The Tribune reported that testimony from jailhouse informants had been used in 46 cases. He plans to appoint a special commission to study the use and administration of the death penalty in the state. The study is expected to take about a year. Illinois will thus become the first of the 38 US states which allow the death penalty to call a halt to executions. Nebraska legislators last year passed a death penalty moratorium that was subsequently vetoed by the governor.
Moratoriums are under consideration in Oregon, Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In other states, executions have been accelerated. Texas has already put seven men to death this year, and Florida recently passed legislation to speed up the execution process, limiting appeals by death row inmates. There have been 610 executions since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Ninety-eight prisoners were executed in 1999 and 12 were executed in January of this year alone. There are currently more than 3,500 prisoners on death row.