Federal appellate court upholds Ryan convictions
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's corruption convictions, flatly rejecting arguments from lawyers for the imprisoned former Illinois governor that the charges should be overturned because prosecutors never proved he took a bribe.
The decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after the death last week of Ryan's wife of 55 years, Lura Lynn Ryan, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. The former governor was released for several hours to be at his wife's side before she died, though he wasn't allowed to attend her funeral.
A Ryan attorney, another former Illinois governor, Jim Thompson, said Ryan's legal team and family were "enormously disappointed with the ruling." But he vowed to continue pushing for the convictions to be tossed, taking additional appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if need be.
"We will fight on," Thompson said in a telephone interview. "It is a setback. But it's not the last recourse."
The appellate court's decision again highlights the state's ignominious record of ex-governors in or bound for prison, coming a week after a jury convicted Ryan's successor as governor, Rod Blagojevich, on 17 corruption counts, including attempted extortion for trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old Senate seat.
Ryan, a Republican, has served about three years of his 6 1/2-year sentence on racketeering, conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements to the FBI. No sentencing date has been set for Blagojevich, a Democrat, though most legal experts have said that a judge will likely impose a sentence of around 10 years.
The failed appeal was the 77-year-old Ryan's latest attempt to get out of a Terre Haute, Ind. prison based on a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that sharply curtailed "honest services" laws, indicating they must be applied to clear instances of bribery or kickbacks.
Defense lawyers have long criticized honest services laws as too vague and a last resort of prosecutors in corruption cases that lack the evidence to prove money is changing hands. The Supreme Court largely agreed.
Any errors in instructions to Ryan jurors did not alter the stark fact that Ryan's case did involve bribery and kickbacks, the appeals court found — so the high court's landmark ruling wouldn't get Ryan off the hook.
In their 11-page opinion, the appellate judges say the evidence amply "demonstrates why a reasonable jury could find that Ryan sold his offices to the high bidders."
Last year, the U.S. District judge who presided over Ryan's 2006 trial, Rebecca Pallmeyer, upheld Ryan's corruption conviction, leading to the appeal.
Pallmeyer ruled in December that vagueness wasn't an issue in Ryan's case.
"Ryan clearly understood 'what conduct was prohibited' and could not have been surprised that he was subject to prosecution," she wrote, using language from the Supreme Court ruling.
Ryan was convicted of steering state contracts and leases to political insiders while he was secretary of state and then as governor, receiving vacations and gifts in return. He also was accused of stopping an investigation into secretary of state employees accepting bribes in exchange for truck driver's licenses.