By Ammad Omar, IL Public Radio
Chicago, Ill. – Former Illinois Governor George Ryan made a rare public appearance Friday night. It might be one of Ryan's last before his federal prison sentence for corruption begins in January.
Ryan spoke to a group of Depaul University students about the ills of capital punishment. The convicted former Governor shared the stage with one of the men he famously pardoned from death row.
"I believed in the Death Penalty and thought it was the right system and operated by people who knew what they were doing and did it right and did it fair and did it with justice in mind," Ryan said. "And I was wrong."
Although speakers voiced their support for him, Ryan didn't address his own legal concerns. Instead he blasted the death penalty as racist and called for a worldwide moratorium on the practice.