Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has signed the bill abolishing the death penalty passed by the legislature in January. He also commuted the sentences of the 15 inmates now on death row to life in prison without parole. The law goes into effect July 1.

Illinois is now the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.

Christian Longo is one of 35 men on death row in Oregon. He and about half of the others want to donate their organs after they are executed, to help save the lives of others who need organ transplants. There's no law preventing it, but prisons across the country won't accept their requests. Here is his op-ed in today's New York Times.

Christian is not seeking a sentence reduction or special treatment. He's abandoned his appeals.

I spend 22 hours a day locked in a 6 foot by 8 foot box on Oregon’s death row. There is no way to atone for my crimes, but I believe that a profound benefit to society can come from my circumstances. I have asked to end my remaining appeals, and then donate my organs after my execution to those who need them. But my request has been rejected by the prison authorities.

He has started an organization called GAVE, Gifts of
Anatomical Value from Everyone.

There are 720 inmates awaiting execution on San Quentin's death row. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who placed executions on hold in 2006 due to concerns that the chamber was antiquated and did not ensure a humane death, toured the new $900,000 death chamber today.

Judge Fogel didn't indicate whether his concerns have been satisfied, and will issue rulings later. He toured the old facility in 2006. Here's how the old procedure worked, according to San Quentin Operational Procedure No. 770. The 2007 revised protocol is here, but that too was declared invalid Then the state enacted Cal. Code Regs. tit. 15 3349 et seq. Here is Judge Fogel's September, 2010 ruling after the 9th Circuit remanded his decision on that.

Yong Vui Kong is on death row in Singapore, arrested at age 18 for carrying 1.5 ounces of heroin. Singapore's law provides the death penalty for anyone caught with more than 15 grams of heroin (Kong had 47) and provides no exceptions.

His dedicated family (particularly his brother and sister) and his attorney Madasamy Ravi, a Singapore human rights lawyer and member of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, have done a herculean job so far of keeping the case in the courts. The end is now here, but he still could be saved.

Al Jazeera made the excellent video above telling the story, I hope you will all watch. [More...]

Hospira, which manufactures the sodium thiopental used in executions in U.S., has announced it will cease making the drug. The Washington Post reports:

The decision by Hospira of Lake Forest., Ill., was prompted by demands from Italy, which does not have capital punishment, that no sodium thiopental - which the company had planned to make at its plant outside Milan - be used for executions, officials said.

"We determined we could not prevent the drug from being diverted for use in capital punishment," said Dan Rosenberg, a Hospira spokesman. He noted that the company never condoned the drug's use for lethal injection and had hoped to continue making it for medical use.

33 of the 35 states with the death penalty use sodium thiopental, also called Pentothal, as part of a three drug cocktail: [More...]

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has commuted the death sentence of Richard Clay. Clay is another defendant prosecuted by former Congressman Ken Hulshof.

Nixon was Missouri's Attorney General before becoming Governor. He's a staunch advocate of the death penalty. In the 2008 Governor's race, his opponent was...Ken Hulshof. Yet, Nixon said Hulshof was not a factor in the commutation decision.

Hulshof should have been a factor. In 2009, Josh Kezer was released from prison after serving 17 years, half of his life, in prison. He's another case of wrongful conviction prosecuted by Hulshof. In 2008, the Missourian described six more cases. [More...]

The Illinois Senate has voted to repeal the state's death penalty. The House voted for the repeal last week, and the bill now goes to the Governor for his signature.

The bill provides that the money in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund will be reallocated 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 bill must be signed by Governor Pat Quinn in order to become law. So far, his office is not saying whether he will sign it.

"You can release an innocent man from prison but not from the grave" said Gordon "Randy" Steidl, who spent 17 years in prison, including 12 on death row, after being wrongfully convicted of a double murder.

Thursday, the Illinois House voted to abolish the death penalty. The bill now goes to the Senate, where passage will be difficult, but not impossible.

Thirty-five states now have the death penalty... Three states — New York, New Jersey and New Mexico — have eliminated the death penalty in recent years.

Illinois would be the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Department of Justice has withdrawn regulations from the Bush Administration that would fast-track federal review of state death penalty cases. In withdrawing the rules, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama DOJ would submit its own rules, but he did not provide a timetable.

The fast-track rules were initially authorized by Congress under then President Clinton.

San Francisco attorney Michael Laurence, whose Habeas Corpus Resource Center successfully challenged the Bush administration regulations, said California has failed to provide enough funding or lawyers for death cases in state court and has shifted the workload to federal courts. Fast-track rules would convert federal courts in California to "death penalty courts," with little time for other cases, Laurence said.

It would allow states to speed up federal review of death sentences if they have adequate procedures for appointing and paying lawyers to represent condemned prisoners.

The Death Penalty Information Center has released its 2010 report on capital punishment in America. Executions are down by 12% and according to a poll conducted by , a majority of Americans now favor alternative punishment.

Executions dropped by 12% compared with 2009, and by more than 50% since 1999. The number of new death sentences was about the same as in 2009, the lowest number in 34 years.

In a recent national poll conducted by Lake
Research Partners, 61% of U.S. voters chose various alternative sentences over the death penalty as the proper punishment for murder. Only 33% chose the death penalty.

The poll results are here. The cost-saving argument is making headway. "A strong majority of respondents (65%) would favor replacing the death penalty with life with no possibility of parole if the money saved were used to fund crime prevention programs."

The death penalty will take a holiday for the remainder of 2010. No more executions are scheduled this year.

The Texas Court of Appeals has granted a prosecution motion for reconsideration to stop an ongoing hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty. The hearing was in its third day and expected to last two weeks. The case involves John Edward Green, who has not yet been convicted.

His defense lawyers are arguing that Texas has executed two innocent defendants, and the procedures surrounding the death penalty in Texas are unconstitutional because there are not enough safeguards. "He is at risk of being wrongfully convicted, wrongfully sentenced and wrongfully executed," said defense lawyer Richard Burr.

After the Appeals Court ruling today, his lawyers issued this statement: [More...]

A few hours after the Supreme Court overruled a stay of execution for Jeffrey Landrigan, he was executed.

When asked for any last words, he said in a strong voice with a heavy Oklahoma accent: "Well, I'd like to say thank you to my family for being here and all my friends, and Boomer Sooner," a reference to the University of Oklahoma Sooners.

His last meal was well-done steak, fried okra, french fries, ice cream and a Dr Pepper. He spent 20 years on death row. According to records of the AZ Department of Corrections, Landrigan is a "Native Indian."

Landrigan is the second execution in Arizona since 2000. Today there are 131 inmates on Arizona's death row, and 79 defendants charged with capital crimes awaiting trial. Another 10 are either on trial or awaiting sentencing for first degree murder.