chort1313
01-10-2003, 11:27 AM
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Illinois Gov. George Ryan plans to announce Friday pardons for four of the state's death row inmates, CNN has learned.
Ryan will make the announcement during a 1 p.m. EST speech at DePaul University Law School in Chicago.
Sources close to the clemency process said the four men are Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard. Orange, now in jail rather than prison due to a succession of court dates, could be released sometime Friday, the sources said.
The four are part of the so-called "Burge Ten," 10 death row inmates who say they had confessions tortured out of them by police under the direction of Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. The commander was fired after internal police investigators found systemic evidence of physical abuse of suspects.
Ryan has another speech scheduled for Saturday at Northwestern University Law School, which, along with journalism students from the university, has been at the center of the fight to free wrongfully convicted death row inmates.
At that time, Ryan is expected to announce his decision on commuting the death sentences of other death row inmates to life in prison. Ryan said it is possible he would grant blanket commutations to all of the 160 men and women on the state's death row.
Victims' families and prosecutors have strongly urged him to look at individual cases instead of granting blanket commutations.
Of the four cases to be announced Friday:
• Police said Patterson, 38, confessed to the April 1986 stabbing of an elderly couple in Chicago. Patterson never signed the confession and, during his interrogation, scrawled "I lie about murders, police threaten me with violence," into a bench with a paper clip.
• Hobley, 42, was convicted of killing seven people in an arson fire in 1987. Private investigators later developed evidence that a metal gas can found at the scene used to connect Hobley to the arson was planted. He long contended he was a police torture victim, too.
• Orange, 52, in prison for 19 years after being convicted of four murders along with his half-brother in 1985, told CNN in an exclusive interview last October that police used an electric probe to force him to confess though he was unable to prove it.
"Electric shock don't leave no marks," Orange said.
Howard, 40, was convicted in a 1987 murder and also contended he had been tortured.
The pardons mean the four men will be released from prison although it is unclear exactly when. Officials with the governor's office had recently contacted lawyers for the inmates to inquire about their prospects for employment were they to be released.
Patterson and Hobley are now on death row at the Illinois State Correctional Center at Pontiac. Howard is at a state prison in Menard, and Orange is at Cook County Jail in Chicago.
Ryan halted executions in Illinois in January of 2000, expressing concern that there may be innocent people on death row. This came after 13 inmates in Illinois were set free after being sent to death row.
I just hope they really are innocent.
Ryan will make the announcement during a 1 p.m. EST speech at DePaul University Law School in Chicago.
Sources close to the clemency process said the four men are Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard. Orange, now in jail rather than prison due to a succession of court dates, could be released sometime Friday, the sources said.
The four are part of the so-called "Burge Ten," 10 death row inmates who say they had confessions tortured out of them by police under the direction of Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. The commander was fired after internal police investigators found systemic evidence of physical abuse of suspects.
Ryan has another speech scheduled for Saturday at Northwestern University Law School, which, along with journalism students from the university, has been at the center of the fight to free wrongfully convicted death row inmates.
At that time, Ryan is expected to announce his decision on commuting the death sentences of other death row inmates to life in prison. Ryan said it is possible he would grant blanket commutations to all of the 160 men and women on the state's death row.
Victims' families and prosecutors have strongly urged him to look at individual cases instead of granting blanket commutations.
Of the four cases to be announced Friday:
• Police said Patterson, 38, confessed to the April 1986 stabbing of an elderly couple in Chicago. Patterson never signed the confession and, during his interrogation, scrawled "I lie about murders, police threaten me with violence," into a bench with a paper clip.
• Hobley, 42, was convicted of killing seven people in an arson fire in 1987. Private investigators later developed evidence that a metal gas can found at the scene used to connect Hobley to the arson was planted. He long contended he was a police torture victim, too.
• Orange, 52, in prison for 19 years after being convicted of four murders along with his half-brother in 1985, told CNN in an exclusive interview last October that police used an electric probe to force him to confess though he was unable to prove it.
"Electric shock don't leave no marks," Orange said.
Howard, 40, was convicted in a 1987 murder and also contended he had been tortured.
The pardons mean the four men will be released from prison although it is unclear exactly when. Officials with the governor's office had recently contacted lawyers for the inmates to inquire about their prospects for employment were they to be released.
Patterson and Hobley are now on death row at the Illinois State Correctional Center at Pontiac. Howard is at a state prison in Menard, and Orange is at Cook County Jail in Chicago.
Ryan halted executions in Illinois in January of 2000, expressing concern that there may be innocent people on death row. This came after 13 inmates in Illinois were set free after being sent to death row.
I just hope they really are innocent.