



Many murder victims' families were among the strongest supporters of the Illinois repeal.  In a letter to the Illinois General Assembly, murder victims' families wrote, "A legal system that wasn't bogged down with committing tremendous resources on capital cases could prosecute and sentence countless other crimes and take dangerous people off the streets before they commit murder. Dollars saved could be put toward counseling for victims of crime or other services we desperately need as we attempt to get on with our lives."  The letter was signed by more than 30 individuals who had loved ones murdered in Illinois.

The high costs of the death penalty were influential in the passage of the repeal.  Conservative Republican Senator Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington said, "We have spent over $100 million of taxpayer money defending and prosecuting death row cases. The death penalty does not make our society safer, I believe. It has been an ineffective and expensive use of our scarce resources."

In the last few months, the death penalty has been under scrutiny in other states as well.  Days after the Illinois General Assembly voted for the repeal, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, who as a Republican state legislator played an influential role in shaping the state's current death penalty statute, stated: 'I have concluded that it is exceedingly difficult for this statute to be administered in a fair and just way... Gov. [John] Kasich and the governors after him, I believe, need to consider commuting all of those sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and I think it's time for Ohio to at least entertain the discussion of whether or not we are well served by having a death penalty.

There are politicians in many states who will never "at least entertain the discussion" about ending capital punishment. But the clear trend is against the practice. Despite its conservative tinge, the Supreme Court has moved in that direction for years. Jurors seem to be suggesting it with their verdicts -- fewer picking death as a sentencing option over life without parole. And now even traditional opponents seem to be hopping on board. Fewer and fewer people, it seems, want to "tinker with the machinery of death."
