Illinois House votes to abolish death penalty

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-illinois-house-death-penalty-v20110106,0,6165035.story

Historic move now goes to the state Senate

By Ray Long and Todd Wilson, Tribune reporters

10:07 p.m. CST, January 6, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — — The death penalty would be abolished in Illinois under legislation the House approved for the first time Thursday, but the ban's fate is uncertain in the final days of the General Assembly's lame-duck session.

The historic vote comes 10 years after then-Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty following revelations that several people sent to death row were not guilty.

[truebrit71]

1. With as many innocent people that were on death row here this is a good move...

..

[Kber]

2. Thanks for the link - I hope the Senate and Governor can get on board.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Notice how the Tribune downplays the number of innocent men on our death row? Several people my ass!

http://www.truthinjustice.org/dphistory-IL.htm


Jan. 21: Darby Tillis and Perry Cobb become the first two Illinois Death Row prisoners exonerated following reinstatement of the death penalty.

June 28: In Maryland, former Marine Kirk Bloodsworth becomes the first American under sentence of death to be exonerated by DNA.

Nov. 3: Rolando Cruz becomes the state's fourth exonerated Death Row prisoner when a sheriff 's officer admits Cruz did not make a statement authorities used to convict him.

Dec. 8: Alejandro Hernandez, co-defendant of Cruz, becomes the fifth Death Row prisoner to be exonerated.

June 24: Verneal Jimerson, one two men sentenced to die in the Ford Heights Four case, becomes the state's sixth exonerated Death Row prisoner when DNA establishes his innocence.

July 2: Dennis Williams, the other man sentenced to die in the Ford Heights Four case, becomes the state's seventh exonerated Death Row prisoner.

Oct. 4: No. 8, Gary Gauger, is exonerated when an Appellate Court holds that police lacked probable cause to arrest him for murdering his parents.

Dec. 12: Carl Lawson becomes the state's ninth exonerated prisoner when forensic testing discredits the state theory of the crime for which he had been sentenced to die.

Feb. 5: Anthony Porter, who had come within 48 hours of execution, becomes the state's 10th exonerated Death Row prisoner, thanks in part to Northwestern journalism students.

Feb. 19: No. 11, Steven Smith, is exonerated when the Illinois Supreme Court reverses his conviction and bars a retrial.

May 17: Ronald Jones becomes the state's 12th exonerated Death Row prisoner when DNA exonerates him of the rape and murder for which he had been sentenced death.

Jan. 18: Steve Manning, a former Chicago cop sentenced to death on the word of a jailhouse informant, becomes the state's 13th exonerated Death Row prisoner.