After spending years at the center of heated national debate over capital punishment, Illinois' death row officially died Friday when a state law abolishing the death penalty quietly took effect.
The state garnered international attention when then-Republican Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium in 2000 after several inmates' death sentences were overturned and he cleared death row three years later. One man who came within 48 hours of being executed was among those later declared innocent.
The fate of executions in the state was sealed in March when Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending the death penalty, following years of stories of men sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit and families of murder victims angrily demanding their loved ones' killers pay with their own lives.
Illinois has executed 12 men since 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated, but none since 1999.
The legislation abolishing the death penalty was signed by Quinn amid much fanfare, but Friday's finality was barely noted around the state. Solano said the department received just two calls for information from the media on Friday.
That lack of interest stands in contrast to the last dozen years or so when Illinois was often at the forefront of debate over the death penalty.
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