"I am not prepared to take the risk that we may execute an innocent person," he wrote in an overnight letter to the victims' families warning them of his plans.

With death row inmates he had recently pardoned sitting in the audience as he spoke Saturday, [Illinois Governor George] Ryan framed the death penalty issue as "one of the great civil rights struggles of our time."

"Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious -- and therefore immoral -- I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death," he said.”

All well and good. But there are innocent persons executed in Illinois every day. Why could he not throw a wrench into that machinery of death?

While I'm on a roll......
I plunked down on the couch last night and saw part of that inspiring, edgy new NBC series, Mr. Sterling. What a man! He's independent. He's going to think for himself. And just to show what a risk taker he is, they establish at the very beginning that just because he is not a Democrat doesn't mean he doesn't fully believe in a woman's right to choose. Gag me. Do they want edgy? Do they want to go out on a limb? Make him handsome, make independent, make PRO-LIFE!!!