ILLINOIS COMMISSION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO RELEASE LANDMARK REPORT ON THE DEATH PENALTY

MEDIA ADVISORY
Monday, April 15, 2002
Noon Central, 1:00 p.m. Eastern CONTACTS: Brenda Bowser, DPIC
(202) 293‑6970 x215
Cell — (301) 906‑4460
Valerie Holford, Fenton Communications
(202) 822‑5200 x226
Cell — (202) 365‑5336

ILLINOIS COMMISSION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO RELEASE LANDMARK REPORT ON THE DEATH PENALTY

Reporters Nationwide Can Participate in Governor’s Press Conference
by Conference Call

Commission Established after Governor Ryan Enacted
the Nation’s First State Moratorium on Executions

WASHINGTON, DC — On Monday, April 15, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) will host a nation­al tele­phone news con­fer­ence call fea­tur­ing Illinois Governor George Ryan and mem­bers of his Commission on Capital Punishment as the State releas­es find­ings from the nation’s most com­pre­hen­sive death penal­ty study. The call will enable mem­bers of the media to lis­ten to the Governor’s joint press con­fer­ence with the Commission, which will take place at Noon Central, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, at the James R. Thompson Center, 100 West Randolph St., Chicago.

Two years ago, Illinois Governor George Ryan appoint­ed a 14-mem­ber Commission on Capital Punishment to close­ly exam­ine Illinois’s death penal­ty, and he declared the nation’s only mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until the review was com­plet­ed. A mile­stone moment in America’s quest for a fair­er jus­tice sys­tem, Ryan’s step sparked an unprece­dent­ed series of events through­out the coun­try. Prior to form­ing this com­mis­sion, the Governor declared that his state’s death penal­ty was fraught with error, not­ing: “[The Illinois cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is] so fraught with error and has come so close to the ulti­mate night­mare, the state’s tak­ing of inno­cent life.”
WHAT: National Telephone News Conference regard­ing Illinois Announcement of Results from the Nation’s Most Comprehensive Death Penalty Review WHO: Governor George Ryan
All 14 mem­bers of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment WHEN: Monday, April 15, 2002 at Noon Central, 1 p.m. Eastern Time

Please con­tact Brenda Bowser or Valerie Holford for the con­fer­ence call phone num­ber and pass­code. DPIC can also put reporters in touch with a num­ber of nation­al experts and spokesper­sons who are avail­able to com­ment on the report fol­low­ing its release. Background infor­ma­tion on the Commission’s work and Illinois is avail­able at DPIC’s Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment Web page # # #

ILLINOIS COMMISSION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO RELEASE LANDMARK REPORT ON THE DEATH PENALTY | Death Penalty Information Center

NEWS BRIEF — Illinois Marks 10th Anniversary of Death Penalty Abolition

It has now been ten years since Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill end­ing the death penal­ty in Illinois. The abo­li­tion bill, signed on March 9, 2011, was the cul­mi­na­tion of eleven years of debate after Governor George Ryan imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2000 and then issued four par­dons and 167 com­mu­ta­tions, clear­ing the state’s death row in 2003.

The Illinois mora­to­ri­um, imposed fol­low­ing a year in which U.S. exe­cu­tions peaked at 98, was a cat­a­lyst for rethink­ing the death penal­ty across the coun­try. At that time, 38 states autho­rized cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. One year after Ryan’s mass com­mu­ta­tion, the New York Court of Appeals declared its death-penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The court sub­se­quent­ly applied that deci­sion to the rest of the pris­on­ers on the state’s death row in 2007. The New York leg­is­la­ture then opt­ed not to cor­rect the con­sti­tu­tion­al error, effec­tive­ly abol­ish­ing the state’s death penal­ty. Legislatures in New Jersey (2007) and New Mexico (2009) also repealed their cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws in the decade of the 2000s. 

Illinois became the first of five leg­is­la­tures to repeal their death penal­ties in the 2010s, fol­lowed by Connecticut (2012), Maryland (2013), Nebraska (2015, halt­ed by ref­er­en­dum), and New Hampshire (2018, vetoed; and 2019, veto over­rid­den). State courts also declared cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in Delaware (2016) and Washington (2018). In 2020, Colorado became the sixth state in a decade to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The Virginia leg­is­la­ture vot­ed in February to repeal its death penal­ty, and will become the first Southern state to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment once Governor Northam signs the abolition bill.

Tags
Sources

Eric Zorn, Column: Abolition of the death penal­ty in Illinois kicked off a decade of crim­i­nal jus­tice progress, Chicago Tribune, March 5, 2021.