Description

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Until I Could Be Sure chronicles how Governor George Ryan set aside his prior beliefs - and pressure from the public and politicians - to take on a culture and a system of punishment that Americans long have grappled with, even as much of the rest of the civilized world has consigned it to the dustbin of history.

About the Author

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George H. Ryan Sr. was the 39th Governor of the State of Illinois. Born in 1934, the son of a pharmacist, Ryan grew up in Kankakee, Illinois. He was first elected to state office in 1972 as an Illinois State Representative. He served two terms as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and one term as Speaker of the House. He served as Illinois Lieutenant Governor from 1983 to 1991, as Illinois Secretary of State from 1991 to 1999, and then was Governor from 1999 to 2003. Ryan was the first Governor in U.S. history to suspend the death penalty, declaring a moratorium in 2000. In 2003, as he left office, Ryan emptied death row in Illinois by issuing a blanket commutation order. He was indicted in 2003 and convicted of federal corruption charges relating to conduct while he was Illinois Secretary of State. He served nearly six years in prison and was released in 2013. Age 84, Ryan still travels extensively to speak about the death penalty and the criminal justice system, as well as to support humanitarian efforts in Cuba. Maurice Possley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of three non-fiction books. Ryan cited the reportage of Possley and his colleagues at the Chicago Tribune when he declared the moratorium and emptied death row. Possley is now senior researcher for the National Registry of Exonerations, a national database of more than 2,500 wrongful convictions maintained by the University of Michigan Law School, Michigan State University College of Law and University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science & Society.