On January 31, 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan...

On January 31, 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in his state, pending an investigation into the state's capital punishment system. Ryan appointed a 14-member study commission, including former US Sen. Paul Simon, Scott Turow, former US District Judge Frank H. McGarr, former US Attorney Thomas Sullivan, to study the state's capital punishment system in conjunction with the moratorium.
The state has executed 12 inmates in the same time that 13 other inmates were freed because they were later found to be innocent. Governor Ryan's moratorium received praise from President Clinton, who urged other state governors to examine their death penalty systems.
"I now favor a moratorium, because I have grave concerns about our state's shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on death row," Governor Ryan said.
"And, I believe, many Illinois residents now feel that same deep reservation. I cannot support a system, which, in its administration, has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life.
Thirteen people have been found to have been wrongfully convicted."
Governor Ryan noted that while he still believes the death penalty is a proper societal response for crimes that shock sensibility, he believes Illinois residents are troubled by the persistent problems in the administration of capital punishment in Illinois.
"Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate," Governor Ryan said.
The Commission ended its work in April 2002 by compiling a report containing 85 indispensable proposals for reform.
The Commission unanimously agreed that the state of Illinois had excessively resorted to the death penalty and that in order to continue its application it would have to increase defence funds and introduce the recommended 85 proposals.
Governor Ryan put to the Senate the 85 proposals made by the Commission but failed to attain approval.
On 10 January 2003, as the last act of his mandate, Governor Ryan commuted 167 death penalties into life imprisonment and exonerated four convicts of whose innocence he was personally convinced, effectively clearing death row in the state.
On 24 April 2003, his successor, the Democrat Rod Blagojevich, decided to continue observing the moratorium stating that the conditions weren't present to guarantee a judicial system without errors.