On March 9, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a repeal of the death penal­ty, replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The gov­er­nor also com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of the 15 peo­ple on the state’s death row to life with­out parole. The ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment comes after an eleven-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions declared by for­mer Republican Gov. George Ryan and makes Illinois the 16th state to end the death penal­ty. It also marks the low­est num­ber of states with the death penal­ty in more than thir­ty years. The Illinois repeal is an indi­ca­tion of a grow­ing nation­al trend toward alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty, and an increased focus on mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and the pre­ven­tion of crime. In light of the cur­rent eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties, the pub­lic has increas­ing­ly rec­og­nized that resources used for the death penal­ty could be divert­ed to high­er bud­getary pri­or­i­ties, such as law enforce­ment and vic­tims’ ser­vices. Many mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies were among the strongest sup­port­ers of the Illinois repeal, and the high costs of the death penal­ty were influ­en­tial in its pas­sage. The law requires that state funds used for the death penal­ty be trans­ferred to a fund for mur­der vic­tims’ ser­vices and law enforcement. 

Since 1976, Illinois has car­ried out 12 exe­cu­tions. In the same peri­od, 20 inmates have been exon­er­at­ed from the state’s death row, the sec­ond high­est num­ber in the United States. In 2003, three years after the mora­to­ri­um was imposed, Gov. Ryan issued a blan­ket com­mu­ta­tion, reduc­ing the sen­tences of 167 death row inmates to life and par­don­ing four inmates. Since then, Illinois has had two dif­fer­ent com­mis­sions to study the death penal­ty and has imple­ment­ed some reforms, but con­tin­ued to face a flawed and cost­ly sys­tem. The use of the death penal­ty declined sharply in Illinois dur­ing the mora­to­ri­um. In the 1990s, the state aver­aged over 10 death sen­tences a year. In 2009 and 2010, the state imposed only one death sen­tence each year. Illinois is the fourth state in the last four years to aban­don the death penal­ty. New Mexico and New Jersey vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty in 2009 and 2007, respec­tive­ly. New York’s death penal­ty law was declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2004, and the last per­son was removed from death row in 2007.

DPIC Press Release, Illinois Governor Signs Bill Ending Death Penalty, Marking the Fewest States with Capital Punishment Since 1978, March 9, 2011.

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