Illinois governor commutes death sentences

The governor of Illinois is to commute the death sentences of all 156 inmates on the state’s death row and has sent letters to victims’ families warning them of the move, his spokesman said today.

“He’s been talking about this for a few days, and in only a handful of cases was he considering, for a variety of reasons, not to include (them) in the commutations,” George Ryan’s spokesman Dennis Culloton said.