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Among the haunting questions raised by the release of Jerry Hobbs is this: Why does Illinois still have the death penalty on its books? And how close did we come – this time – to sending another innocent man to Death Row?

Some will say that Hobbs was saved by DNA evidence, and our ability to read such evidence will insure that the system works. Others will give thanks that the confession police coerced from Hobbs was finally proven false, and that the law now mandates the taping of the whole interrogation in homicide cases. However, neither circumstance should reassure us that what happened to Jerry Hobbs can’t happen again.

ICADP is joining Equal Justice USA, Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, and Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation in hosting a Meet and Greet for Murder Victims’ Families.

As ICADP works to abolish the death penalty, we will work to highlight the many ways in which the system fails to take care of murder victims’ family members. Diverting desperately needed resources is one of those failures.

If you're visiting our website from the ACLU Illinois, welcome! We're moving forward fast to pass repeal legislation. We count on members from our coalition partners like ACLU to carry the message to repeal our state's broken death penalty system to legislators. To join our campaign, please visit: http://www.icadp.org/jointhecampaign

At our Annual Meeting on July 13th, ICADP talked about ways in which you can help repeal the death penalty, such as by donating to ICADP or hosting an event at your church. However, there is yet another way for you to help ICADP.

Each month, ICADP board member Barry Pearce organizes visits to death row inmates. Often times, these are the only visitors these men have each month.

Today, the State-Journal Register in Springfield, Illinois published an op-ed by death row exoneree, Randy Steidl.

Randy Steidl was exonerated after wrongfully spending 17 years in prison, and twelve on death row, for the murders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads in Paris, Illinois, a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated through the work of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern. He is one of the twenty innocent people exonerated from death row in Illinois since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Since being exonerated, Randy has been working to end the death penalty not only in the state of Illinois where he was wrongfully convicted, but throughout the country.

Read Randy’s story and his call for the repeal of the death penalty here.