USA - Illinois. Illinois' death row officially shuts down.

Illinois' death row officially shuts down. Illinois' death row officially died today when a state law abolishing the death penalty quietly took effect. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending the death penalty in march, and subsequently commuted the sentences of the 15 men on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fourteen are now in maximum security prisons, while one is in a medium-high security prison with a mental health facility. Ironically, the state's death row at the prison in Pontiac, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, has been turned into a place where inmates go when they're deemed worthy of leaving the state's super-maximum prison in southern Illinois, the Tamms Correctional Center, and enter a less-restrictive program. Illinois has executed 12 men since 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated, but none since 1999.