Illinois Leaders Mark 15th Anniversary of State's Death Penalty Abolition

CHICAGO - EntSun -- Illinois leaders and advocates marked the 15th anniversary of Illinois abolishing the death penalty at a press conference on Monday, March 9 reflecting on the reform that ended capital punishment and the movement behind it.

The death penalty in Illinois was abolished on March 9, 2011, when then-Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending capital punishment after years of advocacy by community leaders, attorneys, faith organizations, and people directly impacted by wrongful convictions and death row incarceration.

"This anniversary is not simply about looking back. It's also an opportunity to reflect on what we have learned and on the work that still lies ahead," said Bishop Demetrios C. Kantzavelos, former president of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and author of Grace Unbound: The Sacred Activism of an Orthodox Bishop. "Fifteen years ago, Illinois made a historic decision to abolish the death penalty. Our state recognized a simple truth: when a justice system can make mistakes, it should never hold the irreversible power to take a human life."

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Stanley Howard, a Prisoner Rights Advocate with the Uptown People's Law Center and author of Tortured by Blue: The Chicago Police Torture Story, spoke about the personal toll of his 16 years on Illinois' death row before his release in 2023.

"I spent 16 years on Illinois' death row," Howard said. "I figured that there was a good chance I would be executed. It sent my family through hell. We know that the system is flawed. We know that the system is corrupt. No county, no state, no government should be in the business of killing people."

Renaldo Hudson, Director of Education at the Illinois Prison Project, who served 37 years in prison, including 13 years on death row before his sentence was commuted in 2020, reflected on redemption and hope.

"I remind people that I was not exonerated — I was liberated," Hudson said. "As a guilty man, I say to families that I'm sorry that men like me have caused harm. But we also know from scriptures that beauty come from ashes. We have to end saying that redemption doesn't matter. There are so many people sitting in cells just need a chance to be better, need a glimpse of hope."

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Charles "Chick" Hoffman, an attorney, former Assistant Defender in the Office of the State Appellate Defender's Supreme Court Capital Case Unit, and counsel to the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, described the systemic failures he witnessed.

"As an assistant appellate defender, I represented more than 30 men and women sentenced to death," Hoffman said. "I saw firsthand that the death penalty process here, just as in all capital punishment states across the country, was racist, corrupt, and prone to fatal mistakes. We executed 12 people, but we also exonerated at least 20 innocent people from death row, people who spent decades of their lives before being returned to their families and their communities."

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who sponsored the legislation abolishing the death penalty while serving in the Illinois Senate, reflected on the effort.

"I've been blessed to be Attorney General, to have served 14 years in the Senate and to have done some pretty important stuff," said Raoul. "But nothing tops being able to contribute to abolishment of the death penalty."

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