Illinois pardons four on death row

Four men on death row in Illinois who say they were tortured into making confessions were pardoned yesterday, the result of a historic reconsideration of the death penalty which could result in as many as 160 sentences being commuted to life imprisonment this weekend.

"We have evidence from four men, who did not know each other, all getting beaten and tortured and convicted on the basis of the confessions they allegedly provide," the state governor, George Ryan, said as he overturned the convictions against Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Leroy Orange and Aaron Patterson, all of whom have spent at least 12 years on death row.

"They are perfect examples of what is so terribly broken about our system," said Mr Ryan, a Republican and former death penalty advocate who introduced a moratorium on execu tions in the state three years ago. In the preceding 23 years 13 prisoners on death row had been exonerated.

The four men have long maintained that the Chicago police used beating and suffocation to get them to confess. A federal judge later wrote that torture by the Chicago police "occurred as an established practice, not just on an isolated basis".

"Three years ago I was faced with some startling information: we had exonerated not one, not two, but 13 men from death row," Mr Ryan said.

"It was a shameful scorecard, truly shameful _ We nearly injected them with a cocktail of deadly poisons so they could die in front of witnesses in the state's death chamber."

"I'm speechless right now," said a tearful Robin Hobley, Mr Hobley's sister, when she heard that he, Mr Orange and Mr Patterson would be released yesterday. Howard is serving time on a separate robbery conviction. His sister Taffiany said: "It's a good day. I felt the governor would do the right thing, and he did."

Mr Ryan leaves office on Monday, and has until then to announce the results of a review of all the state's death row cases. Sources told NBC News that he was planning to commute "at least three-quarters" of them to life imprisonment.

His review led to a series of hearings at which convicts pleaded for mercy, often prompting angry responses from their victims' relatives.

Ollie Dodds, who lost her 34-year-old daughter in the fire Mr Hobley was convicted of starting, said of Mr Ryan yesterday: "I don't know how he could do it. It's a hurting thing to hear him say something like that. [Mr Hobley] doesn't deserve to be out there."

Several of the exonerations that inspired the moratorium resulted from investigations by undergraduate journalism students at Northwestern University in Chicago.