George Ryan, governor of Illinois, will be the keynote speaker at the April 5 meeting of the Malibu Bar Association. The meeting is being held at the Mission Club (the recently renovated old Malibu Court-house on PCH) and is open to the public.
Ryan, a Republican, declared a moratorium last year on executions in Illinois after a series of articles by a Chicago Tribune investigative reporting team, and a study by Northwestern University’s law and journalism schools, showed major irregularities in Illinois’ death-penalty process. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in Illinois, 13 people on death row have been exonerated and 12 others have been executed.
Ryan, who supports the death penalty, decided in a very controversial and highly courageous move that he would stop executions until a special commission he empanelled finishes its investigation and announces its findings. In the interim, the governor has said that “Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure to a moral certainty that no innocent person is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.”
Call the Malibu Bar Association at 589.9662 for reservations. Because a large turnout is expected, reservations are a must. It is possible there may be no tickets left by the evening of the event.