Illinois abolishes the death penalty

Illinois abolishes the death penalty

2011-03-10 05:21:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS (BNO NEWS) -- The Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn on Wednesday signed a law abolishing the death penalty and commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole.

Quinn signed the legislation during a private ceremony in his Capitol office surrounded by longtime opponents of capital punishment, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death," Quinn wrote in his signing statement. "This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal reflection."

Quinn made his decision after meeting with prosecutors, judges, elected officials, families of murder victims, people on death row who were exonerated and even with anti-death-penalty luminaries including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it," Quinn wrote, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case," he added.

The ban comes about 11 years after then-Governor George Ryan ordered a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that found at least 33 death row inmates had been represented at trial by an attorney who had been disbarred or suspended; at least 35 African-American inmates on death row who had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury; and about half of the nearly 300 capital cases had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.




The death penalty ban will take effect July 1. Illinois is now the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.

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