KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — Former Gov. George Ryan says among his regrets in life is letting the execution of the last person in Illinois proceed before he placed a moratorium on capital punishment.

Ryan spoke to The Daily Journal in Kankakee in an interview posted online Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1mKbAaf). It was among his first interviews since his release from prison in 2013 for corruption convictions.

In 1999, then-Gov. Ryan refused calls to stop the execution of Andrew Kokoraleis. He was convicted in the 1982 rape, kidnapping and murder of a 21-year-old Elmhurst woman, Lorraine Borowski.

A year after the execution, Ryan declared the moratorium. Citing flaws in the system, he the cleared death row in 2003.

Referring to Kokoraleis, the 80-year-old Ryan said, “I regretted killing that Greek fella.”

Ryan told the Chicago Sun-Times prison guards treated him poorly at times because they disagreed with his decision to put a moratorium on the death penalty.

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