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Death Penatly ONe Step Closer to Repeal
(IRN)-The death penalty could itself be headed to extinction in Illinois.

The Illinois House has passed, and sent to the Senate, a repeal of capital punishment. The issue has been a controversial one since the discovery of several innocent, or possibly innocent, men having been sentenced to death. Former Gov. George Ryan cleared the state's Death Row shortly before leaving office, though a number of death sentences have been imposed since then.

The vote Thursday in the House took an unusual path. After a heated debate, which included one lawmaker graphically describing some of the crimes committed by the "worst of the worst," the bill fell one vote short of the 60 needed for passage. Sponsoring Representative Karen Yarbrough used a parliamentary maneuver to put the bill on hold until she found someone to change his vote.

That someone was State Rep. Pat Verschoore, who said he had been going back and forth on the issue for a long time. He said after the final vote that hearing a former Death Row inmate tell him that many prisoners view execution as a true release was one reason for voting for the repeal. Another was his relationship with Yarbrough. Verschoore said, "I think everybody's got a chance to change their mind. The bill's sponsor came to me, and she's helped me (in the past), and that's the way it works down here."

SB 3539 has passed the House, 60-54

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
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