Topic:
Death penalty
(Yarbrough, D-Maywood; Raoul, D-Chicago) abolishes the death penalty in Illinois and transfers the remaining funds in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to a special fund for the families of homicide victims and training for law enforcement. It may be voted on in the first weeks of January of 2011. The Illinois State's Attorneys Association opposes this change in policy. One of their primary arguments is that abolishing the death penalty removes an inducement to get guilty pleas from defendants for life without parole. (Testimony of Sheldon Sobol, State's Attorney of Grundy County, president of the ISAA, House Judiciary Committee II hearing, Nov. 30, 2010). It is on third reading in the House.