The state Senate gave its stamp of approval Tuesday to a bill banning the death penalty in Illinois, sending the measure to Gov. Pat Quinn.
Senators voted 32-25 to approve the legislation. The state House, which like the Senate is dominated by Democrats, passed the bill last week. Quinn, also a Democrat, has not indicated whether or not he will sign the bill, which would replace the state’s decade-long moratorium on the death penalty with a permanent ban.
Medill Innocence Project leaders praised the passage as an important step toward justice.
In an e-mail to former students of the Innocence Project, Medill Prof. David Protess referred to the project’s work and the broader issue of wrongful convictions as a “driving force” in the debate. Over the past several years, Innocence Project students have discovered evidence showing the innocence of five people on death row. Those five were released, and many of them lobbied the legislature for the ban.
State Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, co-sponsored the bill in the House. State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, voted to support the measure Tuesday.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, hailed the legislation as “historic.”
“We have an opportunity to part company as a state with countries that are the worst human-rights violators and join the civilized world and end this practice of risking putting to death innocent people,” said Raoul, who took President Barack Obama’s former seat in the state Senate.
