Yesterday, we reviewed the Court’s year by year caseload of tort cases.  Today, we’re looking at the Court’s death penalty cases.

The Court decided fifteen death penalty cases in 1990, thirteen cases in 1991, twenty-three cases in 1992, thirteen cases in 1993, seventeen cases in 1994, eighteen cases in 1995 and twenty cases in 1996.

The Court decided fourteen death penalty cases in 1997, nineteen cases in 1998, six cases in 1999, seventeen cases in 2000, seven cases in 2001, five cases in 2002 and three cases in 2003.

The Court decided two death penalty cases per year in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.  The Court decided one death penalty case in 2008, three cases in 2009 and four cases in 2010.

The death penalty was abolished in Illinois effective July 1, 2011, and Governor Quinn commuted the death sentences of the fifteen inmates then on Illinois’ death row to life imprisonment.  Thus, the Court has heard no mandatory death penalty appeals since 2010.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ben Sutherland (no changes).