SPRINGFIELD, IL – Citing Americans’ newfound optimism and desire for change, state Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has filed legislation that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois, the next step beyond a moratorium that would finally end the ineffective, inhumane, and expensive practice.
 
“Americans and Illinoisans are more ready than ever to re-examine the failed policies of the past, and the death penalty definitely fits the description of a failed policy,” Yarbrough said.  “It’s time we distance ourselves from the club of nations that have government-sanctioned murder, a club that includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, and move towards respecting human dignity.”
 
Yarbrough’s House Bill 262 would abolish the death penalty immediately, and would require all persons currently on death row be resentenced to life in prison without parole, or a lesser sentence deemed appropriate by a court.  In 2000, former Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after it was discovered that 13 death row inmates were exonerated and found innocent of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.  The moratorium is still in place.
 
According to the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP), every state that has done a cost study of the death penalty has found that death penalty cases cost millions to hundreds of millions of dollars more than non-death cases.  In the past five fiscal years, almost $73 million has been allocated to the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, while the total cost is much higher when local law enforcement and county expenditures are counted.
 
“The Illinois Coalition is very excited to have Representative Yarbrough take the lead on this issue,” said Jeremy Schroeder, Executive Director of the ICADP.  “It’s been ten years since our last execution in Illinois, and it’s been shown that we don’t need the death penalty to have safer communities.  In hard times, we need to be smart on crime, investing in better law enforcement and services for victim’s families, and not wasting millions of dollars on the broken systems of the past.”
 
For more information, please contact Yarbrough’s constituent service office at (708) 615-1747.