ASC's CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY DIVISION/TITLE> </HEAD> <body bgcolor="#FF0000" text="#0000FF" link="ffffff" vlink="000000"> <CENTER> <H1><EM>Andrew Kokoraleis</EM></H1> </CENTER> <PRE> KOKORALEIS' EXECUTION CARRIED OUT TORN RYAN AGONIZES, BUT DENIES CLEMENCY Chicago Tribune, 17 March By Christi Parsons and Cornelia Grumman, Tribune Staff Writers. Tribune staff writers Rick Pearson, Ray Long and Marla Donato contributed to this report. TAMMS, Ill. Convicted killer Andrew Kokoraleis was put to death by lethal injection at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, just hours after Gov. George Ryan denied requests for clemency. Kokoraleis, 35, of Villa Park, was convicted of the 1982 mutilation and murder of 21-year-old Lorraine Borowski, a secretary from Elmhurst who was abducted on her way to work. Kokoraleis died four minutes after a fatal combination of drugs was injected into his arms. In his last statement, he said: "To the Borowski family, I am truly sorry for your loss. I mean this sincerely." He then cited verses from the biblical books of Exodus and Proverbs and added: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The execution followed a day of legal maneuvers that ultimately left the decision to proceed in the hands of Ryan, a longtime supporter of capital punishment who nevertheless agonized for days over the issue. "I must admit that it is very difficult to hold in your hands the life of any person, even a person who, in the eyes of the many, has acted so horrendously as to have forfeited any right to any consideration of mercy," Ryan said in a statement late Tuesday. "I have struggled with this issue of the death penalty and still feel that some crimes are so horrendous and so heinous that society has a right to demand the ultimate penalty." Ryan's decision, following two high-profile cases in which condemned men were set free after questions were raised about their guilt, underscored the magnitude of the death penalty debate in Illinois. Though he has long supported capital punishment and said he would continue to do so, Ryan at one point was prepared to issue a 90-day reprieve. "It's his first time," one staff member said as Ryan met Tuesday evening with top aides in his Chicago office. "He's not prepared. He can't make up his mind." The decision to proceed was Ryan's alone because the state Supreme Court had overturned a stay earlier in the day and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to postpone the execution. The governor was torn by Kokoraleis' troubled upbringing. But that attitude was offset by the horrendous nature of his crime. And there was the larger issue of the fairness of the justice system in a state where 11 men wrongly sentenced to die have been set free. Less than five hours before the execution, Ryan issued a three-page statement in which he asked for the prayers of Illinois residents in the belief that he had "acted wisely" by allowing the execution to proceed. "To me, all the evidence at hand indicates that Andrew Kokoraleis is guilty of the gruesome murder of Lorraine Borowski," Ryan said in the statement. ". . . Accordingly, I will not stand in the way or alter the verdict or the sentence handed down in this case." In the days leading up to the execution, Ryan acknowledged to friends that it was easier to vote for the death penalty as a lawmaker than it was to actually decide whether someone should live or die. At a political event Monday night, Ryan pulled state Rep. Dan Rutherford (R-Chenoa) aside several times. Earlier that day, Rutherford had led a group of new lawmakers through the Pontiac Correctional Center and met briefly with Kokoraleis, who was being held at the prison's Death Row. "I've known Gov. Ryan since 1978, and I think this was probably the most somber, intense time I've spent around him," Rutherford said. "(Ryan) was interested in what I thought of what kind of person (Kokoraleis) was, what kind of things was he saying, how was he reacting and so forth." Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago, who had urged Ryan to call a meeting of legislative leaders on the fairness of the death penalty, said he was satisfied with the Republican governor's decision. "From what I read about what this gentleman did, I can't object to what the governor did," Madigan said. Senate President James "Pate" Philip (R-Wood Dale) wanted the execution to proceed given the nature of the crime. Kokoraleis' attorney, however, said he believes that kind of pressure led Ryan make a political, rather than a legal or moral, decision. "We're disappointed," said Alan Freedman. "So I hope that this execution does not stop the moratorium. There's a problem with the system, and this was a heated case." Freedman said Kokoraleis spent his final hours sitting with a Bible and visiting with one of his brothers. Since being flown by helicopter early Tuesday to the state's new maximum security prison at Tamms, 20 miles north of Cairo, Kokoraleis had refused food and drank only water, officials said. Kokoraleis' attorneys had begun the day with a flicker of hope: Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses Harrison II on Monday had ordered a stay until the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on a final motion. But the state Supreme Court voted 4-3 to toss out Harrison's stay. Later Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Kokoraleis' request to postpone the execution. A statement from Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles E. Freeman said the high court finished formal conferences Tuesday without ruling on a separate emergency motion to stay executions. The motion had been filed by legislators in favor of a death penalty moratorium. "There are serious questions still to be resolved in connection with that petition, one of which is whether the petitioners have standing to bring the motion in this court," Freeman said. Kokoraleis has been linked to as many as 18 slayings in the early 1980s. He eventually was convicted of killing Borowski and Rose Beck Davis of Broadview. He received a life sentence for killing Davis and a death sentence for the murder of Borowski. ------------------------ COPYRIGHT - CHICAGO TRIBUNE This excerpt was obtained from the Chicago Tribune's archives in the Newstand section of AMERICA ONLINE (aol.com). It may not be reproduced without Tribune permission. 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