Illinois has abolished the death penalty. Good, but its appalling that it took so long. They've known since 1999 that they had been sentencing innocent people to death - but its taken ten years to translate that into abolition. fortunately, no-one has been executed during that time (though 15 had been sentenced to death; they will all now serve life without parole, another example of the American vengeance system).
Illinois is the 16th US state to abolish capital punishment. Only 34 more states to go, and they'll be a civilised country...
