Press Releases

On January 11, the Illinois Senate, by a vote of 32-25, joined the House in voting to repeal the state’s death penalty and re-allocate funds in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to a fund for murder victims’ services and law enforcement. If signed into law, Illinois would become the 16th state to stop capital punishment and would mark the fewest states with the death penalty since 1978. Since 1976, Illinois has carried out 12 executions.  In the same period, 20 inmates have been exonerated from the state’s death row, the second highest number in the United States. The state has not had an execution since 1999, and since then, use of the death penalty has declined sharply. In the 1990s, the state averaged over 10 death sentences a year. In 2009 and 2010, the state imposed only one death sentence each year.  The bill must be signed by Governor Pat Quinn in order to become law.

Seth Edwards, president of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, said that he supported a moratorium on the execution of any death row inmates whose cases include evidence from the State Bureau of Investigation. "[W]e need to make sure the issues are resolved in the SBI crime lab," Edwards said. "I just feel like the public right now is skeptical."  Last month, a government audit showed that the lab had tampered with evidence and issued false reports in over 230 criminal convictions, including capital cases.

The scandal at the SBI lab and recent studies revealing racial disparities in jury selection and sentencing in death penalty cases have raised concerns among others in the state regarding the reliability of the justice system in North Carolina. A group of supporters for Melvin Lee White, a death row inmate convicted before revelations about the crime lab began to appear, is asking that he be given a new trial or that at least his sentence be reduced to life. White has always maintained his innocence.