lizzi0067
03-07-2004, 03:52 AM
STATE SET TO PAY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED FORMER INMATES
[Sat Mar 06 2004]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- More than $1 million is going to nine wrongfully convicted former inmates pardoned by former Gov. George Ryan under a law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Blagojevich signed the bill into law on Friday that called for more than $280 million in supplemental spending, including provisions some Republicans criticize as pork-barrel spending during the state's budget crisis.
Ryan emptied death row before leaving office in January 2003, pardoning four men he believed were innocent and commuting the death sentences of 167 others to life in prison. Flaws in Illinois' death penalty system have been in the spotlight since 2000, when Ryan halted executions after 13 men on death row were found to have been wrongly convicted.
Two of the inmates he pardoned at the time on the grounds of innocence will receive the most money. Madison Hobley, who was sentenced to death for setting a 1987 fire that killed his wife, son and five others in Chicago, will receive $161,000.
Leroy Orange will receive $160,000. He had been convicted of fatally stabbing three adults and a child in Chicago in 1984. The day before the House passed the bill in early February, he was charged with selling crack cocaine.
Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, who championed the bill, said he learned from Orange's attorney that the former inmate was struggling financially.
"There was no justifiable reason one way or the other why those who had their lives ruined by wrongful convictions had to wait further for the state to provide some modest compensation for the years unnecessarily spent on death row," Schoenberg said.
The money will be issued by the end of June, said Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich's budget office.
Among those who were pardoned by Ryan and will receive payments ranging from $60,150 to $138,000 include Steven Linscott, who was convicted of killing an Oak Park woman; Gary Gauger who was sentenced to death for killing his parents in McHenry County and Paula Gray, whose perjured testimony helped convict the Ford Heights Four. That case involved four men who were wrongfully convicted of the gang rape and double murder of a suburban Chicago couple.
Under state law, anyone wrongly incarcerated and pardoned by the governor is eligible for a settlement paid by the Court of Claims to compensate them for their time in prison.
Carroll said she did not know why the two other inmates pardoned by Ryan just before he left office -- Aaron Patterson and Stanley Howard -- did not receive money. But last year's budget did include $161,500 for Patterson. Howard remains incarcerated and is serving time for rape, kidnapping and other charges unrelated to the case for which he was pardoned.
Supporters defend the $280 million price tag on the overall legislation, but Republicans question it, pointing to several projects including $1 million for the Illinois Arts Council.
The council is headed by Shirley Madigan, wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat.
This story viewable online at: http://www.thesouthern.com/rednews/2004/03/07/build/top/TOP002.html
[Sat Mar 06 2004]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- More than $1 million is going to nine wrongfully convicted former inmates pardoned by former Gov. George Ryan under a law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Blagojevich signed the bill into law on Friday that called for more than $280 million in supplemental spending, including provisions some Republicans criticize as pork-barrel spending during the state's budget crisis.
Ryan emptied death row before leaving office in January 2003, pardoning four men he believed were innocent and commuting the death sentences of 167 others to life in prison. Flaws in Illinois' death penalty system have been in the spotlight since 2000, when Ryan halted executions after 13 men on death row were found to have been wrongly convicted.
Two of the inmates he pardoned at the time on the grounds of innocence will receive the most money. Madison Hobley, who was sentenced to death for setting a 1987 fire that killed his wife, son and five others in Chicago, will receive $161,000.
Leroy Orange will receive $160,000. He had been convicted of fatally stabbing three adults and a child in Chicago in 1984. The day before the House passed the bill in early February, he was charged with selling crack cocaine.
Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, who championed the bill, said he learned from Orange's attorney that the former inmate was struggling financially.
"There was no justifiable reason one way or the other why those who had their lives ruined by wrongful convictions had to wait further for the state to provide some modest compensation for the years unnecessarily spent on death row," Schoenberg said.
The money will be issued by the end of June, said Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich's budget office.
Among those who were pardoned by Ryan and will receive payments ranging from $60,150 to $138,000 include Steven Linscott, who was convicted of killing an Oak Park woman; Gary Gauger who was sentenced to death for killing his parents in McHenry County and Paula Gray, whose perjured testimony helped convict the Ford Heights Four. That case involved four men who were wrongfully convicted of the gang rape and double murder of a suburban Chicago couple.
Under state law, anyone wrongly incarcerated and pardoned by the governor is eligible for a settlement paid by the Court of Claims to compensate them for their time in prison.
Carroll said she did not know why the two other inmates pardoned by Ryan just before he left office -- Aaron Patterson and Stanley Howard -- did not receive money. But last year's budget did include $161,500 for Patterson. Howard remains incarcerated and is serving time for rape, kidnapping and other charges unrelated to the case for which he was pardoned.
Supporters defend the $280 million price tag on the overall legislation, but Republicans question it, pointing to several projects including $1 million for the Illinois Arts Council.
The council is headed by Shirley Madigan, wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat.
This story viewable online at: http://www.thesouthern.com/rednews/2004/03/07/build/top/TOP002.html