George Ryan, former Illinois governor with a complicated legacy, dies at 91

Flashback: Ryan, a Kankakee-based Republican, began his career in the state legislature, rising to Speaker of the House in 1981, before serving as lieutenant governor under Gov. Jim Thompson in 1983. He was elected secretary of state in 1991.

• Ryan was elected governor in 1999, but a scandal emerged from his time at the Secretary of State's Office. He served only one term as governor.

Zoom in: Ryan's office handed out commercial driver's licenses in exchange for bribes — and one of those drivers caused a 1994 crash that killed Scott and Janet Willis and their six children.

• Ryan was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in 2006. He ended up serving five years of his sentence.
• He is one of four Illinois governors to go to prison for political corruption.

What they said: "My conscience is clear about what I did while I was in office," Ryan told WBEZ's "Reset" in 2020. "I didn't do anything crooked."

Zoom out: Though Ryan will always be tied to corruption, he also led the charge against capital punishment, bucking his party and establishing a moratorium while commuting sentences of Illinois prisoners facing the death penalty.

• He was nominated several times for a Nobel Peace Prize for his decision.

The bottom line: Ryan will hold a singular place in Illinois political history for halting capital punishment and adding to the state's fraught legacy of corruption.