Ryan gets curious benefit of the doubt

Abusing power doesn't mean you have to lose that power.

At least that appears to be the case for disgraced, convicted former governor of Illinois George Ryan.

How many people who have been found guilty of committing serious crimes, such as breaking federal corruption laws, have been able to avoid immediately serving prison time meted out as proper punishment? Ryan is one. But it's sure hard to think of many others, isn't it?

That is because the many others surely don't get the benefit of the doubt about the veracity of their conviction. At least enough so to stay out of jail, even if they have been convicted and have had that conviction upheld by an appellate court. As is the case with Ryan.

The problem for those who do not get the benefit of the doubt is that they are not George Ryan. They don't have his clout.

They can't hope to enlist the services of a prestigious law firm that can dispatch James Thompson, a former governor who wielded his own clout in that office -- albeit legally -- to defend Ryan and keep him out of prison.

What would be their chances of having the court system ordering a delay to the start of their prison sentence because there are still questions about the verdict rendered in their case, which is apparently the issue with Ryan?

Even after a jury conviction, and with two of three judges on a federal appellate panel declaring that Ryan got a fair trial, Ryan gets to stay home, at least through his next round of appeals. His freedom, for now, is being extended indefinitely.

We don't profess to have expert knowledge of the workings of the court system. But we can only hope that the benefit of the doubt apparently being extended to Ryan -- he doesn't have to be accountable for his crime just yet by serving time because there are still lingering questions about jury irregularities -- is a legal courtesy extended to others with similar cases but dissimilar public profiles.

But we wonder how many defendants convicted of serious crimes on allegedly shaky cases had to sit for years in their jail waiting rooms until irregularities in their cases were sorted out.

Last month, President Bush commuted Lewis "Scooter" Libby's jail sentence given on a conviction of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Virtually nobody else would get such a break if convicted of the same offenses.

Now we have former Gov. George Ryan being found guilty of corruption, with a federal appellate panel in agreement, yet Ryan does not have to spend one day in jail while his case remains under appeal.

It's fuel for cynicism. It lends more authenticity to the gut-punching belief that people in the high places of politics don't necessarily have to live by the set of rules of accountability that were written for all of us.

If there is a middle ground in the courts for Ryan, there should be one for the masses.