Of more recent note, Murphy added, Illinois became the 16th state to abolishthedeathpenalty when Governor Quinn signed the bill banning capital punishment in March of 2011.
Despite this, in the past three decades the international movement to abolishthedeathpenalty has scored the kind of victories which slavery opponents took much longer to achieve more than a century ago.
The National Coalition to AbolishtheDeathPenalty plans to work through state legislatures to abolishthedeathpenalty for offenders under age 18 in the 22 states where it is still allowed, said Steven Hawkins, executive director of the group.