Outgoing Gov. George Ryan will return to the Law School on Saturday for a speech on the death penalty that could include granting pardon and clemency petitions.

Ryan, who leaves office Monday, is expected during a separate address today to pardon four death row inmates, including Aaron Patterson, according to The Associated Press. Patterson’s case has been an ongoing project in Prof. David Protess’ investigative journalism course for more than two years.

Today’s speech will be held at noon at the DePaul College of Law.

Rob Warden, associate director of Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, said he expects Ryan to make an announcement Saturday of his decision regarding clemency requests from about 160 death row inmates.

“His staff called and just asked if this would be a possible venue for the governor,” Warden said. “I certainly hope that he commutes every single existing death sentence to a life (without parole) sentence. The fact that he’s chosen Northwestern is a reason for optimism.”

Ryan’s staff has expressed doubts that the governor will commute the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison in light of his conversations in recent months with victims’ families and advisers.

Medill senior Katherine Krepel, a student in Protess’s class and a former Daily staffer, said blanket commutation makes sense, although such a radical move is unlikely for Ryan.

“I think he might pick and choose some people who are more appealing to him than others,” she said.

Krepel and classmates have been working with Patterson, who petitioned the governor for clemency.

When she visited Patterson in prison, Krepel waited for more than an hour with the family of a 17-year-old death row inmate before being admitted to the interview room, she said.

“In some ways it’s what you might expect,” she said. “When you see it in the context of a family like that, it’s really something else all together.”

Although Krepel does not know if Patterson’s case will come up over the weekend, she plans to attend Saturday’s speech with Protess and some of her classmates.

The governor will speak at 1 p.m. in Lincoln Hall on the Chicago Campus. The event is open by invitation only.

While no one outside Ryan’s office knows what his Saturday speech will contain, some opponents of the death penalty have speculated that Ryan appears to be leaning toward blanket commutation, said Greg Phillips, an Education sophomore and president of NU’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In his last visit to NU, Ryan commended Law School and Medill School of Journalism students and professors for their work on wrongful conviction cases.

He also surprised the crowd by pardoning Paula Gray, a woman who was sentenced wrongfully to 60 years in prison in connection with the Ford Heights Four double-murder case.

A judge threw out Gray’s conviction in July 2001, but the Cook County State Attorney’s Office appealed the ruling. The governor’s pardon nullified the appeal and qualified Gray for $100,000 compensation from the state.

The Illinois Legislature has rejected many reforms suggested by the governor’s commission on capital punishment since Ryan instituted a death penalty moratorium in 2000, so Ryan could take matters into his own hands, Phillips said.

“Effectively, the Illinois death penalty was left unreformed,” he said. “I don’t think that a Republican politician would be so intent on getting this idea out there if he wasn’t serious about it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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“I think (Gov. Ryan) might pick and choose some people who are more appealing … than others.”

Kathering Krepel,

Medill senior