Death penalty on trial.

• Position: STATELINE - Brief article

The Illinois General Assembly passed a ban on the death penalty in January, and the governor signed the bill in March, making Illinois the 16th state without the death penalty. Connecticut, Maryland and Montana may do likewise before their sessions end. Lawmakers in Florida, Kansas and Ohio also are looking at repealing it, although success is less likely in these states, Richard Dieter, executive director for the Death Penalty Information Center, told Reuters News. "Innocence is the biggest issue, but what's getting these bills heard is the cost of the death penalty," he said. The information center reports that in Kansas, for example, the costs of capital cases are 70 percent higher than comparable non-capital cases, including the costs of incarceration, according to a...