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Illinois governor signs death penalty ban
March 9th, 2011
01:40 PM ET

Illinois governor signs death penalty ban

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation eliminating the death penalty in his state, more than 10 years after the state halted executions.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," Quinn (pictured), a Democrat, told reporters in making the announcement.

Illinois conducted its last execution in 1999. Then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in 2000, after a series of death row inmates were exonerated. Quinn said his review had convinced him that it was impossible to administer capital punishment without mistakes, and abolishing it was "the right and just thing."

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Filed under: Crime • Death Penalty • Illinois • Justice
soundoff (477 Responses)
  1. D. McCalla

    I'm certain there are many anti-abortionist that are up in arms over this decision.

    March 9, 2011 at 5:53 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  2. Zeta

    Uh, no, the anti-abortionists are almost always pro-DP...how's that for irony....

    March 9, 2011 at 5:57 pm | Report abuse | Reply
    • fofo

      Because they want the baby grow and then kill it.

      March 9, 2011 at 6:23 pm | Report abuse |
  3. fofo

    Good for him. Maybe our governor can follow his lead as well.

    March 9, 2011 at 6:22 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  4. Zeta

    Repubican't=Massengill

    March 9, 2011 at 6:36 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  5. Zeta

    AND it was a republiCAN who put the moratorium in effect in the first place, and oh, yeah, that republiCAN Governor is in....wait for it...PRISON! So can it!!!

    March 9, 2011 at 6:41 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  6. jill

    it is easy to say maybe a few innocent will die but it is for the greater good when it isn't you

    March 9, 2011 at 7:46 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  7. LEB

    I'm a Democrat and a bleeding-heart liberal to the bone, but I say SCREW these guys... just take 'em behind the barn and shoot 'em. I want my tax dollars to go to SCHOOLS and the POLICE DEPARTMENT and PUBLIC WORKS and FAMILIES who are temporarily down on their luck. I DON'T want my tax dollars keeping these pathetic wastes of space and resources alive. *I* don't get free housing, free food, free medical care, free workout facilities, free entertainment, and jobs that are handed to me without any effort on my part. If *i* don't get that as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen who has never had anything worse than a speeding ticket I forgot to pay (once) on my record, then why do criminals get all these privileges?

    March 10, 2011 at 1:38 am | Report abuse | Reply
  8. JC

    Respectfully, this was the only choice. The system is so flawed...broken....that it is far too risky to allow something as final as death to be in its hands. The sadder, bigger picture is that it tears at the foundation of our justice, legal and court system....if you can't trust it here, how can you trust it anyplace? From traffic tickets on up....

    Frightening for the populace

    March 10, 2011 at 8:40 am | Report abuse | Reply
  9. noemi

    Hopefuly all the thugs with guns from st. Louis will cross the river. Good luck ill.

    March 10, 2011 at 11:24 am | Report abuse | Reply
  10. Mary c

    Totally support Gov. Quinn and all who stand for justice without violence and death.

    March 11, 2011 at 10:46 am | Report abuse | Reply
  11. Charles Silas

    Once you ring the bell of killing an excuting an innocent man it cannot be unrung. How do you condem the governor when he did the same thing Christ did? They were going to stone that women to death for adultery as the Jewish law provided, but no one stoned her. May all those men slept with her, because she sure enough didn't do it alone, but they tried to set her and Jesus up. Didn't work did it?

    March 15, 2011 at 12:28 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  12. kentackian

    God is angrier when one innocent human gets unjustly executed than when a thousand murderers go free.
    That being said, death penalty in the US is way underused. Way more people need to be executed and way faster than they have. No need to have those murderers on death row for years!

    March 21, 2011 at 2:01 am | Report abuse | Reply
  13. roger

    Just going to get more civil servicemen killed in the line of duty.......at least the federal courts will execute a cop killer, instead of this state I'm policing. Amazing........

    March 21, 2011 at 1:28 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  14. Bob

    All murderers are welcome in Illinois, you are free to kill all those who are not for the death penalty, you probably will only serve to do 6 months if that, if you get caught.

    March 21, 2011 at 6:29 pm | Report abuse | Reply
  15. Apryl

    Zowie! I wonder how many of these capital punishment lovers commenting here are also opposed to abortion?

    May 5, 2011 at 12:40 am | Report abuse | Reply
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