Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Petition Calling for Abolition of the Death Penalty in Illinois

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The time has come to end the use of the death penalty in Illinois:

Illinois has sent at least 17 innocent men to Death Row.
Race is a persistent factor in who gets the death penalty.
The death penalty has cost Illinois taxpayers over $1 billion since 1977.
Police and prosecutorial misconduct and unreliable snitch testimony have contaminated death penalty cases.
Defendants have been repeatedly represented by under-funded and inadequate legal defense.
Mentally ill and retarded defendants are sent to death row. Sentencing the mentally ill and mentally retarded to death is unfair and inhumane.
The death penalty is a political response to fear of crime that gets in the way of more effective anti-crime strategies.
State executions hinder the United States -- the only industrial democracy with the death penalty -- in acting on human rights issues.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on the Illinois State Legislature to pass House Bill 213 that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois.

Name Address City/Zip E-mail

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Return completed petition to:

Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60604

Office (312) 673-3816 Fax (312) 427-6130 Online www.icadp.org