This will be a short one, since I don't have much in the way of comment except to say "Woohoo!" Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has finally signed legislation repealing Illinois's death penalty.
We've had a moratorium on carrying out executions for nearly 20 years now, after thirteen Illinois death row inmates were subsequently exonerated, largely by means of DNA evidence. Former Gov. George Ryan (now serving time after being convicted on federal charges), in one of the few unalloyed good things he did while in office, first imposed the moratorium, and then commuted the sentences of all of Illinois's 150+ death row inmates to life in prison just before he left office. While the state legislature narrowly passed the legislation to repeal the death penalty outright, it's been sitting on Gov. Quinn's desk for more than a month now, while he wavered and tried to decide what to do. Along with signing the repeal bill, Gov. Quinn followed in Gov. Ryan's footsteps and commuted the death sentences of the 15 people subsequently convicted on capital charges after Gov. Ryan's commutation.
For my money, he made the right choice. If you want to tell Gov. Quinn thank you, you can do so here.