served as Illinois governor, or his yukking it up post-conviction with his well-connected predecessor "Big Jim." It makes Iowa, with all of its scandals lately, seem pretty innocent.

Link: State 29.

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