Should former Gov. George Ryan be granted clemency?

Normally, I am in favor of clemency, but there is something about the crimes of government officials that gets me mad. They have participated in a system that puts millions of people in jail, why is that system not good enough for them? They asked us to trust them to run our coutry, state, county and city, and they violated that trust. Let them be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

If anything he should be held to an even tougher standard than the average citizen. Everybody's family suffers in some way if their family member goes to prison. If that's a reason to pardon someone, then there'd be no prisoner's left. He hasn't apologized or shown remorse for his crimes or for his victim's families.

It's important to understand that there are plenty of criminals in prison more deserving of a pardon than George Ryan. Because of his crimes, there are nine people dead from accidents that shouldn't have ever happened. The other thing about his case that is disturbing is that he didn't apologize for it until yesterday. All of his press conferences about the matter involved his flat out denial of the crime. He was guilty. It was a serious betrayal of the trust he received from the people of Illinois. He should remain in prison until his sentence has been served.

thanks for your comments! this is a very debateable topic because yesterday as i was riding in the car there were many people who felt he deserved the clemency but very few who said he didn't. The prosecutor at Ryan's trial feels that if he gets clemency than so should the other man involved who is also Ryans age!

Frist, before I answer, I'd like to give some of my background:
Proud AFSMCE member since 1980
Retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2007 and am a "radical" democrat.
Why is this important? Because Ryan was one of the worst governors I worked under--although Blago has kept the run going...he closed prisons without taking into account that affect would have on the safety of staff and inmates/youth; he allowed his appointed directors to change juvenile into adult prison, although he did do good by doing away with the death penalty(although that shut down some cases from going forward to prove their innocence..but that's another story).
He's old, he's lost everything and is losing his wife of many years--and she needs him more than he needs to be punished. He has been punished in more ways than we'll every understand:
the repugs of Illinois threw him out(but stood dutifully behind Chimpy McFlightsuit as he sunk the nation)
He won't be remembered as anything but a criminal and to the type of man that he was, that is much worse than prison.

You have to really own your guilt to deserve clemency