Illinois has become the first state to abolish the death penalty since 2009. On Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending capital punishment after two months of deliberation.

Gov. Pat Quinn: “It is impossible to create a perfect system, one that is free of all mistakes, free of all discrimination with respect to race or economic circumstance or geography. To have a consistent, perfect death penalty system, I have concluded, after looking at everything I’ve been given, that that’s impossible in our state. I think it’s the right and just thing to abolish the death penalty.”

Quinn has commuted the death sentences of all 15 Illinois prisoners on death row, giving them life in prison with no chance of parole. Executions had been halted in Illinois since a January 2000 moratorium that followed revelations of the innocence of at least 20 death row prisoners.