I want to apologise for my sudden and unexplained silence - my computer got a virus and is away getting fixed, and in the small amounts of computer time I've managed to glean in its absence, I haven't had time to update this blog at all and a LOT has happened in the last couple of weeks. As soon as I get my computer back, I'm sure I'll have to catch up on everything I've missed but for now I'm just going to focus on the thing we've all been waiting for: the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois!
Yes, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a historic ban on the death penalty in Illinois on March 9th, as well as commuting the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole. In his signing statement, Quinn wrote: "For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death. This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I can to without deep personal reflection."
Quinn also wrote that he saw abolition as the right choice due to the irreparably imperfect system.
In 2000, former governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after it was discovered that 13 men on death row in the state had been wrongly convicted. There has not been an execution since.
The ban takes effect on July 1st.
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