10 January 2011 :

“We appeal to your sense of humanity and ask for a moratorium on the six and a half year sentence of ex Illinois Governor George Ryan, half of which he has already served, so that he can be at the bedside of his dying wife Lura,” the Hands Off Cain directors Marco Pannella, Sergio D’Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti wrote to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.
Lura Lynn Ryan, George Ryan's wife of fifty years, is recovering from an intensive therapy in a hospital in Kankakee last Thursday due to serious complications during chemotherapy. She underwent this due to a cancer that had spread to numerous vital organs.
“Governor Ryan, not withstanding his initial convictions in favour of the death penalty, had the honesty ten years ago to acknowledge that his state's death row held innocent prisoners at risk of being executed. He courageously decided to establish a moratorium on executions.”
“We implore you to give even a brief individual moratorium on the punishment inflicted on George Ryan, the creator of the moratorium on executions in Illinois (that you confirmed), so he can be near his wife Lura in her last moments of life.”
“We are sure that you also believe in the principle of the humanity of punishment, not losing your sense of pity, or supporting punishments that risk being cruel- all the more in this case as the consequences fall on the innocent relatives,” the Hands Off Cain directors concluded.
George Ryan received the post of Honourary President of Hands Off Cain for his decision in 2000 to introduce a moratorium on executions and, in 2003, to commute all 167 death sentences in Illinois.
George Ryan is 77 years old and has six children with Lura Lynn. In 2006 he was found guilty of corruption and on November 7, 2007, was sentenced to a federal jail for six and a half years.