ILLINOIS (USA): GOV. QUINN SAYS DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM STAYS

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.