Will any other states follow suit? Maybe it's because the US is so large but shouldn't a country as a whole either have the death penalty or not on principle, not exactly united when there are differing views on capital punishment.
'The hardest decision I have ever made': Illinois governor finally abolishes death penalty
Abolished: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn speak with reporters in his office after signing legislation abolishing the death penalty
The governor of Illinois has abolished the state's death penalty.
Pat Quinn signed legislation today abandoning capital punishment, two months after Illinois politicians voted to do the same and more than a decade after former Governor George Ryan imposed a moratorium because of concern that innocent people could be put to death.
Illinois now joins 15 other states which have done away with the death penalty. The new law takes effect July 1.
Mr Ryan, a Republican, imposed the moratorium in 2000, after the death sentences of 13 men were overturned.
He also cleared Death Row before leaving office in 2003 by commuting the sentences of 167 condemned inmates to life in prison.
Mr Quinn, a Democrat, has spent the last two months consulting with prosecutors, victims' families, death penalty opponents and religious leaders.
He also commuted the sentences of all 15 inmates remaining on Illinois' death row. They will now serve life in prison.
Illinois' attorney general was among those asking for a veto, saying safeguards are in place to prevent wrongful executions.
Execution: Mr Quinn, a Democrat, has spent the last two months consulting with prosecutors, victims' families, death penalty opponents and religious leaders.
The Democrat called it the 'most difficult decision' he has made as governor.
He said: 'I think if you abolish the death penalty in Illinois, we should abolish it for everyone.'
New Mexico had been the most recent state to repeal the death penalty, doing so in 2009, although new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez wants to reinstate it.
Quinn consulted with retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and met with Sister Helen Prejean, the inspiration for the movie 'Dead Man Walking.'
Despite wide spread support for the decision, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan appealed directly to Quinn to veto the bill, as did several county prosecutors and victims' families.
They said safeguards, including videotaped interrogations and easier access to DNA evidence, were in place to prevent innocent people from being wrongly executed.
But death penalty opponents argued that there was still no guarantee that an innocent person couldn't be put to death.
Quinn's own lieutenant governor, Sheila Simon, a former southern Illinois prosecutor, asked him to abolish capital punishment.
Twelve men have been executed in Illinois since 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated.
The last was Andrew Kokoraleis on March 17, 1999.
At the time, the average length of stay on death row for the dozen men was 13 years.
Kokoraleis, convicted of mutilating and murdering a 21-year-old woman, was put to death by lethal injection.
Celebration: Democrat state senator Kwame Raoul (left) and Republican Karen Yarbrough, celebrate legislation abolishing the death penalty
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ly-abolishes-death-penalty.html#ixzz1GCQ9yLY2
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