
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."


I'm certain there are many anti-abortionist that are up in arms over this decision.
Uh, no, the anti-abortionists are almost always pro-DP...how's that for irony....
Because they want the baby grow and then kill it.
Good for him. Maybe our governor can follow his lead as well.
Repubican't=Massengill
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!!!
it is easy to say maybe a few innocent will die but it is for the greater good when it isn't you
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?
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
Hopefuly all the thugs with guns from st. Louis will cross the river. Good luck ill.
Totally support Gov. Quinn and all who stand for justice without violence and death.
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?
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!
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........
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.
Zowie! I wonder how many of these capital punishment lovers commenting here are also opposed to abortion?