Illinois Governor Plans to Pardon Four Convicted Murderers Today
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Illinois, the governor, an intriguing story, too, George Ryan, the governor there, plans to pardon four convicted murderers today, one of his last acts of governor in that state. All four men claim they were tortured into confessing their crimes. From Chicago, here's our bureau chief Jeff Flock tracking that -- Jeff, good morning.</s>JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning to you. Happy to wake up early this morning. It just doesn't matter what side of this issue you're on, and, of course, there are people on both sides, what will happen today, though, is four men, some of whom have been in prison for 20 years on death row, will actually walk free. We've had the opportunity to, in the past, interview two of the four men. I think it fair to say there are going to be some pretty amazing scenes outside prisons across Illinois when eventually these men do walk free, and that could happen as early as today.</s>FLOCK: Jeff Flock,</s>CNN. (voice-over): Leroy Orange told that police used electric shock to get him to confess to a quadruple murder he didn't commit.</s>LEROY ORANGE: They stuck it in my genitals and finally inserted something in my butt that shocked.</s>FLOCK (on camera): How did you respond to that?</s>ORANGE: Well, I was scared to death for this, to be in the custody of the Chicago Police Department.</s>FLOCK (voice-over): Aaron Patterson told us he was beaten and threatened into saying he stabbed an elderly couple and his lawyer showed us photographs of this police bench where he scrawled the words with a paper clip, "I lie about murders, slapped and suffocated me with plastic."</s>AARON PATTERSON: I tried to hold my breath and tried to bite through the bag so I could breathe.</s>FLOCK: Madison Hobley says police tortured him into confessing to an arson fire that killed seven, including his wife and children. And Stanley Howard says he, too, was coerced by police, admitting to a 1987 murder he didn't commit.</s>GOV. GEORGE RYAN (R), ILLINOIS: Innocent people going to death row, bad prosecutions, bad eyewitnesses, bad judges, bad attorneys, bad everything.</s>FLOCK: And Governor George Ryan is going to do something about it.</s>RYAN: Because there's got to be some relief.</s>FLOCK: After spending weeks combing these briefing books on the cases of all 160 Illinois death row inmates, Ryan has decided to pardon four of them.</s>ORANGE: January would be 19 years locked up period.</s>FLOCK: In an exclusive interview with us in October, the 52- year-old Orange asked us to carry a message to the Governor.</s>ORANGE: I suppose I would basically beg for my life.</s>FLOCK: Bill, he begged for at least some sort of clemency, even to have his sentence commuted to life in prison so he could keep fighting for his innocence. But Leroy Orange there actually gets his freedom. We talked to an inmate on death row yesterday. He said the atmosphere was electric on death row, everybody waiting to see who might get a pardon. And now it appears, based on what we've been able to develop, four people will be pardoned. And then tomorrow the Governor has a big speech in which he may then commute the sentences to life in prison of other death row inmates. So we'll be watching that one, too -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Jeff, we go back in time here, part of the reason why the Governor started thinking this way is because he is waiting for the results of a study to conclude whether or not the trial system in the State of Illinois was fair to everyone across-the-board.</s>FLOCK: That's...</s>HEMMER: Have those results come back in and is there a possibility that all the death row sentences may be commuted at some point?</s>FLOCK: Yes, the answer to that is yes, there is a possibility. The results of that study did come in. They made a lot of recommendations. The legislature failed to act on any of them and a lot of people thought that if the legislature didn't act and the system was not reformed to the Governor's satisfaction, he would, in fact, commute everybody. Of course, victims' families and law enforcement very upset about that. They want him to look at each individual case. That's what he's done on the pardons. Will he do it on the commutations? At this point we don't know.</s>HEMMER: Wow. It will be an amazing weekend for those four families.</s>FLOCK: You said it.</s>HEMMER: Jeff Flock in Chicago, thanks. Today>