Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty :
- Author:
- Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
- Call Number:
- MSS APAP-324 local
- Abstract:
- The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) donated its records in 2011 following repeal of the death penalty in the state. The archivist retained the original order of the files and the collection includes annual reports, newsletters, clippings and press releases. ICADP gained national attention with its campaign to rid Illinois of capital punishment; this is evident with materials documenting the case of John Wayne Gacy, executed in 1994, and the murder of nine year old Jeanine Nicarico in 1983. The collection also contains the 2002 documentary film Too Flawed to Fix which explores the legal flaws in the capital punishment system in Illinois and materials pertaining to Amnesty International. There are clippings of the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty at Northwestern University School of Law during which former Death Row inmates later found innocent of their crimes participated on a panel. In addition, the collection features clippings about the 2000 moratorium on the death penalty by Governor George H. Ryan and the 2011 signing of the bill SB 3539, Abolition of the Death Penalty, by Governor Pat Quinn.
- Historical Note:
- The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) formed in 1976 as the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty by Mary Alice Rankin and other activist groups and organizations to try to prevent passage of capital punishment legislation in Illinois. After the state adopted the death penalty in 1977, ICADP expanded its grassroots legislative, education, and communication activities to try to inform the public about flaws and injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system and promote humane alternatives to the death penalty. ICADP helped have a dramatic impact on the successes in the Illinois capital punishment conversation, promoting campaigns that highlighted flaws with the death penalty to the public and legislators in the state and forming strong bonds with other groups that also believed the abolishment of the death penalty is the best solution for the public. These groups included the Illinois Bar Association, ACLU, Amnesty International, Catholic Conference, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, League of Women Voters and others. In March 2011, the campaign of the ICADP succeeded in passing legislation that repealed the death penalty in the state, and as of July 1st, 2011, Illinois became the sixteenth state to be death penalty-free. Recently members of the Illinois legislature introduced bills in the General Assembly to reinstate capital punishment. ICADP is now focused on fighting reinstatement efforts and maintaining a death penalty-free state.
- Physical Description:
- .6 cu ft
- Access Terms:
- Access to the collection is unrestricted.
- Notes:
- Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Record, 1963-2011. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York.
- Subjects:
- Capital punishment Illinois, Capital punishment Moral and ethical aspects, Executions (Law) United States Cases, Capital punishment, Capital punishment Moral and ethical aspects, and Executions (Law)
- Genres/Forms:
- Clippings. aat, Correspondence. aat, Fliers (printed matter) aat, and Trials, litigation, etc
- Names:
- Quinn, Pat, Ryan, George H, Quinn, Pat, and Ryan, George H
- Corporate Names:
- Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Illinois. Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, and Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty
- Geographic Terms:
- Illinois, Chicago (Ill.), Illinois, Illinois Chicago, and United States
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