By AP/KWMU
Chicago, IL – Illinois' death row is expected to shrink today.
The Associated Press says Governor George Ryan will announce pardons for four men who say they were tortured into confessing by Chicago police. The Governor will speak in Chicago at noon today.
The men are Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard.
Published reports say the Governor will also pardon Gary Dotson, who was imprisoned for eight years for a rape and
kidnapping that never happened.
The Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune report the pardon of Gary Dotson in today's editions. The Sun-Times cites documents filed at Secretary of State Jesse White's office.
Dotson was arrested in 1977 for the alleged kidnapping and rape of 16-year-old Cathleen Crowell Webb. Eight years later she admitted she made up her story.
Dotson was convicted in 1979, but DNA evidence exonerated him ten years later.
Ryan will make another speech Saturday, that's when he's expected to announce whether he'll commute any other death sentences to life in prison.