George Ryan

“I can't support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error that it has come close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life.”

“Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious - and therefore immoral - I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.”

“I will not approve any more executions.”

“Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error - error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die.”

“We have now freed more people than we have executed, and that's a shameful record.”

“The facts I have seen in reviewing each and every one of these cases raised questions not only about the innocence of people on death row, but about the fairness of the death penalty system as a whole.”

“How can we have a death penalty when we are so fallible?”

“I am a man who has been blessed, and I'm a man who has been cursed.”

“There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.”

“I had to act. Our capitol system is broken.”