Jeremy Schroeder says it was a corrupt judicial system and excessive spending that allowed Illinois to become the sixteenth state to abolish the death penalty.

“Twenty innocent people were on death row … we had a broken system and all too often the death penalty was used,” said Schroeder, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

The Illinois Senate and House approved the death penalty ban July 1. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill in March and commuted all inmates on death row to life sentences rather than executions.

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The Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a state treasury fund used to finance state executions, will now be re-distributed to provide services such as counseling to murder victims’ families. Money will also be put into state law enforcement.

The state spent millions of dollars per year in death penalty cases and prosecutions said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute

“It takes a lot of money to kill someone,” he said. “Millions were spent on gathering evidence, appeals (and) attorneys. This was costing us a lot of money.”

In 2000, former Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium, when a state can no longer execute inmates, to ensure innocent people would not be executed, according to the State of Illinois’ website. The moratorium was a result of Chicago police using methods of torture to get people to confess to crimes they did not commit, according to an article in the Huffington Post and the Center of Wrongful Convictions website.

Yepsen said although Illinois has not executed a person in more than 10 years, inmates were still sentenced to death row and money was still spent on execution trials.

Schroeder said 20 inmates in Illinois have been released from death row since 1967 because of DNA evidence and trial investigations that later proved their innocence.

The last person executed in Illinois was Charles Walker in 1999, according to the Center of Wrongful Convictions website.

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Richard Devin, a former Illinois State Attorney, said he believes abolishing the death penalty is better than being in a state of moratorium. However, he said death row is appropriate.

“Some people don’t deserve to be a part of the community,” he said.

Yepsen said he believes life imprisonment is equivalent to the death penalty.

“One hour of sunlight a day, and they put you in a hole until you die,” Yepsen said. “Psychologically, that’s more horrific.”

Schroeder said the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will continue to advocate for a nationwide abolishment of the death penalty.

“We will have to fight reinstatement issues,” Schroeder said. “We will remain vigilant.”