Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn
Pat Quinn
Patrick Joseph Quinn Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st Governor of Illinois, from 2009 to 2015. A Democrat, Quinn began his career as an activist by founding the Coalition for Political Honesty. He is currently working on Take Charge Chicago, a petition for r…
Full Answer
When did Illinois get rid of the death penalty?
In 2011, Illinois became the 16th state to stop using capital punishment. But the process of abolishing the death penalty took more than a decade and included a moratorium that spanned three governors. Anthony Porter is released from prison after serving 17 years for a double murder that another man later admitted to.
What is the death penalty trial in Illinois?
Brendt Christensen's is the first federal death-penalty trial in Illinois since it abolished capital punishment in 2011, dismaying activists who fought to end executions in the state.
What happened to the coalition to abolish the death penalty?
And the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a main umbrella group in the movement, has been disbanded in Illinois.
Who was the last person executed in Illinois?
(Chicago Tribune file photo) Andrew Kokoraleis, found guilty in the 1982 murder of an Elmhurst woman, becomes the last person executed in Illinois to date. A five-day Tribune series examines flaws in Illinois' death penalty system, including faulty evidence, legal incompetence and dishonest trial tactics.
When did Illinois remove the death penalty?
The election of Democrat Pat Quinn paved the way for votes on a bill to abolish the death penalty in the Illinois House and Senate, and on March 9th, 2011 Governor Quinn signed legislation that made Illinois the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.
Why did they remove death penalty?
The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection under the law.
Did Illinois have the death penalty?
Illinois is one of 21 states that have eliminated use of the death penalty within their borders. Even Puerto Rico, an unincorporated U.S. territory, put language in its constitution banning capital punishment. But Owen said that hasn't stopped federal prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty in cases tried there.
What Illinois governor got rid of the death penalty?
George Ryan: 'We Gotta Do Away with the Death Penalty' Two days before leaving office in January 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of state convicts to life in prison, effectively emptying Illinois' death row.
What state banned the death penalty first?
In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason.
Has death penalty reduce crime rates?
States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates. The death penalty has no deterrent effect.
Is there anyone on death row in Illinois?
In 25 years, Illinois has had 12 executions and 156 people remain on death row. At that rate, it would take 300 years to execute just those on death row today.
Who has been executed in Illinois?
List of people executed in IllinoisNumberNameDate of Execution1Charles WalkerSeptember 12, 19902John Wayne GacyMay 10, 19943James P. Free Jr.March 22, 19954Hernando Williams8 more rows
What states don't have the death penalty?
In addition to Michigan, and its Midwestern neighbors Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, the states without the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, where an effort to reinstate it was defeated last year.
What states allow the death penalty?
They are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky. Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Does Wisconsin have the death penalty?
Ph: (608) 283-5612. Today, Wisconsin is one of only 12 states which does not have the death penalty for murder and other serious crimes. Our dislike of the death penalty goes back a long way—to 1853, to be exact.
How many death row prisons are there?
Death Row InmatesNumber of Death Row Inmates (Dec. 31, 2020)Alaska0Arizona116Arkansas29California70348 more rows•Aug 25, 2021
Who got the death penalty but was innocent?
Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed in South Carolina in 1915 for the murder of a man involved in an interracial affair two years previously but were pardoned 94 years after execution.
What would happen if death penalty was abolished?
There would be weightier consequences as well. States with many death-penalty cases would save millions of dollars now spent on legal costs in long-running appeals. Additional savings would result in some states which now spend far more per inmate for Death Row facilities than other maximum-security inmates.
Was the death penalty abolished in the US?
A growing number of states have done away with the death penalty in recent years, either through legislation or a court ruling. Virginia, which has carried out more executions than any state except Texas since 1976, abolished capital punishment in 2021.
Why did Illinois abolish the death penalty?
Illinois abolished the death penalty Wednesday, more than a decade after the state imposed a moratorium on executions out of concern that innocent people could be put to death by a justice system that had wrongly condemned 13 men.
Who is the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty?
Kristin Houle, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, agreed, saying Illinois' action "shows the national momentum towards repealing the death penalty."
How did Kokoraleis die?
Kokoraleis, convicted of mutilating and murdering a 21-year-old woman, was put to death by lethal injection.
Who urged Quinn to veto the measure?
Prosecutors and some victims' families had urged Quinn to veto the measure.
Did the death penalty deter murderers?
Thompson said he came to believe the death penalty did not de ter would- be murderers and that the risk of executing a single innocent person outweighed any potential benefits.
Who said Quinn should not have done what he did?
Quinn "shouldn't have done what he did," Sloop said.
Who said nobody is in custody in her son's death?
Pam Bosley said nobody is in custody in her son's death, but whoever killed him does not deserve to live.
Who is the sponsor of the death penalty in Illinois?
In the twenty-two years the law had been on the books, death penalties had been imposed in 55 of the state’s 102 counties. Durkin and the principal Senate sponsor of the bill, Senator Carl Hawkinson, a Republican and former prosecutor, told their respective bodies that prosecutors sometimes had not sought the death penalty because the expense was so great it would “bankrupt the county.”
Who was the murderer on death row in Illinois?
At this point, Illinois death row exonerations and executions were tied at eleven—but a twelfth execution was in the wings: Andrew Kokoraleis was scheduled to die on March 17, 1999, for the murder of a young DuPage County woman named Lorraine Borowski. Kokoraleis was a serial killer, no doubt about it, but there was colorable doubt that he had committed the Borowski murder, the only crime for which he had been sentenced to death. Kokoraleis admittedly was a member of a satanic cult known as “the Chicago Rippers”—to which prosecutors attributed nearly a score of sadistic murders of women in Cook and DuPage counties to the cult during the 1980s.
What happened in Illinois in 2004?
In October 2004, Kevin Fox was arrested in Will County for the sexual assault and murder of his three-year-old daughter. Seven months later, Jerry Hobbs III was arrested in Lake County for the murder of his eight-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old playmate. Following confessions by both fathers, prosecutors in both cases vowed to seek the death penalty. But DNA testing exonerated both fathers and identified the actual killers.
What happened to Anthony Porter?
Shortly after the Tribune series appeared came perhaps the single most significant development in the history of the Illinois abolition movement—the exoneration of Anthony Porter, a Chicagoan who five months earlier had come within two days of lethal injection for a 1982 double murder. Like the nine exonerations that preceded it, Porter’s resulted from the convergence of a series of lucky events. He would have died by lethal injection on September 24, 1998, had the Illinois Supreme Court not granted a stay of execution sought by a volunteer legal team. The stay was granted not out of concern that Porter might be innocent but rather because he had scored so low on an IQ test—fifty-one—that he might not be capable of understanding why and for what he was being executed.
How many exonerations did Marshall have?
The nine exonerations prompted Lawrence C. Marshall, a Northwestern University law professor who had been instrumental in five of them, to organize an extraordinary event—the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty at Northwestern University School of Law in November 1998.
What was the formula for abolishing the death penalty?
That is also the formula for abolishing the death penalty, or at least it is a formula—the one that worked in Illinois.
When did the moratorium on executions start?
By this point, Governor Ryan had seen enough. On January 31, 2000, he declared a moratorium on executions—the nation’s first. “Until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate,” he said. Repeatedly referring to the thirteen exonerations and the Tribune series, Ryan said he would appoint a commission to study flaws in the capital punishment system and would not approve any executions until reforms were implemented to address such problems as disbarred lawyers and jailhouse informants.
When did Illinois abolish the death penalty?
Illinois Governor signs bill that abolishes the death penalty. March 9, 2011 — -- In a ceremony behind closed doors today Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill that will make Illinois the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. "I have concluded that our system of imposing the death penalty is inherently flawed," said Quinn in a statement issued ...
How long has the death penalty been in Illinois?
It has been 11 years since a death sentence has been carried out in the state. In 2000, then Republican Gov. George Ryan, ordered a moratorium on executions fearing that the Illinois' death penalty system might be at risk of executing the innocent.
Why is the death penalty so low?
Nationwide, death penalty sentences have plunged to their lowest levels in the last few years due to a concern of the risk of executing the innocent, the high costs of capital punishment and fears over the method of lethal injection used in each of the 35 states that allow the death penalty .
What is the death penalty bill going to save?
A part of the bill provides that the funds that are going to be saved by repealing the death penalty are going to be reallocated to services for victim's families and training for law enforcement. "Illinois is the first state to do something positive for victim's families on public safety with the funds that were previously wasted on ...
What states have abolished the death penalty?
Those states include, Maryland, Montana, Connecticut, Kansas and Florida. "If these abolition votes continue, and a majority of states abolish the death penalty, then the Supreme Court of the United States might find that there is a consensus, or new standard of decency in the country that rejects the death penalty," he said.
When does the new Illinois death penalty take effect?
The new law takes effect July 1. "This is a turning point "says Shari Silberstein, executive director of Equal Justice which advocates for the abolishment of the death penalty. "Illinois is significant because it has had a moratorium on executions for 11 years, convened two study commissions and enacted a series of reforms aimed at fixing ...
Which state has the most death sentences?
Texas, which has had the most executions among all the states, has had a dramatic drop from 48 sentences in 2000 to only eight death sentences last year, says Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center which opposes the death penalty. California, the state with the largest death row in the country, ...
How long does it take for the death penalty to be abolished in Illinois?
The Senate passes legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois five days after the House does the same.
Who was the last person executed in Illinois?
Andrew Kokoraleis, found guilty in the 1982 murder of an Elmhurst woman, becomes the last person executed in Illinois to date.
How many death row inmates did Ryan pardon?
Ryan pardoned four Death Row inmates, resulting in the release of three.
How many executions did Illinois have?
The state of Illinois had 12 executions after reinstating the death penalty in 1977, though the last execution was in 1999 prior to Gov. George Ryan's moratorium. VT. WASH. MICH.
Why was Anthony Porter released from prison?
Anthony Porter is released from prison after serving 17 years for a double murder that another man later admitted to. The case helps reignite debate about the death penalty in Illinois.
Which states have stopped the death penalty?
ALASKA. HAWAII. In 2011, Illinois became the 16th state to stop using capital punishment. But the process of abolishing the death penalty took more than a decade and included a moratorium that spanned three governors.
How much bail did Kyle Rittenhouse get?
The next Kyle Rittenhouse legal battle? The $2 million bail posted after his arrest.
When was the death penalty abolished?
Upon Signing Abolition of Death Penalty (Mar. 9, 2011). A video of Governor
Who said punishment, they would find it unacceptable?
punishment, they would find it unacceptable." Rankin,
Was capital punishment cruel?
capital punishment was cruel and unusual under all circum-
When did the death penalty end in Illinois?
Former Gov. George Ryan, who took the first step toward abolishing the state's death penalty by placing a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000, a year after the state's last execution, said the federal decision to hold a death penalty trial in Illinois subverted the will of the majority of the residents.
How many death penalty cases have been filed under Trump?
The Justice Department approved at least a dozen death penalty prosecutions during Trump's first two years, according to October data from the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel.
What protocol calls for victims' families to be consulted on whether they think the death penalty should be pursued?
Justice Department protocols call for victims' families to be consulted on whether they think the death penalty should be pursued. It's not clear if officials had such a conversation with Zhang's family.
How many federal executions have there been since 1988?
Since 1988, there have only been three federal executions — all by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana, between 2001 and 2003. States have executed nearly 1,500 inmates since 1976.
How many people are on death row?
Federal death row currently has 62 inmates on it. Four were tried in states without the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. More than 2,500 inmates are on death row in states, the center said.
Does Illinois have a murder charge against Christensen?
Homicide charges nearly always come from state authorities, except in a short list of cases including killings during terrorist attacks, bank robberies and kidnappings. Illinois could have charged Christensen under state murder and kidnap ping laws, which carry maximum life sentences.
Is the death penalty disbanded in Illinois?
Many shifted to other causes. And the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a main umbrella group in the movement, has been disbanded in Illinois.
How many states have not imposed the death penalty?
Seven states have followed in Illinois’ wake; a decade later, 23 states and the District of Columbia do not impose the death penalty.
Which state was the first to ban capital punishment?
In March, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill making Virginia the first state in the South to ban capital punishment. To commemorate the anniversary, Injustice Watch asked people whose lives were changed by the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois and those involved in the campaign to abolish it to reflect on the moment ...
When was Gauger pardoned?
In 1996 the Illinois Appellate Court vacated his conviction and Gov. George Ryan pardoned him in 2002 based on actual innocence. Gauger became an advocate against the death penalty based on his own experience.
Who argued that the death penalty was an expensive and inefficient form of punishment?
As the executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Jeremy Schroeder argued to the Deficit Reduction Committee of the Illinois Legislature that the death penalty was an expensive and inefficient form of punishment.
Who won the Pulitzer Prize for her editorials calling for the abolition of the death penalty?
Cornelia Grumman won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 series of Chicago Tribune editorials calling for abolition of the death penalty. The final article in the series described the “astonishing failings in the Illinois criminal justice system,” including wrongful convictions of individuals sentenced to death.
Who was the Illinois state senator in 2011?
As an Illinois state senator in 2011, Attorney General Kwame Raoul sponsored the bill that abolished the death penalty. During debate, he declared on the state house floor that Illinois had “an opportunity to part company with countries that are the worst civil rights violators and join the civilized world by ending this practice of putting to death innocent people.”
Why did Bishop Demetrios join the fight for abolition?
She joined the fight for abolition because she and other family members of murder victims did not want to desecrate the memories of their loved ones by killing more. Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, former president of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, was a spiritual advisor to Andrew Kokaraleis, ...
