Illinois Death Row Shut Down

With the passing of the calendar, Illinois's Death Row has officially died itself.  In March, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a law which ended the Death Penalty in Illinois.  Today was the day that Death Row was set to be shut down.  In 2000, then Illinois Governor, George Ryan, put a moratorium on the Death Penalty.  Three years later, he cleared Death Row when he commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates convicted of murder and sentenced to death to life.  However, prosecutors throughout the state continued to seek the death penalty hoping that Ryan's moratorium would be lifted.  It never was.  In March of this year, Governor Quinn signed a law which abolished the Death Penalty in Illinois.  The last time Illinois carried out the Death Penalty was in 1999.  A total of 12 men were put to death in Illinois since 1997.

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