ILLINOIS; ANOTHER HISTORIC VOTE; SENATE VOTES TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY; BUT IT'S NOT OVER YET! GOVERNOR QUINN WILL HAVE THE LAST WORD; CHANGE.ORG;

"But the fight's not over. “Now the only thing in the way of Illinois making history and ending its death penalty once and for all is the governor's signature,” says Cunningham.

Unfortunately, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's signature is far from a sure thing. Though state Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg told Reuters that the governor, a fellow Democrat, will “likely sign” the death penalty abolition bill. However, the governor has previously said that he supports capital punishment – even as he has proclaimed his desire to extend the current moratorium.

CHARLES DAVIS: CHANGE.ORG; Charles Davis is a Change.org editor. He previously covered Congress and criminal justice issues for public radio and Inter Press Service.

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"Whew – looks like I won't have to write a post-mortem on the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Illinois after all," the change.org post by Charles Davis published earlier today under the heading, "Illinois State Senate Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty," begins.

"After the Illinois House voted last week to do away with the state's reliance on capital punishment, the Senate responded this afternoon – in the final hours of the legislative session – voting 32-25 to end the state's reliance on executions as a form of punishment," the post continues.

"The move comes more than a decade after former Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on the state's use of the death penalty after being confronted with the fact that more men had been exonerated from Illinois' death row than executed.

“I am over the moon!” Colleen Cunningham, an anti-death penalty campaigner with Equal Justice USA who has been working with local activists to make today's vote possible, tells Change.org. “It's been amazing to work with the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the courageous murder victims' family members and death row exonerees who have poured their hearts and souls into this campaign.”

But the fight's not over. “Now the only thing in the way of Illinois making history and ending its death penalty once and for all is the governor's signature,” says Cunningham.

Unfortunately, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's signature is far from a sure thing. Though state Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg told Reuters that the governor, a fellow Democrat, will “likely sign” the death penalty abolition bill. However, the governor has previously said that he supports capital punishment – even as he has proclaimed his desire to extend the current moratorium.

While maintaining the moratorium is certainly better than the state actively executing men and women, it's far from ideal – and it's a waste of taxpayer money. Though no one in Illinois has been put to death by the state since 1999, prosecutors have blown $100 million over the last decade sentencing people to death row, where they await a punishment they'll likely never receive. That's not fair to victims, and that's not fair to the people of Illinois, particularly when lawmakers are busy cutting social programs to reduce their budget deficits.

The abolition movement in Illinois has come a long way, and the fight to do away with state-sponsored killing hasn't been easy. It would be a shame if a Democratic governor were to blame for maintaining the state's reliance on a form of punishment his Republican predecessor, Gov. Ryan, wanted to abolish."

The post can be found at:

http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/illinois_state_senate_votes_to_abolish_the_death_penalty

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;