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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Illinois: New Governor Says Moratorium Stays

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February 6, 2009: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said he has no immediate plans to lift the state's 9-year-old death penalty moratorium until he's satisfied safeguards are in place to keep innocent people off death row.

Quinn, the former lieutenant governor who last week succeeded scandal-plagued Rod Blagojevich, said he supports capital punishment, but not necessarily the way it has been applied.

No one has been put to death in Illinois since 2000 when then-Gov. George Ryan put all executions on hold, citing more than a dozen cases in which people were improperly sentenced to death. Three years later, the Republican took the extraordinary step of emptying Illinois' death row by commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison.

Blagojevich, a Democrat, continued the ban despite approving several reforms, and state lawmakers have ignored legislative attempts to decide the issue. As of today, there were 15 people -- all men -- on the state's death row.

Source: Associated Press, ABC News, 06/02/2009
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