Illinois Likely to End Death Penalty

Illinois Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, discusses Senate Bill 3539, which she is sponsoring, on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., on Thursday. In a whirlwind reversal, the bill passed.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

January 12, 2011 10:10 AM

Illinois Likely to End Death Penalty? Governor Pat Quinn to Decide

Posted by Edecio Martinez

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS/AP/WBBM) State lawmakers have approved
legislation to abolish the death penalty in Illinois, sending the
measure to Gov. Pat Quinn on the last day of the lame-duck legislative
session.

The Illinois Senate voted 32-25 Tuesday afternoon, following nearly
two hours of debate on the Senate floor, reports CBS affiliate WBBM.

The House approved the proposal last week by a 60-54 vote.

It's not clear what Quinn will do. He supports the death penalty, but
has continued the long-standing moratorium on any executions in
Illinois.

Death penalty critics said that the death penalty must end in Illinois
because too many innocent people have been sent to death row and later exonerated.

"We cannot afford to continue to have a death penalty in Illinois with
the track record we have," Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, the main
Senate sponsor, said Tuesday. "I believe only the state of Florida has
had more people sent to death row for crimes that they did not commit.
We ought to be embarrassed by that."

Illinois has removed 20 wrongly condemned people from death row since 1987. There's no evidence Illinois has executed an innocent person.

But supporters of the death penalty have said that the death penalty
is the only fitting punishment for the worst criminals.

"That sets the balance straight," Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, said.

As for the possibility that innocent defendants could be sentenced to
death, Haine said those cases are rare and "that's why we have skilled
courts of review; multi-layers."

Some death penalty supporters also said capital punishment is a vital
tool for police and prosecutors when dealing with criminal suspects.
They said it helps them obtain confessions and, in some cases, locate
kidnapping victims by threatening a suspect with the death penalty.

"In the most serious cases, we need this tool," Sen. Dave Syverson,
R-Rockford, said. "This is a tool that will save additional lives. Use
it sparingly, yes, but to take this tool away will cost us lives in
Illinois."

Death penalty supporters also said that lawmakers have already taken
steps to reform the capital punishment system to avoid wrongful
convictions, such as requiring police to videotape all interrogations
of murder suspects.

But supporters noted that those reforms have not prevented police from obtaining false confessions, pointing to the cases of Kevin Fox and Jerry Hobbs, two men who confessed to killing their own daughters.

Hobbs and Fox said their confessions were coerced and both men were later exonerated by DNA evidence.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia already have rid their
books of capital punishment.